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by Turskarama 1090 days ago
I can't see Lithium batteries of ANY kind ultimately being used for grid scale storage, beyond the initial pilot batteries we have going up now.

Current worldwide lithium production is at 3% of what it needs to be to electrify every car, which is a use case that has strict weight requirements. Ramping up lithium production by a factor of 30 is a big deal, and that's before we use any of it for grid storage!

Grid batteries are static so weight is not a concern, using the chemistry whose main advantage is weight for this purpose is a waste of resources. Heavy battery chemistries have largely been ignored because traditionally batteries have always been for mobile purposes, so we can expect an even better learning curve from low energy density but cheap battery technologies such as iron-air.