Making the Case for Affordable Grid-Scale Energy Storage

Those of us who concern ourselves with the challenges associated with integrating variable resources (solar and wind) into the grid-mix are paying close attention to developments in various battery chemistries, particularly those that invoke extremely common (and thus inexpensive) electrodes.  After all, energy storage concepts that are doomed to remain expensive are also doomed to play no important role in generating the level of scale required to make a real difference here.

MIT’s Donald Sadoway (pictured) might be the world’s greatest genius when it comes to propelling the subject forward.  One thing is seldom debated, however: he is most certainly the world’s most charismatic player in this arena.  Here he is giving a Ted Talk on the production of liquid metal batteries, in this case, magnesium and antimony.