this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2025
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In a world first, in the Netherlands an Iron-Air battery has been connected to the grid for the first time. It stores 100 hours of electricity by rusting & de-rusting. (futurology.today)
submitted 2 days ago by Lugh@futurology.today to c/futurology@futurology.today
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Form Energy in the US is also developing this technology, though they haven't deployed to the grid yet.

As electricity grids get nearer to being 100% renewables, they need to account for <5% of times both solar & wind don't meet peak electricity demand. Lithium-Ion batteries, which only store electricity for a few hours, aren't much use here, but Iron-Air batteries will be.

They can store days worth of electricity, and not only that, they are stable and non-flammable. The only chemical reaction taking place is iron oxidizing (rusting).

Ore Energy connects world’s first grid-connected iron-air battery in Delft

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[–] Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de 14 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Where lithium-ion peaks at 4 to 8 hours of storage, Ore Energy’s iron-air battery holds power for 100 hours or more

What?

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 10 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Ya, that doesn't make a lot of sense... we need more numbers.

A battery might have 100mwh of storage, but only be capable of outputting at 1mw, that's 100 hours.

A different battery might have 1200mwh and can output at 400mw, that's 3 hours.

It's meaningless without the proper numbers.

[–] Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Yeah and a slow peak discharge rate is not really a positive.

We have some LiFePo batteries at work and we simply don't attach the full load they could serve, so they last around 10 hours instead of only 4. Going slower is never an issue I'd say.

Probably the real strengths are in the cost per Joule stored, but they are failing to make their argument properly.