Cooperative Living March 2022 - 20

CUTTING EDGE
New Tech Alert:
Iron-Air Batteries
A key feature
by Maria Kanevsky, Contributing Columnist
Longer-lasting devices
could be an aid to the grid
A
s the electric grid continues to
evolve, new technologies are
helping advance the grid of the
future. One of these technologies is a
new form of battery storage technology
called the iron-air battery, which could
potentially provide long-duration energy
storage for hundreds of hours.
Current battery technologies can only
offer storage for tens of hours, meaning
the innovative iron-air battery could
provide energy for roughly 10 times
longer than existing grid-scale batteries.
This new technology could help
THE FUTURE OF
ENERG S TORAGE
A new form of battery storage technology, known as the iron-air battery,
could potentially provide long-duration energy storage for hundred of hours.
Long-duration energy storage will be crucial for adding more solar and wind
energy to the electric grid, since renewable energy is dependent on the
weather and may not always be available when needed.
Solar Array
of these batteries
is their low cost -
less than $20 per
kilowatt-hour.
ensure grid reliability, even in extreme
weather such as hurricanes or powerful
thunderstorms. Long-duration energy
storage will also be crucial for adding more solar and wind
energy to the grid, since renewable energy depends on the
weather and may not always be available when we need it.
New iron-air batteries could provide the missing link by
storing excess energy to be used when the sun isn't shining
or the wind isn't blowing.
Battery
Bank
Individual iron-air batteries are about the size of a
washing machine, making it easy to group many batteries
together into a larger, scalable system. Th size of the battery
module group can vary, depending on the storage needed
at a specific site. This means the batteries can be placed in a
variety of areas, from rural to urban, to meet energy needs.
'REVERSIBLE RUSTING'
The battery technology is made up of thousands of small
iron pellets that develop rust when exposed to oxygen. This
process discharges the battery. When the oxygen is removed,
the pellets revert back to iron, which then charges the battery.
According to Form Energy, the startup company developing
this new technology, this process is known as the principle
of reversible rusting.
Since the battery technology mainly uses the abundant
and cheap resources of water, air and iron, the technology is
relatively low-cost. These resources also make the technology
relatively safe, since there are no heavy metals, and also make
the batteries simpler to recycle.
A key feature of these batteries is their low cost, with Form
Energy promising a price of less than $20 per kilowatt-hour.
That is about one-tenth the cost of lithium-ion battery
technology, which is currently the cheapest battery technology
on the market.
18 ● Cooperative Living ●
March 2022
READY FOR PRIME TIME?
While this technology may be a solution for longduration
energy storage, the battery is not yet ready at
the commercial level. Form Energy estimates the battery
should be ready for mass production by 2025. As a pilot
project, Form Energy is working with Great River Energy,
a generation and transmission cooperative located in
Minnesota. The 150 megawatt-hour project is anticipated
to go live in 2023.
Time will tell if the iron-air battery, or any other longduration
battery, becomes successful as a new emerging
technology. In the meantime, electric utilities can start
to understand where this technology may potentially fit
within their own systems to make the grid more resilient
and reliable. 
Maria Kanevsky writes on consumer and cooperative affairs
for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.
co-opliving.com
http://www.co-opliving.com
Cooperative Living March 2022

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