Interesting stats on EVs and energy use in the US, developments in wind and tidal power, a plastic recycling microfactory, and an "unprecedented collapse" in EU fossil fuel generation.
The US Department of Energy has announced a conditional commitment to Eos Energy Enterprises for a $400 million loan to be used in the construction of four "state-of-the-art production lines" that will be used to manufacture utility- and industrial-scale zinc-bromine battery energy storage systems in Pennsylvania.
According to this MIT Review article, the company says its batteries could be used to cheaply store energy for hours or days at a time and could play a key role in building out the country's renewable energy grid. Once completed, the four production lines could produce eight gigawatt-hours’ worth of batteries annually by 2026—enough to meet the daily needs of up to 130,000 homes.
Every time I see another story about a new type of battery being developed – either to work in industrial settings, in support of the renewable energy grid, or as an alternative to lithium batteries in EVs and electronic devices – I can't help but geek out a bit over humanity's endless ingenuity and inventiveness (yes, even in the face of our colossal stupidity at times). There are so many energy storage alternatives being explored and I suspect that the batteries we will see commonly in use 10 years from now will be very different than the solutions available today.
