Are zinc batteries worth it?

Zinc batteries are easier on the wallet and the planet—and lab experiments are now pointing to ways around their primary drawback: They can't be recharged over and over for decades. The need for grid-scale battery storage is growing as increasing amounts of solar, wind, and other renewable energy come online.

Are rechargeable batteries based on zinc a good idea?

Rechargeable batteries based on zinc promise to be cheaper and safer for grid storage. If necessity is the mother of invention, potential profit has to be the father.

Are zinc-based batteries a new invention?

Zinc-based batteries aren’t a new invention—researchers at Exxon patented zinc-bromine flow batteries in the 1970s—but Eos has developed and altered the technology over the last decade. Zinc-halide batteries have a few potential benefits over lithium-ion options, says Francis Richey, vice president of research and development at Eos.

Can rechargeable zinc-air batteries take on lithium?

Such advances are injecting new hope that rechargeable zinc-air batteries will one day be able to take on lithium. Because of the low cost of their materials, grid-scale zinc-air batteries could cost $100 per kilowatt-hour, less than half the cost of today's cheapest lithium-ion versions. “There is a lot of promise here,” Burz says.

Are zinc batteries a fire-safe alternative to lithium-ion batteries?

Share your thoughts in the comment thread, or, better yet, find your representatives in Congress and let them know what you think. Energy storage innovators have been eyeballing zinc battery formulas as a fire-safe alternative to the flammable electrolyte deployed in lithium-ion batteries.

Can zinc batteries run in reverse?

This energy storage facility under construction in southeast England uses lithium-ion batteries. But zinc batteries don't like to run in reverse. Irregularities across the anode's surface cause the electric field to intensify at certain spots, which causes zinc to deposit there, further enhancing the electric field.