zlacker

Do you have any idea how long it takes for a technology at a research stage to enter scale production and be commercially viable?

>>Herz+(OP)
I don't have my eye on these technologies (there were at least two that I've run across that were REALLY HEAVY), so I can't tell you how close they are to production. But every bit helps and the amazing pouch batteries in your laptop weren't developed overnight... 18650 batteries are astounding compared to the Eveready Alkalines of my youth, and available for $3 a piece in quantity.

>>Herz+(OP)
If there is a good enough economic impetus, it will enter commercial use quickly. Also, things like iron air batteries are relatively extremely simple - it's not like there is complicated chemistry to figure out.

When it comes to grid scale storage, I think there will be rapid advancements because the constraints for what what makes a good grid battery is so different from what makes a good laptop or EV battery, and we've really only recently been investigated batteries with those constraints. I.e. for decades battery tech has been concerned about things like weight-to-capacity ratios, recharge times, etc. Most of that hardly even matters for fixed, installed batteries at power plants.