Batteries

That plate of smashed crab legs about to be cleared from the dining table and tossed in the trash might actually be the future of rechargeable batteries. A new discovery for its use in sodium-ion technology has researchers certainly believing so.

Smart energy tech developer SolarEdge is inviting thousands of home battery owners to join Britain's first Battery Virtual Power Plant, where stored energy will be used to help stabilize the grid during peak demand events.

For some time now, a nanomaterial known as MXene has been touted as a faster-charging alternative to the lithium used in batteries. It could soon be an even more viable choice, as scientists have devised a method of making it last much longer.

Australian mining company Fortescue has taken delivery of a 1.4-MWh prototype battery that's heading for a 240-tonne electric mining haul truck developed in partnership with Liebherr, and will begin testing later in the year.

One of the most exciting companies in grid-level renewable energy storage is Form Energy, whose innovative iron-air technology promises to outperform lithium "big battery" projects at 10% of the cost. It's preparing to scale up with its first factory.

The excellent energy density of lithium metal could enable batteries to power smartphones for days, and by designing a new electrolyte that can be controlled via magnetic fields, scientists have now edged this technology a little closer to reality.

A new solid-state battery design points to a new solution to the technology's stability issues, with researchers developing a novel electrode material that retains its volume throughout charging to enable the battery to endure hundreds of cycles.

Scientists at Stanford University have cooked up a new electrolyte recipe that tackles battery flammability in a highly promising way, leaning on extra salt content to circumvent problematic chemical reactions.

Branch-like growths called dendrites continue to plague next-gen battery designs of many types, but new MIT-led research claims to have uncovered the root of the problem, and shown how it can be negated through the use of mechanical stress.

As the world rushes toward "the greatest disconnect between supply and demand in the history of commodities," Snow Lake Lithium CEO Philip Gross talks us through his company's plans to open the world's first all-electric lithium mine in Canada.

In a model similar to that used by Gogoro, Honda has started rolling out modular battery exchange stations in Japan and India that each hold a dozen Mobile Power Packs for hot-swaps into electric scooters, motorcycles and rickshaws.

Scientists tinkering with commonly used battery materials have come up with a way of tweaking their microstructures to improve energy density, pointing the way to electric vehicles that can travel farther on each charge.