Another entrant in the battery race to clean energy storage.

Mark Shwartz, Stanford PR, 6 April 2015, Aluminum battery from Stanford offers safe alternative to conventional batteries: The new aluminum-ion battery could replace many of the lithium-ion and alkaline batteries in wide use today.

Stanford University scientists have invented the first high-performance aluminum battery that’s fast-charging, long-lasting and inexpensive. Researchers say the new technology offers a safe alternative to many commercial batteries in wide use today.

“We have developed a rechargeable aluminum battery that may replace existing storage devices, such as alkaline batteries, which are bad for the environment, and lithium-ion batteries, which occasionally burst into flames,” said Hongjie Dai, a professor of chemistry at Stanford. “Our new battery won’t catch fire, even if you drill through it.”

Although drilling would produce aluminum dust, which isn’t exactly benign. However, point taken.

Personally, I still prefer the Harvard inorganic aqueous flow battery.

But the main point is that projects like this and Tesla’s home-sized battery are opening an energy storage research and sales market that will produce much better (cheaper, cleaner, faster) storage methods than we have now, and thus facilitate converting from fossil fuels to sun, wind, and wave power even faster.

PS: Thanks to John Pate.

-jsq

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