MIT researchers have developed an “air-breathing” flow battery that exhales oxygen, stores power for months, and costs about one-fifth of what current storage batteries cost to run. Air-Breathing Battery To survive on our planet we need the cleanliness of renewable energy. However, we also need it to be reliable, even when clouds obscure the Sun or the wind flags. Although we are already working to counter that natural variability with variety — sourcing energy to power the grid from a range of origins, including biomass, hydro, solar, waves, and wind, to break free of the need to switch back to coal and gas backup sources — we need large-scale energy storage systems. A team of researchers at MIT has developed a new kind of “air-breathing” battery that could make this happen sooner. The battery stores energy for months at about one-fifth of the price of existing technologies. What really […]