Form Energy’s Iron-Air Battery Considered Potentially Disruptive for Power Industry

A few weeks ago I posted on ECW a press release from Form Energy who claimed to have built a battery that is 1/10 the cost of lithium-ion batteries, and able to deliver 100 hours’ worth of electricity at costs competitive with conventional power plants.

There has been some attention paid to this in the press, here are a couple of examples:

Washington Post
“Iron-air batteries: Huge green-energy breakthrough, or just a lot of hype?”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/07/27/iron-air-batteries-huge-green-energy-breakthrough-or-just-lot-hype/

This Washington Post article is very cautious, noting that battery breakthrough announcements often do not pan out, but the author does bring up the point that iron is 2000 times more plentiful than lithium, and that replacing lithium with iron would make it much easier for the United States to be come self sufficient in storage batteries, since no rare-earth materials (few are currently produced in the US) are required.

Oilprice.com
“Iron-Air Batteries Could Be The Breakthrough Energy Markets Are Waiting For”
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Iron-Air-Batteries-Could-Be-The-Breakthrough-Energy-Markets-Are-Waiting-For.html

The authors of this article not that Form energy has raised $250 million, and the company has announced a deal to provide 150 hours energy storage to the Great River Energy cooperative in Minnesota US (lithium-ion energy storage systems are typically for 2-4 hours).

They write: “a relatively inexpensive 100 hour plus utility-scale storage battery is as disruptive a technological force for the electric utility industry as anything we have ever seen.”