Wall Street Journal reporter Russell Gold spotlights how Form Energy, a startup co-founded by Prof. Yet-Ming Chiang, has developed an inexpensive iron-air battery that can discharge power for days. The batteries could be “capable of solving one of the most elusive problems facing renewable energy: cheaply storing large amounts of electricity to power grids when the sun isn’t shining and wind isn’t blowing,” writes Gold.
A new study by Prof. Jessika Trancik and postdoctoral associate Micah Ziegler examining the plunge in lithium-ion battery costs finds that “every time output doubles, as it did five times between 2006 and 2016, battery prices fall by about a quarter,” reports The Economist. “A doubling in technological know-how, measured by patent filings, is associated with a 40% drop in price.”
MIT researchers have analyzed the role of long-duration energy storage technologies and found that large storage systems have the potential to lower electricity prices in a carbon-free grid by up to 40%, writes Eric Roston for Bloomberg.
Financial Times reporter Henry Sanderson spotlights Prof. Donald Sadoway’s work developing new battery chemistries that would allow batteries to store energy for longer than six hours.
Prof. Fadel Adib speaks with BBC reporter Gareth Mitchell about a new battery-free underwater navigation system that his group developed. Adib explains that one of the key developments behind the new sensors is that they can “harvest power from sound.”
MIT researchers have developed a new battery-free, underwater navigation system, reports Darrell Etherington for TechCrunch. “Ultimately, the system and future versions that are based on the same technology could enable future robotic submarine explorers to better map the ocean floor,” writes Etherington, “and perform all kinds of automated monitoring and sub-sea navigation.”
XiaoZhi Lim at The New York Times reports on a new study co-authored by researchers at MIT, which found that “by using a new class of electrolytes composed of ionic liquids, or salts that remain liquid at room temperature,” it may be possible for a supercapacitor to store as much energy as a lithium-ion battery.
Prof. Donald Sadoway explains the benefits of battery storage in an Associated Press article about energy storage in Arizona. “Absent battery storage, the whole value proposition of intermittent renewable energy makes no sense at all…People just don’t understand that the battery will do for electricity what refrigeration did to our food supply.”
A new MIT study suggests that “strings of plastic balls dangled in the ocean could harvest enough cobalt for hundreds of thousands of electric car batteries,” reports David Adam for New Scientist. The researchers think the system could “catch enough dissolved cobalt from seawater each year to make a battery for every Tesla Model 3 that has rolled off the production line so far,” says Adam.
Researchers at MIT and Stanford have developed an algorithm that can predict the potential lifespan of a battery after just a handful of charges. “The algorithm doesn’t completely replace actually testing samples until they die,” writes Andrew Liszewski for Gizmodo, “but it could help engineers quickly ascertain if changes they’re testing have the potential for improvement.”
Prof. Donald Sadoway speaks with CBC News reporter Paul Hunter about his work developing a rechargeable battery that is big enough to power an entire neighborhood, and uses liquid metals and molten salt. Hunter writes that “Sadoway's invention is radically different from anything else in the market.”
Prof. Steven Barrett speaks with Forbes reporter Jeremy Bogaisky about the new plane he developed that is propelled by an ion drive, noting that he is working to embed a prolusion system within the skin of the aircraft. “There’s no reason to think long-term that airplane designs with electroaerodynamic propulsion need look at all like an airplane today,” explains Barrett.
CNN reporter Helen Regan highlights a new solid-state plane developed by MIT researchers that has no moving parts and does not require fossil fuels. “The flight is a milestone in ‘ionic wind’ technology,” explains Regan, “and could pave the way for quieter and environmentally cleaner aircraft in the future.”
A Nature editorial highlights the historic breakthrough achieved by MIT researchers who developed the first plane that is propelled by ionic wind and has no moving parts. Nature writes that the plane is a “remarkable machine,” adding that “anyone who watches the machine fly can surely see glimpses of a future with cleaner and quieter aircraft.”
Reuters reporter Will Dunham writes that a new plane without moving parts developed by MIT researchers is a “radical new approach toward flying.” The plane could one day lead to “ultra-efficient and nearly silent airplanes that have no moving control surfaces like rudders or elevators, no moving propulsion system like propellers or turbines, and no direct combustion emissions like you get with burning jet fuel,” explains Prof. Steven Barrett.