this post was submitted on 01 Mar 2026
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‘World’s largest battery’ to provide 100-hour iron-air storage for Google data center (interestingengineering.com)
submitted 4 days ago by Innerworld@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org 3 points 4 days ago (1 child)

When oxygen from the air passes over small pieces of iron inside the battery, the iron rusts and produces electricity. To recharge the battery, an electric current removes the oxygen from the rust, turning it back into iron

Every week we can read about some new & exotic chemical processes that can (maybe, hopefully 😇) be used for batteries... but "the iron and the rust", that is old.

So: Why haven't we heard of any iron-rust-batteries before?

Form’s iron-air batteries are heavier and less efficient than their counterparts; they can only return about 50% to 70% of the energy used to charge them

Oh. Damn.

So, that's why, I guess. 50% sounds terrible.

almost three times as cheap

Oops? Now we are in business again? Maybe, hopefully 😇

I really find it interesting.

[–] very_well_lost@lemmy.world 1 point 4 days ago

It's also clever politics. Minnesota has the largest iron mining operations in the entire United States, so choosing iron as your core battery technology is a smart (albeit cynical) way to drum to some local support with the promise of bringing new demand back to the taconite mines.

Whether that will be strong enough to overcome the extreme negative sentiments around datacenter projects? Who knows...