Form Energy And The UK
This article on the Telegraph, which is entitled Britain Will Soon Have A Glut Of Cheap Power, And World-Leading Batteries To Store It, is proving to be a mine of information about the development of the UK Power Network.
Reliable information about US startup; Form Energy has been hard to find.
But the Telegraph article has these three paragraphs on Form Energy.
Form Energy in Boston – backed by Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates – is working on an iron-air “rust” battery based on the reversible oxidation of iron pellets. It does not require rare and polluting minerals such as vanadium, and will have a 100-hour range.
“The modules will produce electricity for one-tenth the cost of any technology available today for grid storage,” the company told Recharge.
Form Energy has been working with National Grid to map out the economics of UK renewables with storage, and how to cope with future curtailment. And it too praises the UK as a global trailblazer, though its pilot project next year will be in Minnesota.
Note.
- Iron certainly, isn’t an exotic material.
- A hundred hour range is claimed.
- If National Grid have been working with Form Energy, is it reasonable to assume, that they have been working with Highview Power?
- Good to see that Form Energy praises the UK as a global trailblazer. I have noted several times, that the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy seems to be well-advised.
Will National Grid put in one of Form Energy’s batteries? It would be a prudent thing to do, to make sure you get the best.
The Anonymous Widower 
This maybe a good idea and it might not be but the reality is long term storage is absolutely front, back and centre for a net zero grid so its needs a solution. So if we are serious about net zero we have to treat it like we did with Covid immunisation and just scatter gun any technology that looks half viable with research funding to get and answer one way or another as quickly as possible.
Comment by Nicholas Lewis | July 31, 2022 |
Form Energy is America’s big hope and doesn’t lack for any technical or monetary backing.
I feel that there will be a shoot-out at the heavy end and the contenders will be Highview Power, Form Energy and Energy Dome.
But not everybody wants a 30 GWh system and others will dominate other markets.
Comment by AnonW | July 31, 2022 |
What is a 100 hour range? If it means a vehicle then the weight of the iron (it’s dense) would make a Lada (1970’s “car” with cast iron block tractor engine) seem like a spritely performer…
Comment by R. Mark Clayton | July 31, 2022 |
I’m late to this discussion, but on the subject of curtailment there’s a nice new website at https://wind-curtailment-app-ahq7fucdyq-lz.a.run.app/
Follow the link to the discussion post, and you’ll find a vg summary of the issues.
Comment by Peter Robins | March 1, 2023 |
The long version of this research (from Oct 2021) is on Form’s website https://formenergy.com/insights/energy-storage-to-support-the-uk-transmission-grid/ – a little light reading. There’s quite a lot of info on their tech on their website. It seems the first installation – a small 1.5MW pilot scheme in Minnesota – should be up and running next year some time.
Comment by Peter Robins | March 1, 2023 |
Form have just announced a “definitive agreement” with Georgia Power to install one of their 100-hour batteries by 2026, subject to regulatory approvals. https://formenergy.com/form-energy-georgia-power-continue-forward-with-15-megawatt-iron-air-battery-system-agreement/
They claim that this is <10% of the cost of Li-ion. Li has dominated batteries for years now, because it's light and so ideal for portable devices and transport. But weight isn't important for static storage, whether that be grid-connected or on household/commercial premises (well, I suppose if it's so heavy it goes through the floorboards …). So I can see non-Li devices coming to dominate static storage.
Comment by Peter Robins | June 13, 2023 |
For comparison, Energy Dome claim their device costs are half Li-ion, and their website shows ‘energy bricks’ of 50MWh apiece, so you’d need quite a few to match Form’s 1500MWh output.
Comment by Peter Robins | June 13, 2023 |
There’s a very interesting discussion from last month with FE’s boss on Michael Liebreich’s Cleaning Up https://www.cleaningup.live/iron-air-man-ep144-mateo-jaramillo/ He does mention the UK (and Ireland) briefly at the end, and they apparently have “a couple folks” here atm. Lots of info on how he sees Form’s rust-battery fitting in to the overall energy supply system.
Comment by Peter Robins | January 17, 2024 |
I like the concept and it is on my list of battery technologies that will succeed.
Comment by AnonW | January 17, 2024 |