I’m so used to seeing “max cycles”, “cycles to 80% capacity”, etc figures that I was a little confused I couldn’t see such a figure mentioned. According to <a href="https://ambri.com/benefits/" rel="nofollow">https://ambri.com/benefits/</a> they essentially do not degrade. Neat.
It appears their main selling point is cost. Given that, they are suspiciously shy about giving an actual figure. The only thing you can find is:<p>> Even compared to this low future lithium-ion price of $100/kWh, these energy storage systems will be significantly more expensive than Ambri-based battery systems.
I totally believe that the risk of this stuff is "less" than an uncontained lithium fire, but 500C is nothing to laugh at. There are significant risks to the people around this, contact with water, water vapour, volatiles released from plastics.<p>I don't want to "but.." because lots of industrial processes are inherently dangerous, and we still do them. The thing is to design the systems to contain the risk. Thats cost, and may go to the same place as the containment costs for lithium systems. For the right engineering outcome in terms of operational cost and responsiveness, it's worth it. For energy density, it may be really good value.<p>They say that after initial heating, the process is inherently exothermic and so maintains it's own heat. Thats beneficial because it means external heat sources don't have to be continuously maintained.<p>Antimony is poisonous. Assuming normal operations don't volatalize this, or create dust and aerosols, the problem would be what happens if there is an uncontained fire, or some problem which causes it to be released in smoke or water. Again, not a problem unique to this technology, proposed energy storage with Ammonia is going to have to confront NH fume risks. (for instance)<p>These aren't things people will build out in their back yard. Things like flow batteries are much more deployable into rural and remote: maybe this technology is deployed in light industrial, heavy industry or at the electricity substation and plant.
$17/kWh and no capacity degradation. Daaammmmmn! For comparison the cheapest LiIon batteries are like $150/kWh today, and degrade significantly over a decade.<p>I guess grid scale storage is a solved problem then? And Tesla battery wall is pointless.
This is the company cofounded Prof. Donald Sadoway from MIT. I have been following their progress for a while. He made a lot of media around this technology 10 years ago. See the TedTalk:<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sddb0Khx0yA">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sddb0Khx0yA</a><p>So this is one of those case where you hear some news about amazing battery tech, and the reality is it minimum 10 years before it ever on the market.<p>The company had ups and downs and it seems they are actually pretty close to actually deploying a major system within the next year or so. This if further then most other grit batteries companies get.<p>This is a bit of newer talk with some more information: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2N3QAMhtPU">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2N3QAMhtPU</a><p>He also worked on a really cool idea for Green Steel making, producing iron from iron ore like we do aluminum from Bauxite. The startup company for that is called 'Boston Steel'.<p>Short video: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pYNzxorJs0">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pYNzxorJs0</a><p>Full presentation for more technical people: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhQaxFZOptE">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhQaxFZOptE</a>