Image source: Form Energy

Battery storage is an integral part of a renewables-powered future; it stores energy collected from solar plants and wind turbines, for usage later when the sun doesn’t shine and wind doesn’t blow.

Today, lithium-ion is one of the most commonly used types of batteries for grid-level energy storage. Lithium-ion technology boasts a competitive efficiency of 85-95%, compared to the 80-90% efficiency of lead-acid batteries, a major rival technology.

More recently however, another promising alternative has grabbed headlines – iron-air batteries. In July last year, Form Energy, an American company backed by Amazon head Jeff Bezos, claimed to have created a rechargeable battery that cost 1/10th of traditional lithium-ion batteries. Explore how iron-air batteries work and find out, are these batteries really up to the hype?