China’s Iron Battery Prototype is 80 times cheaper than lithium and can last 16 years

One of the biggest problems with any of the renewable power sources is that we need batteries to store the power generated so that it can be used when the solar/wind etc is not able to generate power for whatever reason (its night or no wind etc). Battery capacity limits the amount of power that can be stored and the charge time required limits how much power can be stored. Another major issue is that the current generation of batteries are Lithium based which is a rare mineral and mining it has significant environmental footprint, primarily involving excessive water consumption, habitat destruction, and carbon emissions. Keep in mind that the impact is less than the impact of burning hydrocarbons but still it is an issue. The second issue is that because it is relatively rare mineral the countries that have deposits can potentially limit/control access the same way the middle-eastern countries control access to Petroleum and as you can guess this significantly increases the chance of…