That's a bit of a coincidence. I have been spending a bit of time lately researching grid energy storage technology.
I have come to the conclusion that electricity from solar and wind is a done deal. It has been proven to work, be reliable, be sustainable and scaleable. And, it is getting better and cheaper by the day.
It will still take a long time to build out to country sized outputs but we know we have a genuine alternative to fossil fuel electricity generation.
However, there is a gap where we need quite large storage. In some ways similar to how we rely on peaking generators and large backup generators for those somewhat infrequent situations such as summer peaks, unit breakdowns etc . E.g. The Yallourn mine flood and/or the Callide generator failure recently. According to the experts there is a genuine two week gap across a year where solar and wind struggle. Typically in autumn and spring.
For that reason, we need big storage to see us through those periods. There are plenty of other short term situations where we need grid backup but that is already covered by the current technology probably.
In the future we will be overproducing electricity many times in a year. Especially in summer. Depending how we manage that, we will have the opportunity to store gobs of it for later use.
So, the missing piece of the puzzle is large, very cheap, very flexible energy storage. There is now a ton of research going into quite simple forms of storage made from abundant materials that can be located anywhere and can even be incorporated into structures or local sites.
If the people from Form can achieve the price of $20 US per kwh they will be laughing.
I really like the back story of some of these companies of how they get to where they are today as the story tells above. Collaborations, opportunities to purchase patents from others etc. It seems there is a bit of fortunate timing as well.
Here's a few other companies in the same space using relatively simple and cheap materials. Even one in Australia.
https://polarnightenergy.fi/
https://ambri.com/
https://1414degrees.com.au/
