These batteries could harness the wind and sun to replace coal and gas

illuminem summarizes for you the essential news of the day. Read the full piece on The Washington Post or enjoy below:

🗞️ Driving the news: Hokkaido, Japan, is deploying flow batteries to store renewable energy from wind and solar, aiming to reduce reliance on fossil fuels
• These cutting-edge batteries use vanadium to store large amounts of energy, paving the way for renewable grids without wastage
• Hokkaido's plant, once the world’s largest, highlights a global push for scalable, long-lasting energy storage solutions

🔭 The context: Flow batteries, unlike lithium-ion ones, use tanks of liquid vanadium to store energy, making them easier to scale for utility needs
• Despite high upfront costs and reliance on vanadium imports, such batteries are gaining traction globally
• Japan’s Hokkaido plant integrates these with undersea cables to stabilize its renewable grid, showing the potential of advanced storage technologies

🌍 Why it matters for the planet: Flow batteries enable renewable energy to replace coal and gas by addressing intermittency issues, crucial for cutting greenhouse gas emissions
• These advancements align with global net-zero targets, reducing the need for polluting peaker plants
• Scalable storage solutions are vital for decarbonizing the power sector and combating climate change

⏭️ What's next: Scaling flow battery production requires overcoming vanadium supply chain challenges and high costs
• Innovations and alternatives to vanadium may emerge to diversify the market
• As regions like Hokkaido achieve stable renewable grids, others may follow suit, accelerating the global clean energy transition

💬 One quote: “Flow batteries are finally about to take off… When China starts to get comfortable with a technology, they will very quickly scale their manufacturing base” — Michael Taylor, International Renewable Energy Agency

📈 One stat: Hokkaido’s flow battery plant can power over 27,000 homes for four hours, supporting 15 new wind farms that generate 3% of the island’s electricity

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