China Built a Battery Out of Iron That Could Last 16 Years, and Iron Costs 80 Times Less Than Lithium
Researchers at the Institute of Metal Research under the Chinese Academy of Sciences have developed a redesigned electrolyte for an alkaline all-iron flow battery that ran for more than 6,000 charge-discharge cycles with no measurable capacity loss, roughly 16 years of daily use. The 2026 Advanced Energy Materials paper points to grid-scale stationary storage, with […]
Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Metal Research developed a redesigned electrolyte for an alkaline all-iron flow battery that ran over 6,000 charge-discharge cycles with no measurable capacity loss, roughly 16 years of daily use. The work, published in Advanced Energy Materials, targets grid-scale stationary storage, where iron costs about 80 times less than lithium. The story is a scientific milestone with no direct crypto market impact, though cheaper long-duration storage could eventually affect energy and mining narratives tied to battery metals.
