batteries in the post-lithium era

it's time

“You don’t need rare earths… you can also charge up the battery when the electricity is cheap and discharge whenever you need the heat… And you can store it for long periods, not just two hours or four hours like lithium-ion batteries, but potentially for days and maybe even weeks.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/25/finland-sand-battery-renewable-energy-storage.html

we also have the sodium version

Beyond lithium: how sodium-ion batteries could change the world

my guess is that we'll see a wholesale shift to new types within five years

Ed to thread!

bookmarking

wish I had more to report but this is all pretty exciting.

I am wondering if the sodium batteries linked above are a tweaked version of the old Aquion salt-metal-hydride versions?

Making batteries that aren't explosive at a mere glance would be a triffic start.

aiui the newer LiFePo4 lithium chemistries fix that issue, but I'm still more excited about what could be next