“The most exciting clean tech innovation of 2025? It might just be rust.”
That is the assessment of Mark Loveridge, Commercial Director of Renewable Exchange. But Mark’s enthusiasm doesn’t have anything to do with old bike chains or an oven in need of a deep clean, according to Sustainability Magazine.
Instead, people like Mark are getting very excited about the role that rust could play in mitigating climate change.
The problem with renewable energy systems as things stand is, unlike fossil fuels, renewable energies like solar and wind are difficult to store in the quantities we need.
This means that when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow, energy supplies run low.
For decades, the energy storage conversation has been ruled by the lithium-ion cell, a technology that powers everything from our mobile phones to electric vehicles.
But with 2025 drawing to a close, a chemically distinct contender has emerged from the laboratory to the electrical grid.
“After decades of dominance by lithium-ion, 2025 is potentially the turning point for long-duration energy storage (LDES), and iron-air batteries are leading the charge,” Mark says.
The premise is elegantly simple, in the way that the world’s best inventions often are. These batteries harness the process of reversible rusting.
During discharge, the battery “breathes” in oxygen from the air which converts iron pellets into rust and releases energy.
To charge, an electrical current turns the rust back into metallic iron and the battery “exhales” oxygen.
Read more here.
