No wonder all commercial efforts have failed

Posted Feb 27, 2025 12:00 UTC (Thu) by malmedal (subscriber, #56172)
In reply to: No wonder all commercial efforts have failed by kleptog
Parent article: Building an open-source battery

> that's a huge deal for the large parts of the world where a commercial flow battery sales person is never going to go (i.e. large parts of Africa).

In one of those places(Congo), I once asked why they did not buy solar cells, it would be much cheaper than buying gas for the generator. The answer was that the security situation was such that they would be broken or stolen in short order.

> I agree things aren't looking great right now, but just giving up doesn't seem like a good idea either.

Things are looking great from a purely technical/economical perspective, batteries plus solar is the cheapest power you can get in most of the world. A full transition to renewables is technically easily within reach. Politically, not so much.