grid storage

Ofgem cap and floor

A Hillside Battery That Does Not Need a Mountain

Sep 18, 2026

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7 min read

A Hillside Battery That Does Not Need a Mountain

RheEnergise made pumped storage work on an ordinary Devon hill by replacing water with a liquid two and a half times denser. The machine runs. The duration, and the economics, do not yet.

frontier technology

The Battery Built to Break Lithium's Grip on the Grid

Aug 22, 2026

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5 min read

The Battery Built to Break Lithium's Grip on the Grid

Grid batteries run on lithium, which is expensive, flammable, and refined mostly in China. A cheaper, safer chemistry made from sodium, essentially salt, is now shipping to the grid, and Peak Energy just put the first US grid-scale system to the test. Here is why it could break lithium's hold, and what still has to prove out.

Xcel Energy

The Battery That Rusts on Purpose to Keep the Lights On for Days

Aug 14, 2026

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6 min read

The Battery That Rusts on Purpose to Keep the Lights On for Days

Google and Xcel Energy just announced the largest grid battery ever proposed: 30 gigawatt-hours of storage built to run for 100 hours straight by rusting iron on command. It is a bet that patience, not speed, is what lets solar and wind power an AI data centre around the clock.

Alliant Energy

+10

A battery that runs on CO2 - But is it efficient ?

Jul 1, 2026

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4 min read

A battery that runs on CO2 - But is it efficient ?

Storing a full day of clean power is the missing piece of a wind-and-solar grid — and lithium gets expensive past a few hours. Energy Dome's answer skips lithium entirely: it banks power by squeezing carbon dioxide into a liquid. Now a US utility and Google are putting money behind it.

gene-editing medicine

+33

The Signal — The $20,000 home robot has arrived, with a human quietly on call

Jun 25, 2026

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12 min read

The Signal — The $20,000 home robot has arrived, with a human quietly on call

A walking humanoid you can buy for your living room is shipping this year — but the laundry-folding demo hides a remote helper. Plus six more signals from the frontier.

Space

+26

The Signal — A battery of iron and air could be clean energy's missing piece

Jun 24, 2026

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10 min read

The Signal — A battery of iron and air could be clean energy's missing piece

Cheap storage that lasts days, not hours, is the part that finally lets a grid run on sun and wind — plus five more signals from the frontier.

Space

+14

The Signal — A robot is flying across the Pacific to rescue a NASA telescope

Jun 22, 2026

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9 min read

The Signal — A robot is flying across the Pacific to rescue a NASA telescope

Launch is becoming routine. The new frontier in space is keeping, moving and rescuing what's already up there — plus six more signals.