Going with the flow: Renewable energy battery breakthrough

Going with the flow: Renewable energy battery breakthroughImage caption, Dr Hugh O'Connor developed the 3D-printed cell when he discovered a commercial flow battery for his research would cost up to £3,000ByLouise CullenAgriculture and environment correspondent, BBC News NIPublished1 hour agoA 3D-printed battery developed at Queen's University Belfast could "make a genuine impact" on the road to net zero, say the researchers behind it.Flow batteries are seen as key to scaling up renewable energy, allowing it to be stored for when the wind is not blowing and the sun is not shining.But they are expensive and typically use a metallic element - vanadium - that is only produced in a few places round the world.Now, scientists at QUB have developed one based on iron, which is much easier to source, and have sent it around the world to help standardise research.It is hoped it will accelerate the renewable energy revolution, making research more reliable and its findings more scalable.How did this discovery happen?Post-doctoral researcher Dr Hugh O'Connor began tinkering with the design of flow batteries when he needed one for his PhD - and realised it would cost £2,000-£3,000."I started 3D-printing them and I made lots of little tweaks. After a lot of trial and error, eventually these started to work really well."The cell he printed allowed him to carry out the tests he needed for his PhD.But when he compared his results to other research, O'Connor struggled to find the standards he wanted."We were at various conferences and meetings and calls, we noticed that other people were having the same problems, and lots of our colleagues were really interested in this work."All of a sudden, we were in this position where we had this really nice cheap cell and we were all tackling the same problem."'Ikea-style instruction manual'Image caption, The battery developed by O'Connor comes with its own step-by-step instr...