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First most batteries used for solar applications are not Li ion batteries. They are LiFePO4 batteries, which are much less expensive and they are stable. They are "affordable" and work and have long-lifetimes - for say offgrid remote residential applications. Second, the idiocy of all of these articles is that they talk about various battery chemistries and manufactruing technologies as if they are avialable or at least the technology exists at a prototype or pilot scale so it can be evaluated. For the most part these things are no more than labels on an application for a research grant - some version of a bank account into which you can pour money in return for which the recipient "promises" to research the technology and find out if it can work.

It's all some sort of fraud. Some of it is well-meaning to be charitable. Much of it isn't. A lot of competent investors and existing manufacturers are scowling around to make sure they have access to the latest technology that could upset their business if someone else gets in first. And those folks are not convinced that there is anything there, or they are already funding the things that show the greatest promise.

Innovation is a lot harder than oh, I have an idea, you have money, let's partner up so I can spend your money for you.

No matter the technology, no matter the physical science, the problem is always with physical science.

I, too, have LifePo4 batteries. They work well for me but won't for the grid. Why? Because I'M the one who manages them, I'M the one who benefits from them, which makes ME motivated to make sure it's done efficiently and effectively.

That's unlike the grid, which is overregulated by the POLITICAL CLASS. It doesn't matter what the source of power is -- THEY will find a way to muck it up.

The only thing solar and batteries bring to the table is that it gives us the ability to do it in a decentralized fashion -- putting the power into our hands (pardon the pun) and not in the bureaucrats. Any talk about how this or that technology can help with the grid is pointless because the grid problems aren't technology problems.