Posted by: Gerry Purcell

Campaign: Which radical ideas for new energy sources deserve investigation?

The next step for renewable energy is to figure out how to store all the power we create. Harvard researchers have used a molecule nearly identical to one in rhubarb to make a battery that can store more energy­—for less money—than solid-state and traditional flow batteries. “We have something that could change the way we deal with electricity,” says Harvard engineer Michael Aziz. By 2017, they hope to release a commercial version big enough to hold a day’s worth of energy from a typical three-kilowatt home rooftop solar array. (Popular Science 2015)