Going with the flow: Renewable energy battery breakthrough

And O’Connor admitted he briefly “cynically” considered selling his product to colleagues.

But after discussing it with his supervisor, they decided to provide the design to the entire international research community for free.

“We kind of saw it as an opportunity to grow our network rather than make a small amount of money, and we feel like it can really benefit this technology.”

His design costs roughly £74 and involves about ten components, from the printed pieces that the liquid flows through, to a membrane, gaskets, electrodes and current collectors.

And it involves careful assembly, simplified by the free guide supplied with the kit.

“It was really important that we sent out like an Ikea-style instruction manual to our participants.

“And I think they followed it quite well.”

What is a flow battery?

A flow battery is a device that stores energy in liquids, rather than solid electrodes as lithium-ion batteries do.