Grid Think

 I'll be honest, I didn't dream of Iron Chromium Redox flow battery in my dreams, nor did I have any secret information from NASA. I did what any other 22 year old would, ask Gemini about it. If you ask Gemini or ChatGPT about VRFBs, there are high chances that it will suggest alternate chemistries also. Now that can be a good thing or a bad thing. If you know a little bit electrochemistry, it would spit out a very obvious answer. If you don't, you'll go down the same rabbit hole I did. AI doesn't know your intentions. So it acts as the most efficient information summarizer, and that's great, if you just want information, not if you want action. So one of the first alternatives to VRFBs Gemini suggested was Iron - Chromium, and it made a lot of sense because Iron and Chromium are commodity metals, Iron is literally the most mined metal on earth and chromium comes third [ source ]. Their commodity prices are - Iron - $110 per ton   (at the time of writing) Chromi...

 I love AI, its the perfect expert and assistant, I always wished for. I am very sure so do most of its users, yes there are some problems with it. But I am sure world's best engineers sitting in these companies will solve them. But here's a problem 99% of coders cannot possibly solve in their cubicles, and it decides how your favorite AI behaves, power supply. Let's talk about Claude, because I am using Claude nowadays, but I have seen a very similar pattern in Google's Gemini Pro (student version) and ChatGPT. So feel free to generalize this issue Free User Experience If you have asked any AI model to perform complex tasks for you, or make complex decisions, most AI models take time, somewhere between a few seconds to sometimes Claude taking minutes to draft documents. Not a dealbreaker, but I wish it was faster, since I am so used to speed now. Also as a non-premium user of any of the AI models, I have also seen that they hit a limit. In many cases for premium users ...

After reading the Vanadium post, I am sure its pretty clear that VRFBs are expensive but they are one of the oldest, most stable, most deployed and proven redox flow battery chemistry yet. So, I feel its worth giving Vanadium another chance before dismissing it fully. Vanadium Supply Chain As of 2026, global Vanadium production is 100,000 metric tons, that may sound like a lot, but its tiny, to put that in perspective, we produce 3x more Lithium and we still need to discover and open new lithium mines, and Lithium supply chains are considered to be volatile.  Since we are talking about supply chain, its obvious to see when you buy Lithium or Vanadium ores, where exactly are they being dug up. Lithium producing countries- Source Vanadium producing countries - Source I'll be honest even I am a little surprised, I imagined Lithium to be produced in China, and its an obvious assumption, if the biggest lithium ion battery makers are Chinese, it would be obvious to think that its produce...

Search flow batteries anywhere on the internet, you'll find Vanadium's monopoly, ask any AI model about flow batteries and they'll assume vanadium and give you all the information. That's because Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries (or VRFBs in short) are already being commercialized, or at least they're trying their best.  I'll try to explain why, but before i move further, i forgot to explain the redox part in the last 2 posts. All Batteries are Redox Batteries- Batteries have 3 basic parts, positive side (cathode), negative side (anode) and a membrane or separator. So, when you connect a charger to your phone, the charger takes electrons from positive and gives it to the negative side, but if the positive and negative mix together they will neutralize each other, so they need to be separated by separator (or membrane). The word "redox" is made of two words : Reduction- gaining of electrons (by the negative side) Oxidation - loss of electrons (by the posit...