Time: 7-9 p.m., Wednesday, October 25th

Location: Armenise Amphitheater at Harvard Medical School, 200 Longwood Avenue, Boston (link to directions)

Speakers: Emily Kerr and Justin Teesdale

Over the last few years, electricity generation from renewable sources has grown at a remarkable pace and is projected to almost double by 2025. As we rely more on these green energy sources, how do we transform a power source that only generates electricity when the sun is shining or when the wind is blowing into a stable, reliable resource? In this lecture, we’ll discuss the current state of the energy demand in the United States, why there has been a shift towards renewable energy over the last decade, and why energy storage is critical for this shift. Next, we’ll present the current options for grid-scale energy storage and why batteries are so exciting to scientists. Finally, we’ll explain the drawbacks of using lithium-ion batteries for this purpose and introduce an alternative battery design called a redox-flow battery that could be a better option.