they found a faster way of charging a supposedly slowly charging material (namely FePO4), not that they found a fast way of charging a already fastly charging material (e.g. CoO2). So no revolution here, MIT's guys are good at regularly releasing some baits for new funds.
Hopefully, the "fast" discharge does not mean explosive discharge.
I was kicking around an idea of currency based directly on energy units with friends for a while. There were two requirements, though. One was some sort of battery or capacitor technology that can hold a charge for very long period of time (as long as cash currency typically survives) and and the other is the ability to quickly transfer energy from one unit to another (fast charge/discharge rates).
If this tech is commercialized, that would be one half of the conditions necessary for trading monetary value directly through the transfer of energy.
the ability to quickly transfer energy from one unit to another
Just swap physical devices. That's how electric "filling stations" will work; you'll drive in, exchange your flat battery for a fresh one and they'll recharge their stock overnight with cheap grid electricity.
I know. And I don't understand why. Cash currency is fungible with energy via futures markets or even just buying and selling batteries or water at different elevations.
Why would using some inconvenient physical mechanism be better than just mentally converting your transactions into the spot price of whatever type of energy interests you?
If this actually works, it would really change the world. Think of trucks with huge batteries that charge them in some central electricity center (next to a dam or so), then drive to far off villages to provide them electricity for weeks. There would be no need for cables any longer, one can transport electricity by train.
