The shortage of cobalt is a by far bigger problem. It's basically 80% about Congo, and what happens there.
50% to 80% of global supply can evaporate overnight if something is happening there.
https://www.ft.com/content/c6909812-9ce4-11e9-9c06-a4640c9fe...
It they really work is a good leap in the right direction.
We must remember that some forms of NA will explode in a fire ball in contact with water.
It's valuable research, but still nowhere close to a superior end product.
The same argument could be made for nickel-iron batteries, though. They're heavy and bulky, but they last literally forever, and their source materials are ludicrously abundant. Why don't we see nickel-iron grid-scale storage? I'd love to know.
Their primary use is in applications where their long lifetimes outweigh all other considerations.
I wonder how that estimate holds up today with the amount of places we now use Li-ion cells and the new lithium reserves we have found.
Whats more important than lithium is the cobalt they need, which is particularly hard to source. As others have mentioned, battery makers are trying hard to remove cobalt from their batteries.
Switch to LiFePO4 already, they're much safer and have more cycles in them. Yes, a bit less energy density, and have to switch BMS chips but still.