[ashtami8]

Paraphrasing from the article:

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a kilogram of gasoline gives you about 13 kWatt-hrs,

a kilogram of coal a little less, about 8 kWatt-hrs,

a kilogram of lithium ion battery can store only 0.2 kWatt-hrs, and,

a kilogram of water at 1 km altitude is just 0.0027 kWatt-hrs.

On the other hand,

a kilogram of Uranium 235 gives you 24000 kWatt-hrs!! There’s a lot of energy in Uranium 235!

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So, barring antimatter, U235 is the ULTIMATE BATTERY.

Most fusion research seems to be focused on fusing the lightest elements, usually isotopes of hydrogen: deuterium and tritium and occasionally lithium to produce energy.

I wonder how much research has been done on the fusion of heavy elements such as lead (Pb)? If it were possible to reverse the fission of U235, i.e., fuse the fission end products such as Pb back into U235 in an energy efficient manner, and with a very low carbon footprint [1], that would solve the energy storage problem.

[1] Also from the article: "CO2 emissions resulting from current storage technologies range from 104 to 407 kg per Mega Watt-hour of delivered energy. Compare this with coal, which releases almost a 1000 kg of CO2 per Mega Watt-hour produced. " This is the CO2 emissions created in the construction and maintenance of the energy storage facility averaged over the total energy stored and delivered during its lifetime.