Alphabet wants to fix clean energy’s storage problem with salt

Sea salt in bowl and spoon on a wooden background.

Alphabet Inc's secretive X skunk works has another idea that could save the world. This one, code named Malta, involves vats of salt and antifreeze. 

The research lab, which hatched Google's driverless car almost a decade ago, is developing a system for storing renewable energy that would otherwise be wasted. It can be located almost anywhere, has the potential to last longer than lithium-ion batteries and compete on price with new hydroelectric plants and other existing clean energy storage methods, according to X executives and researchers.