Jake Hertz

These home batteries pair solar storage with whole-home backup; the newest models combine the inverter, controls, and even EV charging into a single cabinet. Anker SOLIX X1 solar and storage solution.Anker Until renewables entered the mainstream, most residential homes were entirely dependent on the electric grid for all their power. Utilities generated power at central plants, pushed it down the lines, and homeowners paid for whatever the meter recorded.

Last week was the Future of Memory and Storage (FMS) 2026 conference, and a handful of industry leaders used the show as a launching pad for new products. In this edition of Tech Shorts, we’ll look at five FMS announcements that address a different layer of the growing concerns surrounding memory for AI workloads.

CATL's Chief Scientist Dr. Wu Kai at the company's Technology Day event in Beijing on April 21, 2026.CATL For years, sodium-ion batteries were considered a chemistry with compelling structural advantages, but that couldnt reach commercial relevance. Benefiting from sodium’s abundance, an architecture that omits lithium and cobalt, and lower cell expansion stress, the chemistry has many promising features that exceed lithium-ion batteries. However, manufacturing reality tells a different story.