Malta is on the leading edge of long-term battery storage. They are building a new type of electro-thermal energy storage system that can collect and store energy from any source (i.e. wind, sun, or fossil fuels), in any location and for long durations, and dispatch it as electricity on demand. The concept was invented by Stanford professor, Robert Laughlin, based on well-established principles in thermodynamics for a system that stores energy as heat (in molten salt) and as cold (in a chilled liquid). The project was later refined and incubated at Google X and spun out in 2018.