The western hemisphere isn’t just the Americas. It includes half of europe…

"Half" is stretching it. More like a slice: UK, Ireland, Iceland, Portugal, Spain and a slice of France.

Not a single sentence in the article of how this actually works. I found the original progress from 2017 and newer research and the newest stuff that caused the article. Plus the full thing.

The main benefit compared to photovoltaic cells plus classic batteries appears to be the fact that one chemical, a liquid, does both the energy absorption from the sun and serves as the storage medium. And it's long term storage. Also easy to transport.

It works based on a specially designed molecule that changes shape when it comes into contact with sunlight, storing energy. And that energy is later released at any point in time as heat by running the chemical through a catalyst, and converted into electricity in a small chip-scale thing.

Obviously, this is still early research, long way until it's a freely available and economically viable technology. Still great tho, looks promising. I wonder how much energy it packs per kg or liter.