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According to what I've read, NiFe batteries can last darn near forever (as far as batteries go), but they do require maintenance: The electrolyte needs occasional topping-off and replacement.

Furthermore, they're expensive.

According to these folks, the smallest 12V package is $1010.00, and consists of ten 6x3x15 cells of 15 pounds each. It provides 100 Ah of 12V power.

Which is roughly enough to run a single streetlight all night, assuming that the streetlight draws around 100W (which I think is a reasonable assumption). (100 Ah * 12V = 1,200 Watt-hours / 100 Watts == 12 hours runtime, ish.)

Meanwhile, a quick Google search shows that a 100Ah deep-cycle lead acid costs around $200.

Is NiFe a better value at around 5 times the initial cost, factoring maintenance requirements? It all depends...

But nickel iron batteries are back on the market -

Don't forget BeUtilityFree and ZappWorks.

It's too bad nickel-iron batteries haven't benefited from the almost 40 years of improvement that lead-acid batteries have since the Edison Storage Battery Company was bought and shutdown by the Exide Battery Corporation back in 1975.

I would suggest sodium-sulfur for a static installation. Cheap, with high energy density.

Do they make sodium-sulfur batteries in commercial quantities? Because you can buy pallet loads of nickel-iron batteries.

Keep it well insulated though, because it needs to stay above 300C.

That's kind of a nonstarter right there.

Within their limits, NiFe cells (Edison cells) are great. Here's where you can read about them and buy them NiFe cells source

There are no super durable lead acid batteries.

Wet cell nickel cadmium or nickel iron work though. http://www.beutilityfree.com/ imports nickel iron batteries from China on a regular basis for solar applications.

Batteries aren't efficient for a large scale solution. They're short-lived, they're low capacity, and energy is lost in the charging process.

Batteries using crappy technology are all of those things, but there's one battery technology that was invented 108 years ago that still impresses: the Edison Cell; nickel-iron-potash. Yeah, admittedly it's bulky and heavy per kwh, and expensive, and capacity temporarily takes a hit in a cold environment, but it's not short lived. There are cases on record where these have been in service (or worse, put away and neglected) for 50 or more years, and are still in perfect condition with nearly 100% of their original as-built capacity.

They have no memory effect; they tolerate conditions that kill other types, such as being left indefinitely in a fully discharged state, or grossly overcharged, or kept on indefinite float charge; the plates do not degrade; electrolyte vapour or spills do not corrode metals in the nearby environment.

They can be readily acquired in cell sizes up to 1220ah 1.2v, even by individuals. The cells can be put in series and series-parallel to get any desired energy capacity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edison_cell

http://www.beutilityfree.com/content/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=44&Itemid=129

http://www.beutilityfree.com/content/pdf_files/NiFeFlyer.pdf

Batteries aren't efficient for a large scale solution. They're short-lived, they're low capacity, and energy is lost in the charging process.

Batteries using crappy technology are all of those things, but there's one battery technology that was invented 108 years ago that still impresses: the Edison Cell; nickel-iron-potash. Yeah, admittedly it's bulky and heavy per kwh, and expensive, and capacity temporarily takes a hit in a cold environment, but it's not short lived. There are cases on record where these have been in service (or worse, put away and neglected) for 50 or more years, and are still in perfect condition with nearly 100% of their original as-built capacity.

They have no memory effect; they tolerate conditions that kill other types, such as being left indefinitely in a fully discharged state, or grossly overcharged, or kept on indefinite float charge; the plates do not degrade; electrolyte vapour or spills do not corrode metals in the nearby environment.

They can be readily acquired in cell sizes up to 1220ah 1.2v, even by individuals. The cells can be put in series and series-parallel to get any desired energy capacity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edison_cell

http://www.beutilityfree.com/content/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=44&Itemid=129

http://www.beutilityfree.com/content/pdf_files/NiFeFlyer.pdf