How Future Batteries Could Save Civilization

Utility companies are responsible for delivering power at all hours, under all conditions. That’s the central challenge in building a grid powered by renewable energy: you can’t generate wind power on a still day or solar power on a cloudy one, and you can’t tweak the weather to boost power production during times of peak demand. To ensure we continue to have abundant, consistent electricity in a post-fossil fuel age, we need grid-scale ways to store hydroelectric, solar, and wind power for later use and move it to where it’s needed.

The most common rechargeable batteries in use today are lithium ion (Li-ion). Li-ion batteries can pack a lot of energy into a small, lightweight package that charges quickly, retains a charge for a long time, and can be recharged many times before wearing out. The 2019 Nobel Prize for Chemistry recognized three scientists who developed the technology in the 1970s that now powers millions of smartphones and other gadgets. They are even being used to store energy in the power grid. Yet the challenge of replacing conventional energy sources like oil and gas with batteries is one reason battery research and development attracted nearly US$2 billion in venture capital in 2019.

The next generation of energy storage seems to be on the verge of breaking out. Keep an eye on these technologies currently in development:

• Batteries made of graphene – a one-atom-thick layer of graphite that conducts energy faster and more efficiently than any other material on earth. Graphene batteries charge and discharge dozens of times faster than standard Li-ion batteries, can be charged to full in less time, and store an enormous amount of power for their size. At least one company is working to produce graphene batteries for use in electric cars to give the vehicles a driving range of up to 500 miles on one charge.
• A battery made from cheap, plentiful sodium needs to be much bigger than an Li-ion battery to hold the same charge. That makes sodium batteries impractical for portable devices but ideal for homes, office buildings, or the grid itself. In fact, an Australian company plans to implement sodium-ion batteries for energy storage this year.
• A lithium-sulfur (Li-S) battery could store two to three times as much power in the same space as an Li-ion battery, or the same amount of power in half to one-third the size. So far, though, Li-S batteries don’t last long, so researchers say there is still a long way to go for a commercial version.
• Lithium combined with air could store twice as much power as an Li-ion battery of the same size (or the same amount of power in a battery half the size). Like Li-S batteries, though, Li-air batteries have a longevity problem that researchers are still working to solve.
• Solid-state batteries developed by Toyota scientists can completely charge or discharge in just eight minutes and, because they do not contain liquid as other batteries do, should continue working in temperatures from boiling to well below freezing. The company has said it expects to begin mass production of solid-state batteries around 2025.

Other possibilities at early stages of development include batteries made with a fire-retardant solid polymer; batteries that are 3D-printed from copper foam; lightweight, long-lasting, miniaturized, solid-oxide fuel cells; and gold nanowires that can be recharged 200,000 times with no loss of capacity. Scientists also have figured out that they can use the waste products in compost to generate power in “microbial fuel cells.”

Researchers in the UK have even used nanogenerators to build a phone that charges its own batteries using ambient sound – including the voice of the person talking into the phone. And in a development that could redefine how we think about energy storage, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is working with Italian sports car manufacturer Lamborghini to build an electric “supercar” that doesn’t even have a battery in the conventional sense – because it can store energy in its body panels, which are made of lightweight carbon nanotubes.