The Battery Boom

Hey everyone,

On the surface, batteries aren’t the most exciting area of technology; however, the more I learn about them, the more I realise how crucial they are to solving the sustainability challenges we face.

With increased EV usage, changing grid infrastructure and a push towards renewables the way we store energy is evolving fast, and with demand for batteries only set to grow over the coming years innovation in this space is vital.

For a long time, lithium-ion batteries have been commonplace across almost all industries, and for good reason. Lithium-ion batteries are incredibly reliable and efficient, and they’ve served industries like EVs and renewables well up to now. However, they’re also incredibly resource-intensive, relying on materials like lithium, cobalt and nickel which all have major sustainability issues due to the water usage and carbon footprint of their mining, not to mention the ethical and human rights concerns tied to some supply chains.

There’s good news though. Scientists are continuing to develop a range of sustainable alternatives, often bringing a range of new benefits to the table as well!

One of the simplest, but most exciting is solid-state batteries which function similarly to lithium-ion, except the liquid electrolyte is swapped out for a solid electrolyte. This makes them a lot more energy-dense, longer lasting and also significantly safer. Companies like QuantumScape are leading this push and whilst I think we’re still a few years away from seeing them used at scale like within mass-market EVs, the potential for them is massive.

Moving away from lithium, there’s then sodium-ion batteries. Unlike lithium, sodium is cheap, widely available and doesn’t require destructive mining. The downside is that the technology behind them is nowhere near that of lithium-ion when it comes to energy density, making it nearly impossible to utilise them in places like EVs.

That said, if used in places like grid storage, where the size and weight don’t matter, the cheaper costs and reduced environmental impact can make a massive difference. CATL, one of the biggest battery manufacturers in the world has plans underway to scale this up, so we could be seeing mainstream sooner rather than later.

Chemistry aside, another part of the puzzle we desperately need to solve is improving the recycling of batteries. Currently, only a fraction of lithium-ion batteries are recycled, meaning the rare, expensive and unsustainable components are wasted. Companies like Redwood Materials are hard at work to change this and are developing a system that can “close the loop” and recover and reuse components, reducing the need for new mining. From a political angle, the EU are also pushing to introduce stricter regulations that would ensure batteries sold in Europe meet a minimum level of recycled content.

With so much change lined up for the next few years, batteries are only going to become more important in the push for global sustainability. By making EVs more affordable, supporting grids transitioning to renewable sources and reducing the unsustainable mining of minerals, their impact on the world will be significant.

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Do you think we’ll see lithium-ion alternatives take over, or will improvements in recycling get there first and keep lithium-ion dominant for decades to come?

Thanks for reading as always, and I’ll catch you next week!

James