The Race to a Battery-Powered Future
We know that to have a green future, the entire world needs to shift from fossil fuel–generated power to renewable energy. And as countries agree on tripling solar and wind capacity, there are still major hurdles in the plan: one is that existing batteries aren’t good enough.
The idea of storing energy for later use is old, but in order to move society toward clean energy, scientists and engineers are experimenting with the fundamental elements of batteries, finding better ways to source raw materials, and even testing more outlandish energy storage ideas—like electricity-conducting ceramics. Experts agree that batteries will be a vital resource to ensure power is always on tap, no matter when energy is collected from renewable sources—whether in very sunny months or in cloudy rainy seasons.
It’s projected that the US will have at least 26 million battery-powered electric vehicles on the road by 2030, most of which use lithium-ion batteries, the same kind as in laptops, phones, and other electronics. This will make the demand for battery minerals and metals higher than ever before. But is our current technology enough to power the future, and is it truly sustainable?
“If we look at really transitioning to electric vehicles, and to renewables that need more grid-level storage, we won’t be able to get there with just lithium ion,” says Emily Ryan, a Boston University College of Engineering associate professor of mechanical engineering. She studies alternative materials for constructing batteries. Mining current raw materials, like lithium and cobalt, can cause major environmental hazards and unsafe working conditions, and right now there’s no reliable way to recycle batteries once they’re spent, creating a waste nightmare.
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