Ten years ago, the idea that you could have a battery that would double as an electric generator for your home seemed impossible. But today, thanks to impressive advances in lithium-ion tech, they are fast becoming a reality. Options are already available on the market, with more to join them over the coming years.
Battery storage isn’t just a gimmick, though. It’s something that could fundamentally change how our society functions. The energy economy will never be the same again if people adopt them en masse.
A Socially Conscious Technological Revolution
Most tech revolutions are profit-driven. But the coming battery avalanche promises to be both eco-conscious and lucrative.
It could mean an incredible step forward for the average person on multiple levels. First, it provides them with a source of clean energy, year-round (assuming they charge their cells using solar or wind-derived energy).
Second, it helps make energy more equitable. If you’re willing to save and invest, you can purchase an energy system that will serve you for potentially a decade, without being subject to ever-increasing energy bills from traditional suppliers. Eventually, tech price points could come down so much that it is more economical for people with even a modicum of savings to replace their grid system.
According to All Seasons Energy, a company that works with battery technology, customers are already moving in that direction. With increasing energy insecurity and price hikes, people want to guarantee electricity in their homes. This is particularly the case for people who rely on a steady supply of electricity for their work.
Thirdly, battery tech has the power to distribute energy production more widely. People don’t necessarily have to live close to the grid in large cities. They can move outwards while still experiencing energy security.
Fourthly, it has the potential to lower energy costs significantly, in the way that visionaries like Nicola Tesla imagined. Energy production in the home is possible with current lithium-ion technology, but it could improve significantly if newer battery technologies hit the market, particularly lithium-air (or its derivatives).
Lithium-ion Batteries Environmental Impact?
Lithium-ion rechargeable batteries are already widely used in our laptops and smartphones and will be at the heart of the electric vehicle revolution. They’re needed to help power the world’s electric grids, because at present renewable sources, like solar and wind energy, cannot provide energy 24 hours a day. The market for lithium-ion batteries is projected by the industry to grow from US$30 billion in 2017 to $100 billion in 2025, so it is on the up and up. However, extracting the raw materials, mainly lithium and cobalt to make the batteries requires large quantities of energy and water, so it is not without it’s environmental cost. Chemists are currently researching ways to replace cobalt with more abundant metals such as iron or manganese (J. V. Laveda et al. Chem. Commun. 52, 9028–9031 (2016); R. Sharpe et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 142, 21799–21809; 2020).
Around one-third of the world’s lithium — the major component of the batteries — comes from salt flats in Argentina and Chile, where the material is mined using huge quantities of water in an otherwise arid area.
What Comes Next?
Battery storage could make it possible for countries to secure years worth of electricity energy in chemical form, reducing the need for continuous power supplies. Power stations could stop energy production for months and consumers wouldn’t be affected.
It also means that renewables will come of age. If new battery technology really can store energy indefinitely (without degradation), it means that solar panels and wind turbines can operate at peak efficiency when conditions permit it.
The consequences of this revolution in the developing world are considerable. Countries in Southeast Asia and Africa could leapfrog the need to build new coal power plants and skip straight to environmentally friendly alternatives, something that is essential for long-term survival.
In summary, there is still work to be done when it comes to the production of large storage batteries, however they could have the power to change the world and lead to a new energy economy we can only dream of today.
Photography by Rhema Kallianpur
