• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
Celebrating our 1,000th edition. The climate news you need
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  FEATURED
Ex-Fossil Workers Convert Old Oilfields to Solar Farms After ‘Rapid Upskilling’ in Alberta June 29, 2022
London Becomes Biggest City to Sign Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty June 29, 2022
G7 Miss ‘Golden Opportunity’, Walk Back Pledge to Cut International Fossil Finance June 29, 2022
Soaring Fertilizer Prices Could Deliver ‘Silver Lining’ For Emissions, But Farmers Struggle to Limit Use June 26, 2022
BREAKING: UN Nature Summit, the ‘Paris Conference for Biodiversity’, Moves to Montreal in December June 19, 2022
Next
Prev
Home Demand & Distribution Batteries / Storage

Lithium-Ion Success Creates Barrier for Newer Storage Technologies

June 22, 2017
Reading time: 3 minutes

RudolfSimon/Wikimedia Commons

RudolfSimon/Wikimedia Commons

 

A handful of recent setbacks for energy storage start-ups points to the high cost of bringing new concepts to commercial scale against a strongly entrenched incumbent technology—in this case, the ubiquitously successful lithium-ion battery.

MIT Technology Review pegs its observation to the fates of four alternative battery makers: one filed for bankruptcy in March, a second put itself up for sale after failing to find investors, a third retrenched, while a fourth withdrew from the storage business entirely.

What the companies had in common was that they were all trying to sell comparatively unconventional approaches to storing electricity. Aquion Energy’s batteries used a salt water electrolyte, manganese oxide cathode, and a carbon-based anode. EnerVault made flow batteries, which involve two different solutions separated by a membrane. Ambri’s batteries relied on liquid metal. And LightSail Energy proposed to “store energy as compressed air in carbon fibre tanks,” but now sells the containers to hold natural gas.

“What is clear,” MIT observes, “is that despite the compelling need for better grid storage technology, any start-up today faces several daunting realities.” One is that the market for grid-scale storage “still isn’t large, in part because the technologies are immature and expensive”—something of a Catch-22 for the industry. But “more important in the immediate term, the price of existing technology in the form of lithium-ion batteries has dropped far faster than expected, narrowing the promised benefits of new approaches.”

The cost and mind-share competition from lithium-ion batteries is only becoming more insurmountable with time, MIT asserts. Bloomberg New Energy Finance, for one, projects that the floor price of LiON cells will drop to US$109 per kilowatt-hour by 2025, and to US$73 by 2030, though former Ambri founder and MIT material scientist Donald Sadoway notes that the 2030 estimate “seems to dip below the cost of raw materials.”

Still, start-ups promoting alternative approaches “must make a massive up-front investment to develop new hardware and scale up manufacturing, all while chasing moving price and performance targets as incumbent technologies improve,” the Review notes. Meanwhile, prospective “customers considering a multi-million-dollar storage system have little incentive to bet on an emerging and riskier technology. Lithium-ion batteries already meet many of the specific needs of large-scale utility customers, offering a reliable product from stable providers.”

That might not matter, Tech Review reflects, except that “the danger, in this case, is that many observers believe lithium-ion isn’t the right technology for full-scale baseload grid storage, because there seem to be limits on how cheap and long-lasting the technology can ever become.”

For one thing, the number of charge/discharge cycles that LiON batteries can sustain remains to be proven in commercial use; a lower than expected number could drive up the effective price of that form of storage. But while that question plays out, the technology’s market dominance “frosts over an already chilly investment market for technologies that may be only minimally better today, but could have far greater potential to transform the energy system in the long run.”

Numerous technologies might fill that role, the Review notes: “In addition to advanced battery possibilities, there are flywheels, compressed air, hydrogen fuel cells, electric-vehicle-to-grid systems, and even energy-storing air conditioners. But all these technologies are likely to require deep, sustained investments to develop them, test whether they are truly viable, and make them cost-competitive. The question is where such investments will come from.”

Or whether it will come at all. “Don’t hold your breath for the things that come after lithium-ion,” said energy entrepreneur Ilan Gur. “We’re much more likely to ride the lithium-ion cost curve for another few decades.”



in Batteries / Storage, Clean Electricity Grid, Community Climate Finance, Research & Development, United States

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Keith Hirsche
Jobs & Training

Ex-Fossil Workers Convert Old Oilfields to Solar Farms After ‘Rapid Upskilling’ in Alberta

June 29, 2022
422
Number 10/flickr
International Agencies & Studies

G7 Miss ‘Golden Opportunity’, Walk Back Pledge to Cut International Fossil Finance

June 29, 2022
152
futureatlas.com/flickr
Legal & Regulatory

Ottawa Demands Deeper Fuel Emissions Cuts, Offers Fossils a Double-Dip on Tax Breaks

June 29, 2022
78

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

François GOGLINS/wikimedia commons

Corrosion Problem Shutters Half of France’s Nuclear Reactors

June 29, 2022
227
Keith Hirsche

Ex-Fossil Workers Convert Old Oilfields to Solar Farms After ‘Rapid Upskilling’ in Alberta

June 29, 2022
422
Danielle Scott/flickr

Advocate Urges Ottawa to Intervene Before Ontario Builds Highway 413

June 29, 2022
130
David/flickr

U.S. Supreme Court Expected to Gut Emission Controls as Climate Scientists Petition for Plan B

June 26, 2022
1.2k
Number 10/flickr

G7 Miss ‘Golden Opportunity’, Walk Back Pledge to Cut International Fossil Finance

June 29, 2022
152
London Eye UK England

London Becomes Biggest City to Sign Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty

June 29, 2022
131

Recent Posts

AJEL / Pixabay

Windfall Tax on Food, Fossil, Pharma Giants Would Raise $490B to Solve ‘Catastrophic’ Food Crisis: Oxfam

June 29, 2022
58
futureatlas.com/flickr

Ottawa Demands Deeper Fuel Emissions Cuts, Offers Fossils a Double-Dip on Tax Breaks

June 29, 2022
78
Province of B.C./flickr

Comox Joins Municipalities Seeking Ban on New Gas Stations

June 29, 2022
78
/Piqsels

Refocus Agriculture Spending to Cut Emissions, Boost Productivity, OECD Urges Governments

June 29, 2022
29
Jimmy Emerson, DVM/flickr

Public Vigilance Key to Protecting Greenbelts for Climate Resilience, Report Finds

June 29, 2022
36
Miguel V/Wikimedia Commons

Forests Fall Short of Full Carbon Storage Potential, Study Finds

June 29, 2022
64
Next Post
Patrick Kelley/Wikimedia Commons

Accelerating Antarctic Melt Drives Ice Loss Above and Below

The Energy Mix

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}