Batteries have been of immerse important to the growth of technology even though it is dated back as 2000 years ago when it was first invented. Batteries has helped several technological innovation become a success, like the phones, laptops, cameras, cars, and many more. Although batteries are believed to have been existing for thousands of years but it wasn’t until the zinc-copper battery was invented in the 1800s by Alessandro Volta which was called the voltaic pile. Ever since the battery was invented, improvements have been going on to make them better but there have been certain setbacks to batteries which includes the size, cost and the amount of storage that could be kept without losing it.
A lot of progress has been done on batteries over the years to improve the storage capacity as well as reduce prices of batteries but it hasn’t gotten to a very reasonable state and the inability to have a battery that is cheap, small and able to hold enough energy in its storage without losing them has caused serious downtimes in innovations as several innovations requires certain types of batteries to work to its fullest. For example, using solar panels to harness the sun’s energy isn’t enough if there are no batteries to store large amount of energy for periods when it is needed, this same thing applies to other renewable sources, one of their biggest problem is battery storage and in other to store a reasonable amount of energy, large number of batteries are arranged which are often not enough to satisfy the needs for electricity. Also, due to low storage capacity of batteries, a lot of batteries are needed to power certain type of objects and this also is now a concern.
A lot of companies are working towards solving battery problems as the world is trying to move away from fossil fuel to renewable energy. Tesla’s innovations are built around the efficiency of batteries and that is why tesla is trying its best to improve on batteries. Also, a company called Ambri which has the support of Bill Gates is also working on producing cheap, long-lasting batteries.
We know that at present, Li-ion batteries are the common batteries and still holding a place in storage. The Lithium-ion battery ha Lithium ions stored in graphite layers inside the battery cell, and companies are trying to get Lithium batteries to store more energy and a company called SILA is using silicon anode instead of carbon. Also companies have been working on using Aluminum ion battery to store energy instead of Lithium ion to overcome the explosive nature of Lithium ion batteries.
Will batteries be able to store enough energy, will lithium ion batteries be able store large energy and will tech companies be able to find a better way to create batteries that are cheaper, long-lasting and recyclable?