The next gasoline
The world has long ignored the resource constraints of lithium-ion batteries. After all, couldn’t we develop some other chemistry to use other resources if we had to?
Well, because lithium-ion batteries have been optimized for several decades (and now dominates the US battery market, with 96% market share), it’s actually pretty tough for any new chemistry to compete. And the “breakthrough battery chemistry” that excites technophiles won’t happen overnight — we’ll see it coming, and it’ll slowly take over lithium-ion batteries as scale brings the cost down.
That’s why it’s so important to focus on the constraints of lithium-ion batteries now — because we’re going to rely on it for a while.
History repeats itself. We’re all aware of the ethical issues that plagued the oil and gas industry. I’m afraid that we may soon see similar issues mirrored in the battery industry.
The Next Gasoline
Lithium-ion batteries were invented in 1970 by John Goodenough and were introduced commercially in 1991 by Sony. On the basis of energy density alone, you can’t get much better than lithium — Li is the lightest of all the metals and has the lowest reduction potential. Thus, they’ve dominated portable electronics for decades. But when…
