Beyond Lithium: New Battery Technologies Break Through

The global demand for batteries has grown more than fortyfold since 2010. This massive surge is driven primarily by the electric vehicle (EV) market. By 2025, sales of EVs reached 20 million units. This figure accounted for approximately one-quarter of all cars sold worldwide. In addition to transportation, shipping containers filled with batteries are now used to store electricity. These batteries store power generated by renewable sources like solar energy. During the five years leading up to 2025, storage capacity for solar farms increased twentyfold.

This huge growth has sparked a frenzy in research and development. "In the past five years, innovation went very, very fast," says Teo Lombardo. He is a former battery chemist and an analyst for the International Energy Agency. "In 2024, over 40 percent of energy-related patents were on batteries. That’s never happened before. That tells you how quickly the market is evolving, and how much interest there is."

Lithium-ion batteries remain the gold standard for lightweight, high-powered energy storage. They power laptops, smartphones, drones, power tools, and electric cars. However, two new technologies are challenging lithium-ion’s dominance from opposite ends of the cost spectrum. Sodium batteries are cheaper but bulkier. They promise to run budget electric vehicles and help power the electrical grid. Conversely, solid-state batteries are expensive but powerful. They offer long driving ranges for luxury electric vehicles. Meanwhile, scientists test many other battery chemistries in laboratories. They hope new winners will emerge to power the future.

The battery market is becoming so large that it is no longer a case of one technology replacing another. As Lombardo explains, the focus is on specializing to serve different parts of the market.

Creating a simple battery is easy. A child can make one using a lemon, a galvanized nail, a copper penny, and a few wires. Chemical reactions between the electrodes—the cathode and the anode—interact with the lemon juice electrolyte. This process drives electrons through the wires to light a bulb.