Battery breakthrough could supercharge renewable energy transition

‘I wanted to invent something that was better, much better, than lithium-ion batteries,’ says lead researcher

Researchers have invented a new type of battery that is six times cheaper than conventional lithium-ion batteries, which they say could massively speed up the transition to renewable energy sources.

Lithium-ion batteries are currently used in everything from smartphones to electric cars, however the cost of producing them makes them unsuitable for large-scale backup systems for wind and solar power installations.

With a growing need for such systems to store and provide power when the sun is not shining or the wind is not blowing, an international team of researchers set about creating a low-cost battery made from inexpensive and abundant materials.

“I wanted to invent something that was better, much better, than lithium-ion batteries for small-scale stationary storage, and ultimately for automotive [uses],” said Donald Sadoway, a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), who led the research.

Together with scientists from institutions in Canada, China and across the US, Professor Sadoway set about trying to make a suitable battery made of alluminium, the second most abundant material on the marketplace, and sulfur, the cheapest of all the non-metals.

Using those two materials as electrodes, the researchers used a molten salt electrolyte that was easy to produce and has a low melting point to avoid overheating.

“The ingredients are cheap, and the thing is safe – it cannot burn,” Professor Sadoway said.

Small-scale versions of the battery could be used at electric vehicle charging stations, storing power and releasing it quickly when needed rather than installing expensive new power lines to serve the chargers.

A new startup called Avanti has already been set up in order to commercialise the technology. “The first order of business for the company is to demonstrate that it works at scale,” Professor Adoway said.

The research was detailed in a study, titled ‘Fast-charging alluminium-chalcogen batteries resistent to dendritic shorting’, published in the scientific journal Nature on Wednesday.

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