The Squeeze: We need more batteries and less gas

The energy crisis is raging, can batteries save us?

Lithium-ion batteries are improving rapidly. The cost of the batteries, measured in dollars per kWh, has fallen by a factor of 42 since 1991. To put it another way, they have got 97 per cent cheaper. In the same period, the energy density of batteries has more than tripled. Meanwhile, natural gas’s energy density is exactly the same while prices are skyrocketing. One way of storing energy is improving exponentially and the other is not.

The biggest factor in battery improvement was investment in research and development (R&D). According to a research paper by MIT’s Micah Zeigler, up to 50 per cent of the cost reduction was due to private and government investment in chemistry and materials research. The second-biggest factor was scaling. As battery production increased, driven by demand from handheld electronics and the automotive industry, companies got better at making them cheaper. In other words: economies of scale.

https://www.investorschronicle.co.uk/education/2022/09/08/the-squeeze-we-need-more-batteries-and-less-gas/