Beyond Lithium: Exploring Non-Lithium Energy Storage Technologies
Over the past decade, energy storage has rapidly evolved from a smattering of demonstration projects to gigawatts of annual deployments across the country. The vast majority of these installations have been lithium-ion batteries. While industry experts see a continued role for lithium-ion, other types of energy storage are becoming increasingly competitive, particularly for longer-duration applications where lithium-ion batteries are less economical.
Clean Energy Group is raising awareness of different types of energy storage technologies that are beginning to expand the grid’s capabilities beyond today’s lithium-ion batteries and exploring the barriers these technologies are facing in achieving broad commercialization and widespread deployment.
Leading non-lithium energy storage technologies address one or more of the following challenges:
- Safety: While lithium-ion batteries have established a good safety record, they can experience thermal runaway, where overheating battery cells trigger fires that are difficult to extinguish. This has resulted in safety concern and opposition in some communities where large lithium-ion projects have been proposed. Many non-lithium storage technologies are largely composed of nontoxic, nonflammable materials that do not pose a significant safety risk.
- Materials: Lithium-ion batteries rely on materials that are primarily sourced from a few limited regions, are dependent on overseeas processing and supply chains, and come with significant environmental impacts. Many non-lithium technologies are based on abundant materials, such as sodium and iron, that can be sourced domestically and are much less prone to price volatility and geopolitical disruption.
- Duration: Lithium-ion battery systems get prohibitively expensive for longer duration installations, with most analysts estimating that 8 to 12 hours may represent the upper economic limit for lithium-ion batteries given current cost trends. Many non-lithium technologies are specifically designed with low-cost materials that are relatively inexpensive to scale for long-duration applications, ranging from 8 hours to multiple days.