Lithium supply challenges reinforce the hunt for storage alternatives
Europe will need considerable amounts of energy storage to add resilience to the grid as renewable penetration increases and to support a significant increase in the number of electric vehicles on the road. But recent commodity price rises are affecting costs for lithium-ion battery systems, creating opportunities for a raft of novel storage options
Alternative battery technologies are far from being mainstream, but a renewables-heavy grid cannot depend on lithium-based technologies
MATERIAL IMPACT The price of key lithium-ion battery materials has soared due to increased demand and limited supplies
ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES The search is on for energy storage concepts that use cheaper, more abundant elements
KEY QUOTE The outlook for supply tightness is worrying for such an enabling technology for the energy transition ...
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