Lithium is one of the most abundant elements in the universe. It is
also in important part of the small, light, energy-packed
rechargeable batteries that make our portable devices possible. It is also
likely an important part of future batteries that might make longer-running electric cars
and large-scale energy storage possible. Journalist Seth Fletcher
describes the history
of lithium as a battery material, especially in batteries for electric and
hybrid cars, in Bottled Lightning.
Fletcher goes way back to the batteries made by Alessandro
Volta in 1800
and, possibly more important, the first rechargeable batteries made by Gaston Planté in 1859 (a lead acid
battery).
Fletcher treats this older history briefly. Like his readers, he is not
as interested in batteries as in the uses of energy batteries enable. One of
these uses is transportation.
Many early cars were electric vehicles (EVs) that were powered by batteries.
The technology
of the time required large batters to hold relatively modest charges, which
limited the range of the cars. Gasoline held
much more energy than batteries, was widely available and cheap. For most
motorists, gasoline beat batteries hands down.
Of course, priorities and technologies change. The energy crisis of the
1970s, along
with a growing environmental
movement, pressured automakers to develop electric car concepts. The
technology of the time probably wasn’t up to the task for what most drivers
wanted, and in combination with a return of low oil prices and automotive
industry inertia the electric car development of that era came to an end.
Technology rolled on, as it does, and the development of cell phones—and
the portable, networked computers they
have become—put pressure on the battery industry to come up with lighter,
longer lasting, rechargeable batteries. They found the answer in lithium-based
batteries, especially the lithium-ion type that is common today.
When the automakers were again needing to look at alternatives to oil, mostly for fuel
economy and emission control reasons, the new lithium-ion batteries changed the
equation for the effectiveness and affordability of electric and hybrid cars.
It is yet to become cheap, as attested by the price of the high-end electric
cars made by Tesla.
Even cars marketed for the mass market like the Chevy Volt is expensive without
subsidies. (The Volt is technically a plug-in hybrid, but for the majority of
drivers who travel less than forty miles a day it can be all-electric.)
There is a lot of potential for advance batteries becoming the
industrial driver of the future. A growing electric car market will create a
demand for a lot of batteries. The increased uses of renewable energy, and the
eventual retirement of coal-burning and
other fuel-consuming power plants, depends on energy storage to even out the
waxing and waning of energy sources that vary with the cycles of the sun and the whims of
the weather.
The 2009 stimulus
bill put a lot of money into new
battery research and manufacturing, but Asia is still ahead
of the U.S.
in manufacturing
capacity if not in innovation.
If America
wants a piece of this revolution (we’re going to buy a lot of these batteries,
so maybe we should reap some of the benefits of making them), we’ll need to
invest in these industries (as China is) and not
leave to Asian manufacturers to lengthen their lead.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Fletcher, Seth. Bottled
Lightning: Superbatteries, Electric Cards, and the New Lithium Economy. New York: Hill and Wang,
2011.
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