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A breakthrough that could propel electric cars to the mass market—that’s the buzz about a recent study out of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Here’s the gist of the research, published in the journal Nature: Scientists Byoungwoo Kang and Gerbrand Ceder tweaked the surface structure of lithium ion phosphate, a material commonly used to make batteries. The tweak allows the material to conduct electricity very quickly and handle repeated charges without degrading, making it possible to have smaller, lighter, quick-charging batteries.
While this breakthrough might seem like the missing piece of the electric car puzzle, it’s far from it, according to Giorgio Rizzoni, director of the Center for Automotive Research at Ohio State University. “There’s all this excitement, as though the problem has been solved,” Rizzoni says. “It hasn’t.” Rather, like other energy-storage breakthroughs that have emerged over the past several years, he says, it’s one more small step toward electrification of the U.S. auto fleet.
Stealthy ultracapacitor startup EEStor, controversial for its bold claims and scanty evidence, has bigger dreams than being an also-ran with batteries. The company says it has developed something of a battery-ultracapacitor hybrid device that can store 10 times the power with one-tenth the weight and volume, at half the cost of lead-acid batteries. If EEStor delivers, it would, in short, turn mobile energy on its head. But Ceder and Kang’s breakthrough, already licensed to two companies and much less of a moonshot (lithium iron phosphate is widely used—it’s the processing technique that’s different), could give EEStor new competition.
Advances in energy storage hold potential not only for electric and plug-in hybrid cars, but also for smart grid projects and utility-scale wind and solar power, in part through holding energy for times when sunshine and wind are absent. But in itself, the battery breakthrough of the month won’t change your life—not the car you drive, the source of electricity for your town, or the way you use energy in your home.
