How salt and sand could replace lithium batteries

The lithium-ion battery has powered us for decades. But for a renewable future, we need a new solution—and fast. So what are our options?

CORRECTION: In the video, at 05:40, we say lithium-ion batteries can only store energy for under four hours. This is incorrect. Four hours is the discharge duration that is currently economically viable.

Reporter: Beina Xu
Video Editor: Tomas Rosenberg
Supervising Editor: Joanna Gottschalk

We're destroying our environment at an alarming rate. But it doesn't need to be this way. Our new channel Planet A explores the shift towards an eco-friendly world — and challenges our ideas about what dealing with climate change means. We look at the big and the small: What we can do and how the system needs to change. Every Friday we'll take a truly global look at how to get us out of this mess.

#PlanetA #Lithium #Battery

Read more:

The future of energy storage: https://energy.mit.edu/wp-content/upl...

Projections of energy storage technology: https://www.nrel.gov/analysis/storage...

Power storage technology, using sand and engineered materials: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science...

IEA Electricity Market Report: https://www.iea.org/reports/electrici...

IEA Energy Storage Report: https://www.iea.org/reports/energy-st...

Costs and markets to 2030: https://www.irena.org/publications/20...

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:49 The lithium-ion battery
02:33 Hydro
03:46 Sodium-ion
05:00 Thermal heat
07:11 The future