Researchers at RMI show six solutions to “charge” our future — We’ve all read claims that switching to electric vehicles (EVs) and battery storage will devastate the environment with endless mining for toxic battery minerals – not so fast! Researchers at RMI’s Battery Circularity Initiative have identified several interconnected solutions, inspired by a 2022 paper by RMI’s founder, Amory Lovins.
The first is to improve batteries ability to store more energy per weight and volume, analogous to a long distance runner who eats high calorie ‘power’ bars instead of a dozen sandwiches.
Also on the technology front, batteries are constantly tweaked and redesigned to last ever longer to the point where an EV would become obsolete before its battery gives out. Both of these strategies are already happening, with steady improvements around six percent between generations, but breakthrough discoveries able to double previous results are bound to happen as well.
Which leads to point number three: systematic battery recycling. Big players like Redwood Materials in Nevada as well as hundreds of startups are heavily invested in ‘mining’ crushed old batteries to extract their valuable mineral contents, and to improve the recovery rate. There is money to be made: A car battery with only 70% capacity is no longer great for driving but automaker Nissan reassembles the many remaining functional modules into fully functional power packs – profitably!
Fourth, perfecting and diversifying battery chemistries has become industry’s Holy Grail in an R&D race fueled by governments globally and sustained by billions and billions of investor capital. If the history of technology is any guide it is only a question of time until the next mass produced winning designs will revolutionize energy use and transportation.
What distinguishes RMI’s approach is they are looking beyond the technology and supply side of the equation. As Amory Lovins writes, a fifth solution hides in plain sight where “reductions in mass, aerodynamic drag, and rolling resistance—improvements in the physics of the vehicle rather than the efficiency of its electric powertrain—can cut required battery capacity for the same driving range.”
Which leads to a final sixth’ point about improving the efficiency of mobility overall. For example, virtual mobility nixes the need for many in-person business meetings, remote work does away with expensive commuting, and urban design geared at walkable cities and well thought out public policy reduces the need to waste so much of our precious time, nerves, and money sitting in traffic.
For a deeper dive into the subject watch this recent presentation for the Colorado Renewable Energy Society by RMI researchers Sudeshna Mohanty and Will Atkinson: https://youtu.be/rjWUZrAXPuE
Or read up on the Battery Circularity Initiative here: rmi.org/battery-circular-
Martin Voelker is a former 350Colorado board member and organizes the Jeffco chapter of the Colorado Renewable Energy Society.