The Electrical Disappointment

Dear Impossible Readers,

I once met someone who told me how excited everyone was when the public internet launched. In those early years, they sometimes tried to find “explicit” online images, which took ages to load. He told me he was very disappointed in the early internet days because he thought the internet would be how we know it is today.

That is exactly how I feel about batteries. Electricity has always been here. The ancient Greeks observed static electricity as early as 600 BCE. We have been putting it into practice for about 200 years, including the first battery built by Alessandro Volta. The modern “gold standard” lithium-ion battery, which powers pretty much everything, is only about 30 years old. Yes, the technological cul-de-sac. We are continuously improving the battery, but end up with the same lithium battery that is just marginally better than the .1 version before that one (or for the serious among us, the incremental updates). Now, we find ourselves in the lithium quicksand of material scarcity and recycling challenges.

In thirty years, we have built AI, the bride of Internet Frankenstein. So, where is the bride of our Lithium Battery?

There are many intriguing ways to store and generate energy beyond lithium batteries. Mechanical solutions like flywheels store energy by spinning masses, while pumped hydro or gravity-based systems lift water or heavy blocks to release energy later. Thermal methods capture and release heat, whether through molten salts, phase-change materials, or thermoelectric devices that convert waste heat directly into electricity. Chemical approaches such as hydrogen fuel cells, ammonia, and flow batteries store energy in liquid chemicals that can be tapped on demand. Electromagnetic solutions include supercapacitors for quick bursts of power, piezoelectric and triboelectric devices that harvest energy from motion or vibrations, and even systems that capture ambient energy from radio waves. On the biological side, microbial fuel cells generate electricity from bacteria, and artificial photosynthesis mimics plants to turn sunlight into fuel. Together, these technologies suggest a future where energy storage is far more diverse, resilient, and innovative than the lithium-ion battery alone.

Currently, many alternative technologies face efficiency limits, high costs, or scaling challenges. Materials for some systems are still scarce, and integrating new storage methods into existing grids is not exactly trivial. Yet, with innovation, investment, and a bit of creativity, I hope we can overcome these electrifying challenges. So, who will Lithium Battery propose to?

Guilty as charged,
Yours Possibly