Batteries! They’re not the sole solution to the climate and energy crisis, but they’re certainly going to play a large role. Along with pumped hydro, they’re likely to provide much of the energy storage needed to firm renewables in the next decade. And they’re constantly getting cheaper and more effective.
It seems there’s a new type of battery getting announced nearly every week – in the past 12 months, Cosmos has covered quantum batteries, paper batteries, cellulose batteries and graphene batteries .
So it’s a good time to go back to basics: how do batteries work, and what role do they play in the grid?
How do batteries work?
The short answer is that batteries perform a chemical reaction which releases energy. The energy is released in the form of electricity, and connecting a battery to a circuit allows the…