Carbon-oxygen batteries for long-term energy storage

The new type of battery requires minimal climate-intensive metal mining

Spotted: The International Energy Agency forecasts that wind and solar capacity will overtake coal in 2024. While these variable renewable energy sources are already the lowest-cost power sources by some measures, their intermittent nature requires advances in storage technology in order to be scaled up.

Noon Energy is hoping to plug this gap with a battery that stores energy in carbon and oxygen instead of metals. The batteries would almost eliminate the need for metals such as lithium and cobalt, whose mining creates serious environmental issues such as air and water pollution.

The batteries developed by Noon store energy by splitting CO2 into solid carbon and oxygen, in a process similar to photosynthesis. The resulting batteries have extremely high density, allowing them to provide over 100 hours of energy. They’re also three times smaller than existing lithium-ion cells and can be produced at one-tenth of the cost.

Battery technology is the key to the future of renewable energy. As a result, Springwise has spotted a wide number of innovations in the area of green battery technology. These include using microbes for greener lithium extraction and a battery design that’s free from nickel, graphite, manganese, and cobalt.

Written By: Lisa Magloff