Lithium battery energy storage product image

What are lithium-ion batteries used for?

Not only are lithium-ion batteries widely used for consumer electronics and electric vehicles, but they also account for over 80% of the more than 190 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of battery energy storage deployed globally through 2023.

What is a lithium-ion battery and how does it work?

The lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery is the predominant commercial form of rechargeable battery, widely used in portable electronics and electrified transportation.

Where is the world's largest lithium-ion battery located?

Less than two years ago, Tesla built and installed the world’s largest lithium-ion battery in Hornsdale, South Australia, using Tesla Powerpack batteries. Since then, the facility saved nearly $40 million in its first year alone and helped to stabilize and balance the region’s unreliable grid.

Why is lithium ion a good battery?

The lithium ions are small enough to be able to move through a micro-permeable separator between the anode and cathode. In part because of lithium’s small atomic weight and radius (third only to hydrogen and helium), Li-ion batteries are capable of having a very high voltage and charge storage per unit mass and unit volume.

What materials are used in lithium ion batteries?

Li-ion batteries can use a number of different materials as electrodes. The most common combination is that of lithium cobalt oxide (cathode) and graphite (anode), which is used in commercial portable electronic devices such as cellphones and laptops.

How much does energy storage cost?

Second, large-scale, long-duration energy storage requires extremely low costs — significantly less than $100/kWh, or more than twice as cheap today’s state-of-the-art battery technologies — and more than 20 years of reliable service life.