Batteries—we’ve long used them to bring power to devices, to improve our lives, to give “life” to inanimate objects. But in recent years, the scientific community, the electricity industry, and automotive manufacturers and regulators have viewed batteries as much more than a way to shine light from a handheld tube or play music from a box. They’ve envisioned batteries—in particular, lithium-ion batteries, redox, redox flow batteries, and other chemistries—as a way to store energy on a large scale to help keep the grid power flowing. And they imagine a world where more electric vehicles powered by these batteries traverse the nation’s highways versus vehicles powered by costly, less environmentally clean gasoline.

But in many cases, improvement is needed. That’s because batteries are still expensive for many applications, and their performance—including safety and reliability—need to be better.

Looking at lithium-ion and beyond, PNNL is advancing the field of batteries for energy storage. By combining data analytics with materials discovery and synthesis, characterization, prototyping, and testing and validation, our scientists are accelerating the next generation of energy storage materials. 

Our research team is developing energy storage technologies that integrate renewable energy into the grid, overcoming cost and storage capacity barriers that currently stand in the way of widespread deployment. Multi-institutional collaborations, such as the Battery500 consortium, are leading to improved electric vehicle batteries by more than doubling the energy of the lithium batteries used in these vehicles. Participation in the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research is bringing breakthroughs in fundamental understanding for new electrode and electrolyte materials. And microscopy capabilities housed in the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory allow researchers to observe what is actually happening inside the battery.