We Have Half The Technology We Need To Decarbonize, Scientist Says

The United States has half of the technology needed to declutter the energy and transportation sectors by 2050, according to a senior scientist at Argonne National Laboratory.

"We have about half of the commercial technology needed to decarbonise," said George Crabtree, president of the National New Generation Automotive and Grid Batteries Laboratory.

When it comes to the grid , "we have solar panels, wind turbines, batteries in the form of lithium-ion batteries, and we can use all of that to clean up the grid," he said.

But we don't have commercial technology for the other half, which is long-term network storage. So there are many cloudy or windless days, even 10 consecutive days in a date. A lithium-ion battery can be fully discharged in four hours. So we are far from achieving this goal. We need a new generation."

A passing cloud could reduce solar generation by 70 percent, Crabtree said.

“This is what you have to pay for and you have to do right away. A lithium-ion battery is ideal for this.

But when the cloud doesn't pass — when it hangs overhead for days — the lithium-ion batteries, which run out in four hours, can't make up for the loss.

"When it comes to holding on for longer, even 10 days in a row, we're running into problems," Crabtree said at the recent Argonne Outloud conference. "And that's where we need a next-generation battery, which, by the way, should be much cheaper than a lithium-ion battery, because it's not used as often."

crab tree Be in control The Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR) has been based in Argonne since 2012. The battery it developed has met its ten-day target, and although it hasn't reached that far, it has been delayed for commercialization.

In terms of transportation , he said, "We have electric cars, that is, passenger cars, also known as light trucks." In terms of cars, we can handle passenger cars, light haulage, but not rail, truck, sea or air haulage. So these things usually require two to three times more power than a battery.

Passenger cars emit about 50 percent of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, Crabtree says, and lithium-ion can handle that.

"So the other 50 percent are long-haul, rail, sea and air travel" and those uses are more challenging. Larger and heavier vehicles require batteries with a much higher energy density.

The first step is likely to be a solid-state version of a lithium-ion battery.

“If we get a solid state lithium-ion battery, which we will probably do in the next five years — I can be a bit optimistic — it will increase the energy density of light vehicles. This includes things like delivery trucks and, in some cases, even city buses that need a ratio power to a little higher weight.But then it is very difficult to electrify all the heavy equipment.

And this increase must happen quickly if the United States and other countries are to reach goal zero by 2050.

“Setting a timeline, 2050, decarbonization by 2050, makes it more urgent,” said Crabtree.

More from Forbes The new conventional battery provides four days of run time Jeff McMahon

Scientific Certainty and Uncertainty in the Future of Our Climate – Stephen Koonen and David Romps