Batteries

For decades, inefficient batteries prevented a large-scale shift to renewable energy sources like solar and wind, because they couldn’t store enough energy to tide us over when the sun wasn’t shining or the wind wasn’t blowing.

But that’s all changed. Lithium battery technology has evolved to the point where we could feasibly – with progressive leadership – abandon fossil fuels within the next few decades.

Hydrogen storage is another technology that could emerge as a viable alternative to lithium batteries before long, futher fueling the renewable revolution.

David is joined by Professor Jacques Eksteen from the Future Battery Industries Cooperative Research Centre and Dr Terry Humphries, a Curtin research fellow and chemist with a particular interest in hydrogen storage.

• The battery boom is good news for the planet and good news for Western Australia (1.11)
• What are the environmental impacts of mining materials for batteries? (7.00)
• What are hydrogen fuel cells and what benefits do they offer? (11.50)
• Hydrogen is commonly produced using fossil fuels. Does this present a problem? (13.50)
• Given their foothold in the economy, it may be hard to move away from fossil fuels (22.30)
• There's an Aussie startup with a zinc bromine battery. Could that be another player? (27.30)
• Tesla Cybertruck, yes or no? (33.30)

Learn more 

• Future Battery Industries CRC
• Realising the hydrogen economy
• Lithium Valley WA

Got any questions or suggestions for future topics?

Email [email protected].

Curtin University supports academic freedom of speech. The views expressed in The Future Of podcast may not reflect those of the university.

Music: OKAY by 13ounce Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0 Music promoted by Audio Library

You can read the full transcript of the episode here.