How to Build a Sustainable Grid

Solar Power and Saltwater Batteries

Abstract

Humanity worldwide is already dramatically impacted by the climate crisis, which will only worsen and further threaten civilization unless drastic changes are made to the foundations of human society. Primarily, our global energy system needs to be reconstructed in order to prevent the most dire calamities from a climate changed world. Specifically, the pairing of saltwater batteries and renewable energy sources, such as solar energy, offers an exceedingly promising future. Since the surge in popularity of batteries in the 1970’s, lithium-ion batteries have been the most common batteries used in every appliance that requires stored energy. Unfortunately, lithium-ion battery use is unsustainable, as these batteries contain toxic and environmentally harmful substances that are becoming increasingly less abundant as battery demand increases. A more sustainable alternative solution lies in the potential of sodium-ion batteries (a.k.a saltwater batteries) whose chemistry is similar to lithium-ion batteries, but use sodium rather than lithium as the electrolyte. Although efforts are being made to improve the efficiency of saltwater batteries, specifically by increasing their energy density, sodium-ion batteries have several additional benefits including their eco-friendliness, the planet’s relative abundance of sodium vs. lithium, the ethical supply of materials, zero known health and safety risks, and overall long-term economic efficiency.