The 94-year-old creator of the lithium-ion battery has invented another breakthrough storage device that’s capturing the attention of industry heavyweights.
“John Goodenough, inventor of the lithium battery, has developed the first all-solid-state battery cells,” said Alphabet Inc.’s Eric Schmidt via Twitter on Tuesday. Goodenough’s claim that his new battery cells have three times as much energy density as today’s lithium-ion batteries is “promising,” according to Google’s chief executive officer.
A new and more powerful generation of batteries may be made entirely from glass, according to the conclusions of Goodenough and his team of researchers published by the U.K. Royal Society of Chemistry. They store and transmit energy at temperatures lower than traditional lithium-ion packs and can be made using globally abundant supplies of sodium.
The research could result in “a safe, low-cost all-solid-state cell with a huge capacity giving a large energy density and a long cycle life suitable for powering an all-electric road vehicle or for storing electric power from wind or solar energy,” the researchers wrote in the peer-reviewed journal Energy & Environmental Science.
Energy storage is seen as the missing link in the world’s transition to a zero-carbon economy. Batteries can fill power gaps from intermittent solar and wind energy. Companies including Tesla Inc. and Volkswagen AG have set their sights on lithium-ion to usher in a new generation of plug-in vehicles.
The research conducted by Goodenough and his team, who worked from the University of Texas at Austin as well as at the University of Porto in Portugal, was driven by the “urgent” need to reduce fossil fuel consumption and combat climate change.
