Batteries, it sometimes seems, are the talk of the town. There’s been a huge surge in interest, recently, around batteries — much of it fueled by their pivotal role in the green energy transition. In particular, two areas are driving today’s battery boom.
First, Electric Vehicles (EVs).
Batteries are at the heart of the EV shift. They’ve quickly become the costliest component of an EV — historically as much as 30-50% of the car’s cost. Thanks to improving technology and scale, battery costs are falling. Average EV battery pack prices dipped below $100 per kWh recently, in fact. Nevertheless, they remain a major factor in vehicle pricing. And so, as EV sales skyrocket, battery demand is booming.
Second, grid-level storage.
Solar panels only generate power when the sun shines, and wind turbines only when it’s windy. If you want to keep the lights on 24/7 with renewable energy, you need to store excess power and use it later. That’s where grid-scale battery installations (often called Battery Energy Storage Systems, BESS) come in.
Batteries aren’t new, of course.
They’ve been used for decades, running everything from your inverter to your mobile phone. But these segments, while important, are growing relatively slowly. EVs and large-scale renewable storage, on the other hand, are experiencing exponential growth, driving demand at a scale that we’ve never seen.
We are no energy experts, but there’s one thing we can say confidently: there’s no energy transition without batteries. That means continued carbon emissions, rising temperatures, heat waves, and melting glaciers.
Basically, batteries are important.
So we decided to read up on them and share what we learnt. This in no way is a “one big read on everything battery” — we’re frankly just starting to learn about them — but it’s definitely what every beginner should read to get up to speed on battery basics, use cases, and why they matter. But do note that this isn’t the final word.
Battery Basics: Types and Terminology
Battery types differ by chemistry — and over time, we’ve seen battery chemistries evolve. Here are the big ones:
- Lead-Acid Batteries: Cheap and reliable for starter batteries in cars and UPS systems, but too heavy and limited for modern uses like long-range EVs.
- Nickel-based Batteries: Once popular in electronics and early hybrids (Toyota Prius), they’re more energy-dense than lead-acid. But now, they’ve mostly been replaced by lithium-ion batteries.
- Lithium-Ion Batteries (Li-ion): The gold standard for portable electronics and EVs. Commercialized in the 1990s, they’re lighter and more energy-dense than lead-acid or nickel batteries. Li-ion batteries come in multiple chemistries—the most common are NMC and LFP.
No battery type excels at everything. Most come with some sort of trade off. Higher performance usually means higher cost or shorter lifespan. You’re likely to use different battery types for different needs.
On top of this, batteries are tailored to their purpose. Even if a Tesla car and home solar system battery are both made of lithium-ion, they’ll probably differ considerably in chemistry and design.
Battery Value Chain: Who Does What and Where?
What does it take to make a battery? And who are the major players at each step?
Batteries have a huge value chain, with many stages that are spread across the world. These span from mining raw materials to assembling battery packs. Here’s a simplified walkthrough:
- Raw Material Mining: Modern batteries rely on certain key minerals: Lithium, Cobalt, Nickel, Manganese, and Graphite. These resources are not evenly distributed around the world, of course, which leads to geographic concentrations:
- Lithium is often called the “white gold” of batteries. The largest producer is Australia, which alone provides over half of the world’s lithium. Then comes the “Lithium Triangle” in South America. Recently, there was excitement about a large lithium deposit found in Jammu & Kashmir, India – but it’s still early days for that find.
You’ve probably seen China’s name all over this list. That, to us, can be a problem. Let’s talk specifically about India in this context — both because that’s the country we care the most about, and because it illustrates the challenges of trying to secure one’s place in the battery race.
Conclusion: A Starting Point, Not the Final Word
We’ve covered a broad range of battery basics – from where batteries are used (and why everyone’s talking about them now) to how different chemistries stack up to the global supply chain and India’s ambitions. By now, you should have a solid 101-level grasp of why batteries are often called the “linchpin” of a clean energy future and how this is as much a story of markets and geopolitics as it is of technology.
However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. There’s a lot that we are yet to understand ourselves. For instance, next-generation technologies like solid-state batteries could shake up the industry. Charging infrastructure is another crucial piece of the puzzle for EV adoption. Then there’s the question of recycling and second-life use.
