
Clean Energy When You Need It
Storage has presented a major hurdle in the transition to renewable energy. Find out about efforts to improve leading battery technologies and to develop new approaches.
By Lauren Marbella and Yuan Yang
Most sources of renewable energy share a fundamental challenge: variability. Wind and solar are cheap and abundant — but only when (and where) the wind blows or the sun shines.
For our research teams and the larger research community, this basic fact motivates our urgent efforts to improve existing battery technology while simultaneously developing new designs and manufacturing techniques for safe, inexpensive, and long-lasting energy storage.

We are reimagining current battery technologies and developing new approaches. Along with our colleagues at the Columbia Electrochemical Energy Center (CEEC), we are developing new innovations to improve everything from the atomic structure of electrolytes to the architectures of battery cells and packs to the management of grid-scale storage.
Lithium dominates today's battery industry
Lithium’s chemical properties make it an ideal component for batteries. Over the past few decades, lithium batteries have gained an additional advantage: economies of scale. Since the rise of lithium-ion batteries 30 years ago, manufacturing techniques have continuously improved, causing the cost of these batteries to drop by 90% since 2010. Today, lithium-ion batteries dominate the market, powering nearly all smartphones and electric vehicles (EVs) and most grid-level energy storage facilities.

However, there are limitations. As more lithium-ion batteries have entered the market, there have been more instances of battery-related fires. In the first eight months of 2024, lithium-ion batteries caused over 170 fires in New York City alone, resulting in three deaths. The supply chain for materials and batteries presents another challenge. Lithium sources — along with other raw inputs, such as cobalt — are concentrated in a few regions, making the global battery industry vulnerable to geopolitical tensions.
One set of solutions (discussed below) is to move away from lithium entirely. As we develop these options, we should also be improving the design of this established technology.
To make lithium batteries safer, we must come up with innovative ways to visualize what is going on inside the batteries during degradation, prior to them becoming potential hazards.
For instance, one of our (Marbella’s) labs is developing new imaging techniques that remove hurdles that have prevented us from using lithium metal (rather than graphite) for the anode in lithium batteries.
The technique, called nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, makes it possible to measure both how quickly lithium ions are moving and determine the exact chemical and physical structure of the problem-causing defects. Once these structural changes come into focus, researchers can design lithium metal batteries that meet the performance metrics required for commercializing these higher energy-density batteries.
Batteries beyond lithium
In parallel with work to improve lithium batteries, researchers across the world are developing designs for batteries with other chemistries.
One of the most promising alternatives is sodium-ion batteries. Sodium is far more abundant than lithium, and it’s found in deposits spread across the world. While sodium-ion batteries generally weigh more, they are cheaper and less prone to catching fire, making them especially attractive for grid applications. Zinc-based chemistries share many of these advantages.

Sodium-sulfur batteries are capable of storing large amounts of energy for extended periods of time. These relatively inexpensive batteries are appealing for grid storage but with a catch — they operate at dangerously high temperatures. One of our labs (Yang’s) is developing electrolytes that operate safely enough for widescale commercialization.
The future of battery innovation
The global effort to turn away from fossil fuels and electrify the energy system depends on continual advancement in battery designs and manufacturing processes. Fortunately, many such advancements are coming down the pike.
For example, several research groups and companies are racing to develop processes to transition from wet processing to dry coatings, potentially cutting 50% of the energy required in the entire battery manufacturing process. Other researchers are working to answer the question of why lithium batteries catch fire so easily — and how it could be prevented entirely.
Our work at CEEC is paving the way for a future where energy storage is safer, cheaper, and more efficient. In addition to bringing Columbia Engineering researchers together with experts from across the world, CEEC’s industry partnerships enable the realization of breakthroughs in electrochemical energy storage and conversion.
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![]() Lauren Marbella | Image
![]() Yuan Yang |