Today, battery power per kilowatt hour costs around only ten percent of what it did a decade ago. And the expectation is that the costs will continue to fall, because battery chemistry improves and manufacturing lots of batteries on a massive scale makes the production of individual batteries cheaper.
You can be forgiven for thinking that this might only be of interest to accountants, but the possible effects of this are enormous, and will benefit all of us. First and most obviously, it has made the batteries in electric cars cheaper and longer-lasting. And brilliantly, because electric batteries are improving so dramatically, we can already see the results. Last September, 15 percent of all new vehicle registrations were pure electric vehicles. So the change is starting to happen.
Better batteries does not just mean better cars however. They can also help us decarbonise the entire national grid (输电网). Storing energy has always been a problem for the grid. Today, only a tiny amount of generated electricity is stored for later use, which leads to lots of power going to waste. But better batteries make it technologically and economically viable to store large amounts of energy from the grid.
It's possible that in the not-too-distant future, we might have an enormous battery in the garage. It would take power from the grid (or maybe even solar panels on the roof), and power appliances and lights in our homes at the times when demand for electricity is high. Home batteries are not yet as established as electric cars, but-they are also growing in popularity.
So, given that how much technology has improved batteries over the last decade, I can't help but be strangely optimistic about the future. Batteries may not be as flashy (华丽的) as phones, rockets or other new technologies. But when it comes to technology to fight climate change, they're definitely leading the charge.
