The conflict in Iran is a reminder of how quickly global energy markets can be disrupted. It also underscores why advances in things like battery technology — from electric transportation to grid-scale storage — are becoming central to energy resilience and security.

It has been about 50 years since British chemist Stanley Whittingham laid the foundation for the first lithium-ion battery at an Exxon research lab in New Jersey. In 2019, he and two other scientists, John Goodenough and Akira Yoshino, earned a Nobel Prize for the breakthrough. By then, lithium-ion batteries had transformed consumer electronics and a growing segment of the transportation sector. And today, battery storage is playing an increasing role in supplying new capacity to the eclectic power sector.

So what is the state of battery innovation today? Are there battery chemistries that could dethrone lithium-ion technology? How do mineral availability and environmental health play into the battery market? And what does the federal government's waning support for renewable energy mean for the battery industry?  

Today on the show, Bill Loveless speaks with Dan Steingart about the arc of innovation in the battery space, and how different energy storage applications are evolving.

Dan is the Stanley-Thompson Professor of Chemical Metallurgy and a professor of chemical engineering at Columbia University. He also chairs the Department of Earth and Environmental Engineering and co-directs the Columbia Electrochemical Energy Center. Prior to joining Columbia in 2019, Dan was an associate professor at Princeton University.

Credits: Hosted by Jason Bordoff and Bill Loveless. Produced by Mary Catherine O'Connor, Caroline Pitman, Alice Manos, and Kyu Lee. Engineering by Gregory Vilfranc.