Technology Comparison: Which Battery Matches Which Application?
Whether particularly small, light, fast-charging, powerful or long-lasting: the requirements for batteries vary depending on the area of use. There is no one cell for all applications, but there is a special cell for every application. But which energy storage system is suitable for which use and which technologies complement the lithium-ion batteries that dominate the market? Which innovative systems reduce geopolitical dependencies and the consumption of critical raw materials? Dr Gerhard Hörpel, consultant at GBH Energy GmbH, and Dr Christoph Neef, scientist and project manager at the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI, explored these questions at the MEET Academy Online on May 15, 2025.
Alternative Cell Chemistries Increase the Sustainability of Batteries
In his lecture “Performance, Lifetime, Charging Cycles: Which Battery Delivers What It Promises?”, Dr Gerhard Hörpel presented the criteria for the right choice of energy storage systems - and the problems they entail. He also shed light on the question of how the sun's energy can be used and stored more effectively. “One promising option is bidirectional charging, in which the electricity generated by a private PV system, for example, is first stored in the battery of an electric car and then fed back into the domestic or public power grid as required,” explained Hörpel. This technology, known as “vehicle-to-home” or “vehicle-to-grid”, helps to reduce costs and increases the proportion of self-consumption and the degree of self-sufficiency of private households. “The ageing effects of the cells are negligible compared to the cost savings,” Hörpel estimates.
Dr Christoph Neef's presentation focused on sustainable battery chemistries for mobile and stationary applications beyond lithium. In addition to ecological reasons, strong price fluctuations in critical raw materials such as lithium or cobalt and their availability also speak for the development of alternative cell systems. “Sodium-ion systems, for example, are promising and their performance approaches that of lithium ion batteries, even if the energy density is currently still lower,” explained Neef. However, he believes that the role these batteries will play in the future depends on factors such as technological maturity, market potential and sustainability advantages over other systems. “Sodium-ion batteries could replace lithium ion batteries in many applications, but there is still a lack of production options,” Neef concluded. For special applications, e.g. for electric vehicles with a particularly long range or for flight applications, he also sees solid-state batteries as a promising alternative. “The next five to ten years will show which technologies will make the transfer to the market and to what extent diversification will really take place based on the different applications,” Neef predicts.
Next MEET Academy Online in Spring 2025
The 24th MEET Academy will take place in Autumn 2025. The topic will be announced soon. The MEET Academy, which is free of charge, is organized by MEET Battery Research Center at University of Münster.