November 9, 2021
The Age of the Battery
This is a guest blog post from Consortium for Battery Innovation. Connect with CBI at #ESACon21 in Phoenix, AZ, December 1-3. Registration is open!
We’re in an exciting time for energy storage. And that includes all types of energy storage, from different battery chemistries to hydropower and thermal energy storage.
During this time of pivotal shift towards clean energy, both domestically in the U.S. and across the globe, the Consortium for Battery Innovation (CBI) has unveiled a new Technical Roadmap, dedicated to research and innovation pathways for next-generation advanced lead batteries.
Combining the latest market analysis with a scientific vision setting out how batteries can enhance performance to deliver a clean and sustainable future, CBI’s 2021 Technical Roadmap is responding to soaring demand for battery energy storage.
With recent forecasts from Wood Mackenzie that battery storage deployments worth US$5 billion will come online in 2021 in the U.S., CBI’s Technical Roadmap has launched at a time where green growth and decarbonization are high up on the administration’s priorities.


This is the age of the battery. Both the present and the future need batteries and lots of them – including all types of chemistries. Advanced lead batteries are a critical player in the shift to greater levels of electrification within the mobility sector and to deliver enhanced resiliency and flexibility for energy grids.
That is why we have set out expansive goals for the technology, putting advanced lead batteries on a path to continue their critical role in the diverse applications they are used in.
For energy storage systems, improving cycle life, calendar life and round-trip efficiency whilst reducing acquisition and operating costs are the key priorities.
With the technology being chosen by utilities and renewable energy providers both domestically and in every region of the world – for installations from microgrids to grid-supporting systems – the use of lead batteries for energy storage is steadily increasing.
In sectors such as hospital backup, data centers and telecoms with the wider adoption of 5G networks, means reliable, economical and sustainable power is essential, and our Technical Roadmap is setting out goals for industrial applications aimed at improving cycle and calendar life whilst reducing battery costs.
But CBI’s Technical Roadmap doesn’t stop there. Working with our global membership and through discussion with the users of batteries, the research priorities set out by CBI are targeting every application for the lead battery to ensure the highest-performing batteries are available where needed:
Start-stop and micro-hybrid applications: Ensure that recent improvements in Dynamic Charge Acceptance (DCA) are maintained, whilst improving high-temperature performance and ensuring no trade-offs in key parameters such as Cold Crank Amps (CCA) and water loss.
Low-voltage EV applications: Improve DCA and charge acceptance, whilst increasing charging efficiency and lifetime.
Motive power applications: Lowering TCO by increasing cycle life, recharge time, and producing maintenance-free batteries.
Micro-mobility applications: Improving gravimetric energy density, recharge capability and service life.
The roadmap highlights the huge potential to enhance lead battery performance whilst maintaining key technology benefits such as circularity, safety and reliability.
CBI is excited to expand our research work with the world’s leading research institutes, national laboratories and battery industry partners to ensure we deliver the next generation of advanced lead batteries.