Radio 24 | What are the latest trends in the battery industry? Enrico Pagliarini interviews Marco Righi

Technological innovation, new chemistry and safety: Marco Righi discusses trends and future developments in the battery world with Enrico Pagliarini on 2024, Radio 24’s technology programme

The battery industry is experiencing an unprecedented phase of growth and innovation, driven by increasing demand and encouraged by gradually lowering prices.  The global transition towards a low-carbon economy is driving governments, companies and investors to focus heavily on advanced battery technologies. And while innovation in this sector has always been the prerogative of the Asian continent, there are now many European companies investing in carving out a prominent place for themselves in research and development on the chemistry of the future.

In the episode of the Radio 24 podcast of Friday 21 June 2024, journalist Enrico Pagliarini asked Flash Battery founder and CEO Marco Righi, to bring his testimony as an Italian producer of lithium batteries for the industrial sector, to take stock of the situation and talk about the main trends that are affecting the sector. Continuous research and development, together with strategic investments, promise to make batteries increasingly high-performance, safer and more efficient.

Solid state and sodium: two emerging technologies for greater security

Among the main emerging trends, solid-state batteries are the most promising developing technology. Their main advantage is greater safety and a significant increase in energy density, which will allow more energy to be stored in the same volume and weight.

If, however, solid-state batteries look set to be a viable complementary solution to lithium in the near future, there is still a big question mark: when will they officially enter the market? According to Marco Righi, while initial estimates had them ready between 2024 and 2025, large-scale commercialisation seems to have slipped to 2030, due to the many technical problems still to be resolved.

Great strides have also been made on another technology, that of sodium batteries, which has the potential to work well even at low temperatures, is safe, and is made from a raw material that is widely available in nature.

The central role of control software to ensure correct battery management  

Another key aspect that Marco Righi’s talk focused on was the fundamental role of software in ensuring proper battery management and efficiency.

Battery monitoring and optimisation through advanced software, particularly cloud-based software, now plays a crucial role in monitoring and improving battery health.

Also Flash Battery has invested in developing its own cloud-based remote monitoring system, the Flash Data Center , which uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to analyse the data collected from all Flash Battery systems deployed worldwide and extract accurate and reliable information on battery behaviour. Thanks to this analysis, potential criticalities can be nipped in the bud, even before they occur, through predictive maintenance and over-the-air firmware updates.

The battery is not a static element, but a dynamic one and, as such, brings with it constant technological evolution. It is important to always have one eye on the future of the industry, to grasp the challenges and take an active part in them.