The lithium-ion battery has powered us for decades. But for a renewable future, we need a new solution—and fast. So what are our options? CORRECTION: In the video, at 05:40, we say lithium-ion batteries can only store energy for under four hours. This is incorrect. Four hours is the discharge duration that is currently economically viable. Reporter: Beina Xu Video Editor: Tomas Rosenberg Supervising Editor: Joanna Gottschalk We're destroying our environment at an alarming rate. But it doesn't need to be this way. Our new channel Planet A explores the shift towards an eco-friendly world — and challenges our ideas about what dealing with climate change means. We look at the big and the small: What we can do and how the system needs to change. Every Friday we'll take a truly global look at how to get us out of this mess. #PlanetA #Lithium #Battery Read more: The future of energy storage: https://energy.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/The-Future-of-Energy-Storage.pdf Projections of energy storage technology: https://www.nrel.gov/analysis/storage-futures.html Power storage technology, using sand and engineered materials: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2352152X22004054 IEA Electricity Market Report: https://www.iea.org/reports/electricity-market-report-july-2021 IEA Energy Storage Report: https://www.iea.org/reports/energy-storage Costs and markets to 2030: https://www.irena.org/publications/2017/oct/electricity-storage-and-renewables-costs-and-markets Chapters: 00:00 Intro 00:49 The lithium-ion battery 02:33 Hydro 03:46 Sodium-ion 05:00 Thermal heat 07:11 The future