An Equitable Clean Energy Transition Requires Affordable and Safe High-Performance Batteries

760 million people live without electricity, but building a grid or advancing off-grid electricity isn’t economically viable in underdeveloped countries. Those same people are disproportionately impacted by fossil fuel emissions and their associated negative effects on public health. Similarly, with current batteries accounting for up to 45% of the cost of an electric vehicle – and rising raw material prices poised to keep pushing battery costs higher – EVs remain too expensive for many consumers compared to their gas-powered counterparts.


Existing battery-powered solutions continue to be adopted by those who can afford them. As deployments rise, we’re witnessing an increasing number of headlines detailing instances of lithium-ion batteries catching fire, resulting in physical injury, respiratory health impacts, and even death. Ultimately, if energy cannot be stored safely, electrification and renewables do not work—especially in rural or economically disadvantaged areas that lack the people, equipment, and infrastructure needed to effectively manage large-scale lithium battery fires.


In this session, Alsym Co-Founder, President and CEO Mukesh Chatter will discuss the various challenges with lithium-based battery technologies including cost and safety. Chatter will then present a blueprint for how the globally electrified future will be driven by a new generation of affordable and safe energy storage technologies. Increasing accessibility for energy storage technologies will be essential, because tackling climate change requires everybody’s contribution, not just the population that can afford luxury EVs and the nations that can afford robust grid and off-grid electricity. The clean energy future requires everybody’s contribution.