Battery Technology Changed the World…and Then It Stalled

Batteries don't get the credit they deserve. They're hidden inside gadgets, making it easy to forget the huge role they've played in helping us harness electricity. Believe it or not, batteries were our first source of electricity before we even had any idea what electricity was (let alone how to build electric grids and infrastructure).

The first battery was invented in the early 1800s and has changed our world since then. It paved the way for many technological advancements. Without the ability to store energy for long periods of time, smartphones, laptops, and long-range electric vehicles wouldn’t be possible. 

Looking to the future, battery technology could play a huge role in reducing our use of fossil fuels. Sources like solar panels and wind turbines need to save all that weather-dependent energy somewhere. Unfortunately, battery components are made of limited materials that aren't easy to recycle. As a result, they may wind up being the bottleneck to achieving sustainable and abundant energy—that’s why efforts to study and evolve them are so important. 

Read on to learn more about how batteries were invented, what’s happening today in battery innovation, and where the technology needs to go for a renewable energy future.

The History of the Battery

Batteries got their start in a rather odd way. In 1786, an Italian physician and biologist named Luigi Galvani was dissecting a frog. When he placed his scalpel to the frog’s leg, he was surprised to find the muscles came to life and the entire limb began to twitch. Earlier in his career, Galvani discovered that nerve impulses were electrochemical in nature. 

At the time, the scientific community was only in the very early innings of discovering the true nature of electricity. One important milestone was Benjamin Franklin’s realization that lightning and static electricity were of the same medium. The discovery made Franklin quite a celebrity in European scientific circles, even if his dangerous experiments made him a rather suspect character at home in America. 

Despite these advancements, we still didn’t understand exactly what electricity was (or how to produce it).  It was one of the biggest scientific questions of the era. Thus, when Galvani’s scalpel induced an electrochemical impulse in the frog leg, a lightbulb went off for him.