How This New Battery is Changing the Game

Nothing lasts forever, and batteries are no exception. So as popular as lithium-ion tech may be for energy storage, it’s not without its weaknesses. Chief amongst them is degradation. You can’t expect lithium-ion to operate at peak performance for very long.

But what if we could somehow create a battery that didn’t degrade…at least for a little while? The China-based Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., better known as CATL, might have just done that. The selling point of its latest battery, the TENER, is its ability to go five years with no power degradation or loss of capacity.

How is this possible? Are we on the way to battery immortality?

EES Europe 2024 & The LFP Battery

So, where’d this magical age-defying battery come from? The TENER first made its debut at the EES Europe 2024 conference held in Munich earlier this summer. This is the European wing of South Korea’s biggest energy storage expo. CATL wasn’t alone, of course. Other industry giants like Samsung and LG were also present, showcasing their own advanced energy storage systems (ESSs), and they almost all had one thing in common: They all involved a lithium-iron phosphate (or LFP) battery.

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This is interesting, because LFPs aren’t some kind of new-fangled, cutting-edge material. In fact, we’ve covered them before. LFPs have been around since at least 1996, and they’re a well-understood, tried and tested battery formula.¹ LFPs are a kind of lithium-ion battery, like the common nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) chemistry we see in a lot of EVs. They share most of the positive qualities that have made NMCs the kings of the battery world. They also have their own little twist: they drop the cobalt from the equation.

Cobalt is expensive and comes with its own dangers, so ditching this element allows LFPs to be safer, less toxic and longer lasting than standard NMC batteries.² Specifically, cobalt’s contribution leads to increased chances of thermal runaway. Furthermore, the bond between cobalt and oxygen is not as strong as that of phosphorus and oxygen, meaning a LFP can endure more abuse — like overcharging and heat — than a cobalt-bearing battery.

It’s also crucial to keep in mind the greater implications of cobalt’s supply chain. As with any critical mineral, it’s far from ideal to have a single country or handful of countries producing it. In this case, most of the world’s cobalt is concentrated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, giving rise to extreme exploitation in the mining industry to meet ever-increasing demand for commodities like cell phones and EVs.^{3 4 5}

The reason why cobalt is used in the first place, though, is because LFPs come up a little short when it comes to energy density (specific energy) and operating capacity. To compensate for this, they tend to be bulkier than similarly powerful NMC batteries.¹ For these reasons, NMCs have long been ahead of LFPs in popularity.

However, if you’re a stationary battery, the extra size and weight isn’t a problem. This puts LFPs at an advantage over traditional NMCs⁶ Now, NMCs are already very safe, but when you have hundreds of cells together and people relying on them, you want all the safety you can get. This is why many people are interested in using them in both large-scale and residential energy storage. Myself included!

Why is Energy Storage Important?

These systems are meant to be “plug and play” and modular, allowing for a containerized form of energy storage. Typically, an energy storage system (ESS) consists of a few basic parts including batteries for energy storage, power electronics and converters for energy transfer, thermal management systems for safety, monitoring systems and a housing for… well… housing all those systems. Large scale ESS are big metal containers usually around 20 feet long. ESSs meant for residential use are considerably smaller.

With renewables are on the rise, there’s a growing need to store the energy produced.⁷ Solar panels in particular are more efficient and affordable than ever before,⁸ so it’s no wonder that the global energy storage market tripled in size last year.⁹ The world is hungry for renewable energy, and that means we are hungry for ESSs. That’s why CATL and other industry giants are investing heavily in LFPs and ESSs.

CATL TENER System

So, here’s the zillion dollar question: How does the CATL TENER Battery Energy Storage System fight off degradation for so long?

Superficially, the TENER system looks a lot like Tesla’s Megapack. It’s a bunch of battery packs housed within a 20ish-foot-long metal box intended for grid-scale storage. Of course, the TENER BESS packs CATL’s L-series LFP batteries.¹⁰ These batteries have an energy density of 6.25 MWh,¹¹ which is a fair bit more than the 3.9 MWh of Tesla’s Megapack’s.¹² According to CATL, this is a 30% improvement in energy density per unit compared to their older model, and it’s about 20% smaller, too.¹³ CATL claims its new TENER battery system can be cycled daily for 15,000 cycles or five years with zero degradation in power and capacity.¹⁴ That’s a pretty impressive feat, so what’s behind the curtain?

The secret sauce to their longevity is a combo of biomimetic solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) material and a self-assembling electrolyte.¹⁵ That sounds very complicated, so let me break it down. Normally, when a lithium metal anode comes into contact with an electrolyte, it spontaneously creates the SEI layer.¹⁶ This is a foundational protective layer that plays a role in a battery’s performance and lifespan. If the SEI doesn’t form correctly, though, it leads to a lot of problems down the line. Chiefly, it can struggle to conduct the lithium-ions out of the electrode, which can result in “ionic traffic jams,” making it easier for dendrites to form.¹⁷ Dendrites are little metal spikes that grow inside batteries as they charge and discharge. With repeated charge cycles, dendrites can get so big they actually puncture the battery and cause permanent damage. So, ensuring there is a good SEI layer is critical to making sure your battery lives long and prospers. The “biomimetic” part just means their SEI is mimicking a naturally occurring (and in this case, helpful) type of SEI.^{16 18}

While “self-assembling electrolyte technologies” might have you thinking along the lines of the T-1000, it’s pretty simple. When these electrolytes contact an anode, they tend to assemble themselves into organized shapes.¹⁶ The term “self-assembling” simply means a chemical or physical reaction is occurring to form a solid structure in a directed manner. Returning to our highway analogy, this provides convenient roads for the ions to travel, minimizing “traffic jams” and the harm they can cause. Together these technologies help everything flow like it’s supposed to, ensuring long-term stability while minimizing the dangers posed by dendrites, short-circuit, and thermal runaway.¹⁹ With their powers combined, these features let the LFPs inside the TENER shrug off wear and tear… or at least the first five years or so of it.

If TENER is the real deal — because right now, we can only take CATL’s word for it — it’s the only energy storage solution (so far!) that can be mass produced while not degrading for the first five years.¹⁸ This is potentially a major step forward for energy storage … especially because it’s building off a mature battery chemistry. TENER potentially represents a world where we have to make fewer batteries, all while swapping them out less often. Theoretically, this sands off some of the rougher edges when it comes to integrating renewables into the modern grid, and should make getting a return on the investment a lot easier.

It’s also worth noting that CATL and Rolls-Royce recently signed a strategic cooperation agreement in an effort to bring the TENER systems to the UK and EU.²⁰ But before you get too hyped about super long lasting electric Rolls-Royces, I should clarify that the agreement was signed by the Power Systems division of Rolls Royce, who are focused on stationary energy storage, not luxury cars.²¹ Still, the company’s backing does bring a certain posh clout with it.

Other New LFPs

While CATL’s TENER system might have been the boldest new LFP on display at EES Europe, it was far from the only one. LG Energy Systems showcased several different sizes of ESS, including a grid-scale giant capable of 3.14 MWh of storage.²² LG is expecting to release this system next year.²² Not much else was revealed about this particular ESS at the moment, so I’m interested in learning more about it as we get closer to the release date.

LG also highlighted their EnBlock E, an LFP-based ESS designed for residential use. This ESS debuted last September, but is hitting the market this year.²³ With a small, thin footprint of just 451 by 330 mm (roughly foot by a foot and a half) and just a little over 5 feet tall, this ESS should fit easily in a corner or against a wall.²⁴ It has some other neat features too. Need more capacity? The e-block works like a bookcase — just open the door and pop another module in. It maxes out at five modules, but that represents a total capacity of 15.5 kilowatt-hours.²³ It’s supposed to be easy to install too. LG claims a single installer can set it up in as little as 15 minutes. I’ll believe that when I see it though.^{25 23}

Meanwhile, Samsung presented its own ESS at EES Europe, the aptly named Samsung Battery Box 1.5. This used the more common NCA formula,²⁶ but Samsung is hedging its bets with what the company is calling a two-track strategy, where it’s developing both NCA and, well, LFP batteries for the ESS market. Samsung’s “NMX” LFP batteries are supposed to hit the ESS market as early as 2026.^{27 28} This is all part of Samsung SDI’s plan to become, by its CEO’s admission, the next global market leader when it comes to ESSs.²⁶

Though CATL will be some seriously tough competition, Samsung is off to a good start. It just inked a deal with NextEra Energy Inc. a major green energy and infrastructure company in the United States. Samsung’s set to supply NextEra with 6.3 GWh of ESS.²⁹ So, if you live in the US, you might be seeing a lot more LFPs in the near future.

It would seem the tide is turning towards LFPs. They may be “old dogs,” but judging by CATL and the others at EES Europe, they are learning some pretty impressive new tricks. And it’s hard not to be at least a little excited for that. One of the benefits of age is that these ESSs have all passed the hurdles of commercialization and mass production. We’ll have to wait just a bit to see if they’re affordable. Still, the world seems hungry for a better form of ESS. As the agreement between Rolls-Royce and CATL highlighted, deals are coming together and adoption seems close at hand.