Before Lithium-Ion Batteries: The Age of Primary Cells

Climate change mitigation and the transition toward decarbonized energy sources, widely discussed during international events such as the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, in Glasgow [1], will entail a large expansion of energy storage for mobile and stationary applications, i.e., in electric vehicles (road, waterborne, air, and so on) and advanced grids (smart grids, microgrids, and similar types), respectively, in conjunction with renewable sources. Among energy storage systems, batteries are expected to play a major role, and a huge amount of funding is being allocated for their development in several countries, including the construction of gigafactories for their production. The coming years promise to become the golden age of batteries. However, if we look into the past, we realize that another golden age occurred two centuries ago.