Preparing America’s infrastructure for the massive adoption of clean energy

As the United States and the world move toward a carbon-free energy transition future to prevent the adverse impacts of climate change, batteries with greater storage capacity are increasingly becoming indispensable in electric vehicles (EVs) and energy storage systems (ESSs). EVs accounted for about 2 percent of the global market in 2016 but their market share is expected to reach 22 percent by 2030. The deployment of battery energy storage systems (BESSs) has been soaring in the United States from less than 1 GW installed in 2020 to an estimated 9 GW installed in 2022. The global mining industry is also rapidly moving toward battery-electric vehicle options for surface and underground mining operations. Original equipment manufacturers such as Epiroc, Sandvik, Caterpillar and Komatsu have invested in battery technologies. In April, Vale announced an agreement with Caterpillar to test battery-electric large trucks and energy transfer systems, as well as conduct studies on ethanol-powered trucks at its operations in Brazil. Additionally, Boliden, Epiroc and ABB announced that a collaboration among the companies had passed a new technology milestone by successfully deploying the first fully battery-electric truck trolley system on an underground mine test track in Sweden, 800 m (2,600 ft) long with a 13 percent incline. Road map toward zero emission. Nearly all of the global grid battery storage systems use lithium-ion battery (LIB) technology due to its high specific energy and long service life, but the full-scale deployment of future electric vehicles and grid energy storage applications requires batteries with even higher energy density. Safety concerns are one of the main hurdles facing full-scale deployment of energy storage systems using LIBs. Numerous fire incidents have been reported for portable electronic devices, the most notable being the failure of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphone in 2017 that caused financial losses of $17 billion (Loveridge et al., 2018). General Motors recalled 140,000 Chevrolet Bolt EVs in August 2021 after several reported battery fires. Similarly, Hyundai spent $900 million on a recall of 82,000 EVs in 2021 due to battery fires. In the civil aviation transportation sector, more than 225 incidents involving LIBs were reported, with one of the most notable occurring in 2023 when the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded the entire Boeing 787 fleet. The mining industry’s shift toward BEVs powered by LIBs demands a profound understanding of the unique fire risks associated with underground environments. With new materials emerging to enhance the electrochemical performances of highenergy- density LIBs, their safety concerns need to be fully recognized. Battery fires lead to new types of pollutant emissions, including fluorine, organic components, and lithium and heavy metals. These substances pose a significant risk to humans and the environment, and change the toxicological risks in transportation infrastructures such as garages, car parks, road tunnels, airports and underground transportation infrastructures. The potential effects of battery fires on the operation of these transportation infrastructures remain unknown, which have a significant impact on the safety of the infrastructures. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has reported that BEV fires pose new challenges to emergency responders, and there is an inadequacy of emergency response guides, safety standards and research related to LIB fires (NTSB, 2020). The global mining industry is moving toward battery-electric vehicle options for surface and underground mining operations. Currently, the mining industry is grappling with significant gaps in knowledge regarding the behavior of LIB fires in underground mining settings. Critical concerns include the types and rates of toxic gases released during fires, which can pose severe risks to miners due to confined spaces and limited escape routes. Additionally, existing ventilation systems may not be equipped to effectively manage or dilute these hazardous emissions. There is also a pressing need to evaluate and possibly redesign personal protective equipment (PPE) to ensure it can withstand the specific conditions of a LIB fire, such as high temperatures and toxic smoke. Moreover, the development and implementation of effective firefighting and evacuation strategies are crucial to enhance safety and mitigate the risk of injuries. Addressing these issues is not only essential for the safety and health of mine workers but also critical for the sustainable adoption and operation of BEVs in the mining industry. Additionally, BESSs are widely installed at critical infrastructures such as hospitals, airports and data centers as backup power sources. Natural disasters and severe weather, including hurricane and flooding, are the major causes of power outages that can cause cascade failures among these critical infrastructures with life-dependent functionalities (Larsen et al., 2015). Although BESSs have been widely deployed as backup power sources in these critical infrastructures, little work has been done to consider their system resiliency. The BESSs need to be designed to reduce vulnerabilities, limit the consequences of failures, and reduce time to recovery for vital services. There is a need to define and increase infrastructure resilience for extreme events, and find the costeffective configuration of BESSs as backup power systems in order to improve resiliency considering uncertainties. There is a need to plan, coordinate and collaborate ahead of time to design more efficient and safe energy storage systems, understand the fire risks and install safe standards-based infrastructure, and equip our first responders with advanced technologies and the necessary skills related to safe full-scale ESS deployment. We therefore propose a road map (depicted in figure) to prepare America’s infrastructure for the massive adoption of clean energy. It includes: (1) battery materials innovation, (2) infrastructure preparedness, (3) battery fire safety and (4) energy resilience. Innovation approaches Battery innovation. LIBs have three major components: (1) the electrodes (cathode and anode), (2) the electrolyte between the electrodes and (3) the separator that cut the direct contact between electrodes. They all play important roles in battery stability and performance, and systematic work is needed on material innovation to enhance battery safety. First, innovative electrode materials can improve battery safety performance. The porous structure of electrodes has significant influence on ionic transportation and can be structured to have optimum resistance, thus reducing the joule heat. Laser technology is one of the effective tools in porous structure construction in electrodes and has been shown to greatly decrease the joule heat at high current density (Park, 2019). Second, the use of electrolyte additives is considered the most effective approach to solving LIB safety concerns. Due to the complexity of the challenges in question, screening novel additives that play multifunctional and synergistic roles at a minimum dose are required. The structureactivity correlation at an atomistic level needs to be strengthened, and those fundamental studies could be helpful for designing new molecular structures to target specific purposes. Third, high temperatures will cause the breakdown of separators and lead to thermal runaway. Ceramic-coated separators, 3D printed structures and high-melting-point polymer materials are promising candidates for separators due to their improved thermal stability and tolerance for abuse, though further development is needed for increased safety and reliability. Additionally, thermal management is of great significance to ensure the optimum performance of batteries and avoid thermal runaway. It has an important place in technological developments and requires innovative improvement solutions. This includes monitoring and understanding temperature distribution in LIBs, and designing effective cooling systems. We propose to use atomic-level simulation and machine learning to design nanofluids with the optimized properties for efficient cooling, use fiber-optic technology with high-resolution tempo-spatial heat revolution data to monitor temperature changes, and apply computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to understand the heat dissipation process and achieve uniform temperature controls. Infrastructure preparedness. The electric grid and transportation infrastructure must be well prepared with the increasing use of clean energy. A key enabler to transportation electrification is to build charging-station infrastructure. This infrastructure will include large numbers of BESSs to mitigate fluctuations of power from renewable energy resources. However, due to the growing numbers of large battery fires involving BESSs, there is a growing concern among industry experts and regulators about potential safety issues. Proper detection, coordination and mitigation strategies are essential to both extinguish fires and eliminate shock hazard. Furthermore, the existing power network is not designed for high charging demand. Grid-scale systems require sophisticated power electronics, energy management systems, thermal management systems, transformers and grid interconnection, which have many potential points of failure. We propose to develop a coordinated approach for safe and optimal charging infrastructure arrangements. Innovative electrode materials can improve battery safety performance. Massive transportation electrification will require significant growth in the use of BEVs. However, the fire safety risks of BEVs and the associated transportation infrastructures have not been fully addressed, which has a great impact on the safe full deployment of BEVs. There is a need to study the fire spread and pollutant dispersion in common traffic infrastructures, and determine risk-based infrastructure designs considering chargingstation arrangements, ventilation systems and fire protection measures. Battery fire safety. The fire safety risks of batteries will have a broad public impact, for example, on infrastructure such as public transportation stations, car parks, airports and hospitals. They pose a threat to people in the surrounding area and first responders. In underground mines, a fire poses extreme danger to workers near the fire. We need to study the mechanism and characteristics of LIB fires, understand fire propagation characteristics, and quantify the types and amount of toxic gases during fire. Most current studies use small, commercial, off-the-shelf batteries from major manufacturers to predict the true failure of battery packs and BESSs. However, such information can be misleading as small tests do not consider systemlevel mitigations. Systematic research is needed to bridge the gaps in determining the full risks of battery fire. Full-scale fire tests can provide the critical information needed to improve battery design and reduce the threat of fire incidents, as well as inform the development of safety standards for battery and infrastructure. It is also important to provide first responders with adequate training and the resources needed to handle incidents. Scientific findings will need to be developed into appropriate training to benefit the society. We propose to allocate funding to develop training materials and disseminate them to stakeholders including battery manufacturers, EV companies, transportation workers, first responders and government agencies. This can be achieved through hosting workshops, making training materials easily accessible to relevant stakeholders, and incorporating findings as part of the education activities for the next generation of workforce. Energy resilience. The full-scale deployments of future electric vehicles and grid/utility energy storage applications will need to consider and prepare the nation’s energy resilience for extreme events. Climate change has increased the frequency and severity of natural hazards that attack our communities. Electricity infrastructure, including BESSs, will experience multiple hazards, including long-term stressors of sea-level rise and short-term stressors of extreme weather. Traditional analysis of risk typically considers these hazards separately, which would underestimate the risk due to compound stressor effects. To address this national challenge, we propose to build a novel resilience-oriented power distribution system that offers flexible adaptive investments to address the multihazard risks of electricity infrastructure under the changing climate. Concluding remarks The rapidly accelerating global shift toward zero emissions underscores the critical need for multidisciplinary collaboration in the development and large-scale deployment of clean energy technologies. Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) is uniquely positioned to lead this transformative effort, leveraging its state-of-the-art facilities and a diverse team of experts focused on advancing battery safety, energy storage and infrastructure resilience. The institution’s comprehensive approach, which integrates innovations in battery materials, thermal management systems and safety protocols, alongside the enhancement of grid and transportation infrastructure, is vital for overcoming current technological and safety barriers. Moreover, Missouri S&T’s commitment to education and workforce training ensures the cultivation of a new generation of engineers and researchers equipped to sustain and expand the clean energy revolution. By fostering a collaborative environment that bridges research and practical applications, Missouri S&T is setting a paradigm for how academic institutions can drive the transition toward a sustainable and resilient energy future. References Loveridge MJ et al. (2018) Looking Deeper into the Galaxy (Note 7). Batteries 4(3):1–11 National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) (2020) Safety risks to emergency responders from lithium-ion battery fires in electric vehicles. https://www.ntsb.gov/safety/safety-studies/Pages/HWY19SP002.aspx Larsen PH et al. (2015) Assessing changes in the reliability of the U.S. electric power system. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA Park J et al. (2019) Performance enhancement of Li-ion battery by laser structuring of thick electrode with low porosity. Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry 70(25):178–185

Preparing America’s infrastructure for the massive adoption of clean energy

Authored by:
Guang Xu

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