Researchers at MIT continue to look for ways to turn concrete into a perfect energy storage option. The researchers first shared their findings in 2023, suggesting that concrete could be used to store electricity. The hope is that the research could somehow allow us to move beyond standard lithium-ion batteries, which will eventually become near impossible to create due to the finite amount of lithium found in the world. Being able to store energy is a very important part of life.
But, if they can get it there—if they can find out exactly how to make concrete energy storage an everyday occurrence, then they could create some of the cheapest supercapacitors known to humankind. That would, of course, open new doors for other avenues of research, too. They’ll never completely replace batteries, of course. That’s because supercapacitors, like the concrete the researchers have created, release their energy rapidly.