THE future of global energy provision could be hiding in your TV remote. You might not realise it, but that pair of AA batteries could hold the key to a smarter, greener energy future.

Batteries are energy storage devices.

They’re charged up by electrical energy, which they then store as chemical energy. When power is required – to turn on your TV, for instance – they convert some of the stored energy back into electricity, and release it as required.

Whilst batteries are commonly used in small-scale tech – clocks, mobile phones, laptops – their potential is actually far greater.

From Tesla to Oxford University, organisations around the world are racing to develop stronger and more reliable batteries capable of providing entire homes, communities and regions with a ready source of stable, cheap and green power.

To understand why battery power has the potential to be so revolutionary, we first need to consider our current energy infrastructure.

The national grid works on supply and demand – at times when more power is needed, more power is generated.

This puts a lot of stress on the system – we need lots of power stations to make sure we have enough energy to cover those peaks.

It also means that using energy at peak times – like weekday evenings – is more expensive, because it’s more in demand.

But perhaps the biggest issue with the current system is that it presents certain challenges to renewable energy.

Solar panels and wind turbines are variable sources of energy: they produce more energy when the sun is shining or the wind blowing. But if this happens when no-one needs the energy, then it just gets wasted. What’s more, we often need energy when the air is still and skies dark.

There are multiple ways around this issue, but energy storage systems are one of the most exciting. By storing the energy as it’s generated, we can save it up to use whenever we need it, and so energy provision becomes more reliable and flexible to our needs. Cue cheaper, greener and more reliable energy.

This isn’t just a theoretical concept; it’s already happening. The UK’s national grid is currently moving towards improved energy storage systems, and earlier this year, the government announced a £246 million investment in new battery technology as part of its Industrial Strategy.

Research at Oxford University is also helping to drive the transformation in our energy infrastructure. The cost of battery technology has plummeted in recent years, but if we’re going to implement battery-based energy storage across the country, then we need to know that it’s reliable.

So researchers have been exploring points of failure within battery packs to try and improve the flexibility and longevity of these devices. Battery packs are made up of multiple electrochemical components called ‘cells’ – a Tesla car battery, for instance, contains several thousand of these cells.

In some cases, the deterioration of just a few cells could cause the entire battery to fail. To counteract this, the Oxford group have developed new systems that allow battery packs to keep functioning even if some cells break down. This makes the Oxford batteries more reliable and better performing than some counterparts. These advanced batteries are currently being trialled in the developing world and, if successful, could eventually find their way back to the UK.

Battery technology has come a long way in recent years, and is now at the very heart of the global energy revolution. Better batteries are driving a transformation in our energy infrastructure and changing the way we live our lives. So here’s to the humble battery: an everyday device with the potential to power nations and create a greener world.