Pink loops 11 <| sep |> True . You have to always respect the elders , sometimes they say things they don ' t make sense . <| sep |> Lithium battery technology has not been around all that long in the great scale of things . What we consider modern chemistries have only been around since the end of the ' 80 s and largescale production only began a decade or two ago . There are still plenty of avenues to explore in cost reduction and cycle life increase though cycle life is already functionally in the decades with conservative battery charge state management . The biggest issue now is cost , and that ' s primarily a function of manufacturing scale , and to a lesser extent resource availability . Ironically enough , one of the things contributing to resource limitation is the fact that lithium batteries large scale , anyway haven ' t be wearing out fast enough to generate a meaningful recycling system . IMHO local generation and storage will be the most likely development in the upcoming decade . And I agree , other battery chemistries more tailored for residential and grid use where size isn ' t important will likely supercede lithium in the long run .