VERBUND and TU Wien partner on oxygen ion battery development
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Austrian energy company VERBUND and research and educational institution TU Wien are partnering up to develop innovative oxygen ion batteries.
The oxygen ion battery, which uses the movement of oxygen ions between two electrodes to store energy, are suitable for large-scale storage solutions and for smaller applications such as home storage.
According to VERBUND in a release, the tech will contribute to grid stability, balancing out the intermittent nature of renewables.
During discharge, the oxygen ions move from the positive electrode to the negative electrode. During charging, the reverse process occurs. This cycle is fully reversible, making the technology exceptionally durable, says VERBUND. The battery must be operated at temperatures between 300°C and 500°C to ensure sufficient mobility of the oxygen ions.
With the partnership, VERBUND and TU Wien are working on further developing this technology to create a scalable, cost-effective and sustainable alternative to existing storage solutions.
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The batteries are based on ceramic materials which, unlike conventional lithium-ion or sodium-sulphur batteries, do not need critical elements such as lithium or cobalt and are also not flammable. By using these abundant and more environmentally friendly materials, the technology will become not only
safer, but also cheaper and less dependent on geopolitical resources.
Commenting in a release was Alexander Opitz, head of the CD Laboratory for Oxygen Ion Batteries and professor of electrochemical energy conversion at TU Wien, who considers the tech’s development and how the idea of using ceramic materials for batteries came about by chance:
“It wasn’t until we changed our perspective on the material, which was originally intended for fuel cells, that we realised these ceramics can have the same capacity as lithium battery materials under certain conditions. This means that oxygen ion batteries can store a similar amount of energy, but with
advantages in terms of resource conservation and safety.”
Said Michael Strugl, CEO of VERBUND: “The energy transition is one of the biggest challenges of our time. It requires not only new technologies, but above all, continuous, intensive research. By collaborating with scientists such as those at the Christian Doppler Laboratory, we can help to make innovations like the oxygen ion battery marketable more quickly and thus help to solve the energy storage problem.”
The batteries will be developed at the Christian Doppler Laboratory, opened on 22 April 2025 and operated by TU Wien in cooperation with VERBUND.
Funded by Austria’s Federal Ministry of Economy, Energy and Tourism, the lab aims to tap into new ways of storing energy and develop the oxygen ion battery into a scalable, cost-effective solution for storing renewable energy.
