Lead-acid batteries: Overview
The century-old battery still starting cars and powering home inverters
What this tile covers The old workhorse of car starters, UPS units and home inverters. Share of use <.01% share of world stored energy (2025)Share of the world's stored energy (energy capacity held, TWh, latest year 2019 to 2026) across the forms with figures, about 22,551 TWh; fuel stocks dominate. Battery and other stores count capacity, not state of charge (calculated) The world lead-acid market is about 400 to 450 GWh a year (IRENA, 2025); with a service life of about 3 to 4 years (US DOE) the installed base is roughly 1.5 TWh, mostly car starter and backup batteries. Source: Sodium-ion batteries: technology brief, IRENA.
Key facts
| Duration | Hours |
Included from the reference tables
- Lead-acid
Linked to the material world
Pb LeadH2SO4 Sulphuric acidAlso in Electrochemical
LFP Lithium iron phosphate batteriesNMC Nickel-rich lithium-ion batteriesSSB Next-generation lithium batteriesNa+ Sodium-ion batteriesNiB Nickel-based batteriesVRF Flow batteriesNaS High-temperature batteriesFeAir Metal-air batteriesZn Other and primary batteriesExplore paths from here
More on this tile in the tabs above: science and technology, engineering and performance, economics, impact and additionality, what to track.