What is National Battery Day?

On National Battery Day, we celebrate the essential role that lead-acid batteries play in the present day and into the future. Modern lead-acid batteries are the product of millions of dollars of research and innovation made possible by the battery industry, and today's state-of-the-art lead-acid battery technology serves a wide variety applications.

Beyond providing energy storage for over 300 million vehicles and 70 percent of forklifts in the U.S., lead batteries improve the reliability of renewable energy facilities and protect the $1 trillion U.S. communications infrastructure with uninterruptible power supply. This same technology is also utilized by first responders to rapidly deploy lighting and other mobile electronics during emergencies. In addition, the U.S. military relies on lead batteries to provide onboard power to ground support vehicles to keep our troops safe and powers vehicles used for bomb detection and disposal.

Lead batteries power our everyday lives, even if a lot of their uses are happening behind the scene. They also power the U.S. economy. In 2016, the U.S. lead-acid battery industry enabled more than 95,000 jobs and contributed to more than $28 billion in total economic output to the United States economy. 

Batteries play a growing and essential role in further electrifying our world and are helping to mitigate climate change. The U.S. lead-acid battery manufacturers, distributors, service providers, and recyclers use National Battery Day to emphasize the recyclability, superior performance, and cost savings of lead-acid battery technology. The modern day lead-acid battery is critical for transportation, telecommunications, renewable energy, material handling, and as back-up power to many essential industries.

Alpine Power Systems celebrates National Battery Day every year in an effort to inform the community about the importance of the role batteries play within our everyday lives.

National Battery Day Fun Facts:

• Lead-acid batteries have a 99% recycling rate, the highest of any consumer product in the U.S.

• National Battery Day commemorates the anniversary of Alessandro Volta’s birth on February 17, 1745.

• Benjamin Franklin first coined the term “battery” in 1748 to describe an array of charged glass plates.

• The first widely-used battery was the Daniell Cell, produced in 1836. It powered the popular objects of the era: telegraphs and telephones. So we’re basically still using batteries for the same things today.

• History of batteries reaches back not only to the inventions of the modern scientists such as Alessandro Volta and Gaston Plante, but also much further to the past to the Ancient civilizations of Middle East and Egypt where simple batteries were used for gold coating process.

• Anyone can today make a simple battery, even using as simple materials as pieces of fruit or vegetables.