The most important problem the world faces is how to establish a sustainable energy infrastructure. A critical part of this grand challenge is how to store massive amounts of energy economically and safely. While a large body of work has been dedicated to identifying and enhancing the performance of new intercalation hosts to help Li-ion batteries meet this need, a fundamental understanding of the mechanism for ionic transport through these materials is still lacking. In this talk, a general strategy for the design of new insertion electrodes will be presented with a particular focus on our group’s efforts to develop new electrode materials using Earth-abundant and non-toxic elements like Fe and SiO₂.