Swedish company Northvolt develops new state-of-the-art sodium-ion battery produced with locally sourced materials, entirely independent of traditional battery value chains
Swedish company Northvolt develops new state-of-the-art sodium-ion battery produced with locally sourced materials, entirely independent of traditional battery value chains
Northvolt is proud to add sodium-ion to its cell chemistry portfolio, enabling safe, low-cost, sustainable power for energy storage systems.
In a statement, Northvolt says its validated cell is more safe, cost-effective, and sustainable than conventional nickel, manganese and cobalt (NMC) or iron phosphate (LFP) chemistries and is produced with minerals such as iron and sodium that are abundant on global markets.
It is based on a hard carbon anode and a Prussian White-based cathode, and is free from lithium, nickel, cobalt and graphite. Leveraging a breakthrough in battery design and manufacturing, Northvolt plans to be the first to industrialize Prussian White-based batteries and bring them to commercial markets.
Reports across the web also say the technology enables the supply chain to become ecologically more sustainable, cheaper, abd less dependent on China.
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I'll believe it when I see it.
This isn't some futuristic technology. Na-ion was originally researched at the same time as Li-ion but didn't show enough commercial promise in the 1990s.
Sodium-ion batteries have already been deployed in a few locations. The energy density is only 160 Wh/kg (compared to 100-220 for Li-ion) so you won't see it in personal devices, but for applications where space isn't at a premium, this technology is already in market.
I believe you mean mass, not space if you cite the energy density per kg.
Technically correct (best kind) but in reality, to get the same capacity, you'll need more mass, which uses more space as well.
Well, it is a big difference when we are talking about applications like air or space travel where space might be a lot easier to increase than the capacity to carry extra mass.
I did, thanks. It was early and my brain focused on "density" and forgot the word before it.
I'd guess the energy density per litre is also worse, but those aren't the numbers I used!
I swear we hear about a new battery technology every week.
There’s this new company called Duracell that’s making these AA batteries which seem promising too
I heard about these sodium-ion batteries a few years ago. I don't really care much about these until they are actually in the market.
Happens when there is a lot of public interest in some sector...
But in this case it actually isn't "new technology". The idea is as old as lithium-ion batteries and equally solid. But back then (the 1990s) people saw greater potential in the more expensive (material-wise) lithium-ion batteries because for mobile electronics starting to become big energy density was more important than prize/ressources, so that's were the money to develop and improve mass production went.
Now that there is interest for a product on a scale were required ressources are the more important factor than seize and weight (grid level energy storage for example) it's only natural that those existing concepts are revisited everywhere as those concepts are usually already developed to "ripe for production" levels and all that is missing is the investments to build production up large scale... cost and efficiency improvements then happening naturally included. I mean... just look up how lithium-ion battery performance improved in the last decades without any actual technical improvements, just by optimizing processes with the experience from scaled up production.
Battery capacity has almost tripled in the last decade.
Probably in 10 years, because it's a car battery, and it takes time to pass all regulations. Notable absense of comparing it to Lithium battery, so definitely not targeted at smartphones. It will get installed into your nearest wind farm first.
I mean, a lot of decentralized battery storage solutions are probably even more important right now, simply because we still require exactly that for our grids.
For now the manufacturers themselves see their market mainly in african and middle-eastern countries. So maybe not even the nearest wind farm depending on where you live.
Notable absense of comparing it to Lithium battery
I spotted that also.
In terms of BESS, my experience is that the bigger issue has been designing cubicles that don't leak or catch fire.
This isn't some technology being researched, it's an actual product in development. I'd certainly take their numbers with a pinch of salt but the premise is solid.