ALTERNATIVE POWER REPORT
Despite lithium ion battery prices continuing to fall, interest in sodium ion (Na-ion) energy storage has not waned. Sodium ion batteries are undergoing a critical period of commercialization as industries from automotive to energy storage bet big on the technology. Sodium ion looks well placed, with superior safety, raw material costs, and environmental credentials.
Sodium ion cells, produced at scale, could be 20% to 30% cheaper than the dominant stationary storage battery technology, lithium ferro/iron-phosphate (LFP), primarily due to abundant sodium and low extraction and purification costs. Sodium ion batteries can use aluminum for the anode current collector instead of copper, which is used in lithium ion batteries, further reducing costs and supply chain risks.
Source: PV Magazine: Read The Article
PSR Analysis: The potential savings are dependent on scale production, but Sodium Ion batteries suffer from lower energy density and shorter life cycles, and the potential for both of these problems exceeds current lithium ion batteries. PSR
Guy Youngs is Forecast & Adoption Lead at Power Systems Research
