Peak Energy, a developer of utility-scale energy storage systems, is partnering with a Colorado economic development agency to establish an engineering center in the state that will focus on the advancement and commercialization of sodium-ion battery technology.
“Sodium-ion batteries offer distinct advantages in a grid-scale setting,” Cameron Dales, chief commercial officer and co-founder of Peak Energy, told pv magazine USA.
The facility, located in Bloomfield, will host research and development efforts to provide an alternative to lithium-ion battery storage for large-scale energy storage.
The company says the engineering center, which is scheduled to open this month, will serve as a testbed for validating battery products in commercial applications with an emphasis on demonstrating scalability for utility-scale energy storage requirements. Partnering with suppliers across the chain, Peak Energy says it hopes to begin domestic manufacturing of sodium-ion battery cells by 2027 and enable fully domestic sourcing by 2030.
Rather than fully supplanting lithium-ion batteries in the marketplace, Peak Energy says it wants to offer sodium-ion chemistries for large-scale storage applications, leaving lithium-ion technologies for vehicles and consumer electronics. This is both an acknowledgment of the larger footprint that sodium-ion batteries require and the indispensable role lithium-ion technologies play in certain markets.
Emphasizing the many advantages of sodium-ion batteries, Dale noted that their lower energy density puts them at lower risk of thermal runaway than lithium-ion. As a result, the batteries are also stackable, he said.
“These batteries also have a wider temperature range without degradation, meaning they last longer, Dale said, adding that, “Finally, sodium is a cheap, abundant and domestically available commodity.”
The lower energy density of sodium-ion batteries compared to lithium-ion that makes them less of a thermal runaway risk also means you need more volume to achieve the same storage capacity. Utility-scale storage projects are less problematic in this regard in that acreage for providing the needed volume is less of an issue than with mobile or portable storage applications, like EVs and laptops.
At the same time, sodium-ion batteries have components that are more widely available than lithium-ion designs, which is why a domestic supply chain is achievable. However, the rub is producing an alternative product at a competitive price. The price of lithium-ion battery components has come down as demand has increased supply, albeit from sources outside the United States.
Peak Energy says its strategy is to work with battery research and development partners to advance new materials and battery cell designs. Rather than researching new technologies from concept, the engineering center hopes to serve as a conduit for supporting promising approaches so they may reach full-scale manufacturing. In this vein, the company wants its partners to help commercialize its sodium ion phosphate (NFPP) formulation as a cost-effective alternative to existing batteries in large-scale installations.
“The primary focus is on validating and optimizing our current NFPP sodium-ion chemistry,” Dales said. “Over time, we will be working with our partners to optimize and validate next-gen chemistries.”
Other companies are turning to sodium-ion chemistries as a practical alternative to lithium-ion battery storage in other applications. Ohio-based Solidion, for example, is hoping to use sodium’s abundance as the basis of its development of sodium electrolytes for EV batteries.
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