The promise and perils of sodium-ion batteries

Sodium-ion could be the next big thing. Last August, Natron announced a $1.4B factory in North Carolina. Other U.S. companies like Peak Energy, Bedrock Materials, and Acculon Energy are jockeying for position in the market. Meanwhile, almost all of the world’s sodium-ion manufacturing capacity, current and planned, is in China. CATL’s CEO Robin Zeng suggested that sodium-ion could ultimately take up to half of LFP’s market share.

The potential advantages are exciting: Sodium-based chemistries could be cheaper and safer. They could also use domestically sourced materials, avoiding the geopolitical headaches of minerals critical to the lithium-ion supply chain, like nickel, cobalt, and copper.

So, amid all the sodium-ion hype, what's credible and what’s not?

In this episode, Shayle talks to Adrian Yao, founder of Stanford’s STEER program, a battery research group specializing in techno-economic analysis. He’s also a board member of lithium-ion manufacturer EnPower, where he was once a co-founder and CTO. Shayle and Adrian talk about the findings from a recent Nature paper Adrian co-authored exploring a techno-economic analysis of sodium-ion batteries. They cover topics like:

• The differences between sodium-ion and lithium-ion, as illustrated by the battery sandwich 
• Misconceptions about sodium-ion, for example, that it’s necessarily safer 
• The biggest challenges: energy density and cost competitiveness
• How players in the lithium-ion supply chain could pivot to sodium-ion
• Why the technology’s success may hinge on the price of nickel, copper, and other lithium-ion materials

Recommended resources

• Nature Energy: Critically assessing sodium-ion technology roadmaps and scenarios for techno-economic competitiveness against lithium-ion batteries
• Latitude Media: Peak Energy’s quest to build US sodium-ion battery dominance
• Heatmap: Is Sodium-Ion the Next Big Battery?
• WSJ: U.S. Battery Rush Spurs $1.4 Billion Sodium-Ion Factory in North Carolina

Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Daniel Woldorff. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor.

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