CATL reveals sodium-ion battery with 3.6 million mile lifespan

•  CATL's Naxtra sodium-ion costs are around $19/kWh at the cell level. LFP (lithium iron phosphate) cells are currently $55-$60/kWh (when bought at massive scale), so roughly 65% cheaper at the moment.  CATL thinks these sodium-ion cells could fall further in cost, possibly down to $10/kWh in 2 or 3 years.
• They are roughly half the cost of the LFP packs at pack level
• The Naxtra battery is capable of around 3.6 million miles (6 million kilometres) of driving before the capacity drops to 85%, 3 to 6 times as long as what we get from the very best LFP batteries today.
• Energy density.  Sodium-ion historically has struggled here. A couple of years ago, sodium-ion packs had an energy density of 120-140 Wh/kg.  The Naxtra pack now has an energy density of 175 Wh/kg, which means the Naxtra has now overtaken BYD's current Blade battery's energy density of 160 to 165.
• It performs much better in winter and summer, in a range between -40C to +70C, and can be charged at full speed even at -20C.
• Doesn't catch alight if pierced or in an accident.
• The Naxtra materials are abundant, cheap and not strategic: sodium (salt), aluminium, carbon.
• Sodium cells can be built on current LFP assembly lines.

As I pointed out in previous pieces on CATL's sodium-ion battery, the combination of low price and very long life make battery storage very, very cheap.  

Solar, with an LCOE* at $42.60 /MWh (Our World in Data figures) is already the second-cheapest source of electricity globally, and the cheapest in the sunbelt, and sodium-ion batteries will allow 12 hours of storage at under $1/MWh.  That doesn't include the cost of charging the batteries, but right now, wherever solar is plentiful, midday output of solar is often curtailed or sold at zero cost, because of excess supply.   The cost of solar quoted above includes income losses from curtailment/zero wholesale prices, so solar will get cheaper as 12 hour storage becomes the norm, and curtailment is no longer necessary. 

What does nuclear cost, i.e., what is nuclear's LCOE?  $155/MWh, according to Our World in Data.  That's the average global price; it's much more expensive in Europe and the USA.  And coal?  Again, the average global LCOE according to OWID,  is $110/MWh.  So, you can have solar, for $40/MWh, which is falling by 10%-plus every year, or coal, which is three times as expensive and not getting any cheaper, or nuclear which is four times as expensive, and getting more expensive (except SMRs**.  Maybe.)  

Wind will also have a rôle in our future grids, because it is seasonally complementary to solar, and is 20% cheaper than solar in high latitudes.  

Sorry, guys, fossil fuels don't stand a chance, except perhaps, in high latitudes.   And even there, HVDC*** power lines can import electricity from solar farms in low latitudes, more cheaply than nuclear or coal.

*Levelised cost of electricity.

**Small modular reactors

***High voltage direct current

World's largest sodium-ion battery

Source: ESS-News

From ESS-News

China’s state-owned power generation enterprise Datang Group said on June 30 that it had connected to the grid a 50 MW/100 MWh [this means it can produce 50MW of electricity for 2 hours, or, for example, 25MW for 4 hours] project in Qianjiang, Hubei Province, making it the world’s largest operating sodium-ion battery energy storage system.

The project represents the first phase of the Datang Hubei Sodium Ion New Energy Storage Power Station, which consists of 42 battery energy storage containers and 21 sets of boost converters. It uses 185 ampere-hour large-capacity sodium-ion batteries supplied by China’s HiNa Battery Technology and is equipped with a 110 kV transformer station.

Previously, the largest operational sodium-ion system was China Southern Power Grid’s Fulin 10 MWh BESS project, located in Nanning, southwestern China. The power station, which represents the first phase of a 100 MWh project, also features HiNa Battery’s cells.

According to Datang Group, one of China’s five large-scale power generation companies, the project team has overcome many difficulties to bring the Qianjiang project to fruition.

The company describes the project as the first large-scale and commercial application of large-capacity sodium-ion energy storage systems and sees a lot of advantages in this type of battery chemistry.

“Sodium-ion batteries have excellent safety and low-temperature operating performance. They can still guarantee 85% charge and discharge efficiency at minus 20 degrees Celsius, which is unmatched by other batteries. They can also guarantee 1,500 charge and discharge cycles at a high temperature of 60 degrees Celsius. Their puncture resistance and impact resistance are much better than that of ordinary batteries,” said Cui Yongle, project manager of Datang Hubei Sodium Ion Energy Storage.

According to Datang Group, the power station can be charged and discharged more than 300 times a year. A single charge can store up to 100,000 kWh of electricity and release electricity during the peak period of the power grid. It can meet the daily power needs of around 12,000 households and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 13,000 tons annually.

Because sodium is much more abundant than lithium, sodium-ion batteries are also significantly (30%) cheaper than lithium-ion batteries.  Their energy density is lower than lithium-ion, in other words, they're heavier for the same amount of storage, which is why they've not yet been used in EVs.  But BYD, Chery and YiWei (a JV with Volkswagen) are all introducing EVs with sodium-ion batteries.  They're using them in cheap EVs with low ranges to cut costs. Given the ferment and fierce competition in batteries and EVs in China, expect further sustained cost falls in Na-ion batteries.  Our electricity storage problem is being solved.  I predict costs will halve again over the next five years--or sooner.

Add this to the sustained decline in already cheap solar panels and the electricity generated from them, and the switch to solar in mid- and low latitudes will only accelerate.