Sodium ion solar container in industrial parks

Can a solar power plant co-locate a sodium-ion battery?

From ESS News Amsterdam-based Moonwatt is set on a mission to develop sodium-ion battery technology optimized for colocation with utility-scale solar power plants as it seeks to make storage more scalable, cost-competitive, and sustainable.

Can a new energy storage system use sodium ion battery technology?

Amsterdam-based startup Moonwatt has raised €8 million to further develop its energy storage system utilizing sodium-ion battery technology. The growth of renewable energies over the last decade has created a surging demand for better energy storage solutions.

What is a sodium ion battery?

Sodium-ion batteries are suitable for applications in which lower cost is a must, such as battery ESSes.

Are sodium-ion batteries a viable alternative for EES systems?

Due to the wide availability and low cost of sodium resources, sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) are regarded as a promising alternative for next-generation large-scale EES systems.

Are sodium ion batteries a good alternative to Li-ion?

Sodium-ion batteries are a cost-effective alternative to Li-ion batteries, using sodium instead of lithium. However, these batteries have low energy density (about 140–160 Wh/kg). Yet, Rota noted, “This lower density of sodium-ion is less of an issue in energy storage systems, where space is not as constrained—in particular on solar plants.”

Are sodium ion batteries safe?

“In terms of cycling, the typical solar + storage cycling [about 1 to 1.3 cycles per day for 20 years] also fits quite well with sodium-ion cell-cycling performance.” Finally, sodium-ion batteries present interesting safety characteristics, on par or better than Li-ion LFP cells. This means a lower fire risk at the project level, Rota said.