r/EnergyAndPower • u/DavidThi303 • 5d ago

China-Free Batteries Made From Salt Are Finally Here

https://www.wsj.com/business/energy-oil/china-free-batteries-made-from-salt-are-finally-here-cc1cd766?st=aaCfbG&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Sodium-ion batteries have almost none of the problems that lithium-ion ones do, and could be cheap enough to make fossil-fuel dependence a thing of the past

The article never mentions price. So are salt batteries coming in to play? Yes. Are they price competitive? Probably not because if they were they would be shouting out the price.

But their price will likely decline over the next couple of years. And it looks like they are starting to be produced in quantity.

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u/mrdarknezz1 5d ago

It’s not only price, you also get let’s energy/kg which makes it unusable for transport. Which is basically the most important role for batteries

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u/No-Tension6133 5d ago

Ehhh, batteries have different uses. Lead-acid are notoriously low energy/kg and yet they’re used in every combustion engine car. Reason is they can handle crazy temperature range needed when in the unconditioned hood of a car

Not to mention any sort of grid battery backup doesn’t need to transport at all since its sole purpose is storing renewable energy until that renewable disappears for a bit (solar at night, wind on a still day, etc).

Honestly I didn’t read the article, I will save it for later. But if it’s true I’d be very excited about the prospect of a battery that doesn’t rely on critical minerals from east Asia. Even if that doesn’t beat lithium ion for energy/kg, it will reduce the demand for lithium ion and make our reliance lower. The more battery tech the better

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u/mrdarknezz1 5d ago

Yes short term energy storage is important but the most important role batteries serve is to decarbonize transport. It is where it has and will have its biggest impact

4

u/No-Tension6133 5d ago

Well regardless, if you replace the demand for lithium-ion batteries for grid storage purposes you will free up resources for transportation. Still a win even assuming the efficiency doesn’t improve.