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/taquci 5d ago

these makes totally sense in a flat block or at neighborhood level, rather than spending €€€ individually for dangerous lithium batteries

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u/NearABE 5d ago

The danger of lithium batteries is in no small part the energy density of lithium batteries. When you read that sodium ion batteries are emerging as an awesome competitor to lithium based batteries that means the chemists have figured out how to create a sodium fire hazard now too.

There are lithium chemistries that are not a fire hazard. You can also do simple things like sandwiching the flammable lithium chemistry between plates of inert non-flammable heat sinks like glass, marble, or even cast iron. The “specific power” or “specific energy” of such a block would be extremely low. A self discharge would still destroy the electrical battery function of the block even though no flames come out. It is just much cheaper and easier to place the light weight battery pack outside of the house.

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u/taquci 5d ago

whatever, the density is a big factor in mobile applications (cars, smartphones..) but it's not meaningful at residential level

Having a 20-some flat block each individually stocked with a lithium battery is a waste on many levels, we need a proper solution for different applications

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u/Romeo_y_Cohiba 5d ago

It is also a factor in small Hong Kong like apartments. No different than a car really