Going forward we will see very few lithium-based chemistries used in the big stationary batteries.
From Interesting Engineering, July 3:
The 100 MWh storage solution is set to double in capacity in the future, claims China.
The world’s largest sodium-ion storage battery, with a capacity of 100 MWh, is reportedly operational in Qianjiang, Hubei Province, China.
Datang Group, a state-owned power generation company, connected the battery to the grid at the end of June.As the world looks to move away from fossil fuels, battery-based energy storage solutions are critical when using the sun and wind as energy sources. A large-scale renewable energy plant powered by wind turbines or solar panels needs an equally large storage solution to tide over the intermittency of power generation and store it for future use.
Due to their high storage density, lithium-ion batteries have been the solution of choice for energy storage in electronic devices and electric vehicles. Their usage has also been extended to renewable energy, but large-scale energy storage requires massive battery packs.
Since renewable energy plants are located in some extreme environments, the battery packs are also exposed to excessive heat, exacerbating the problems of lithium-ion batteries, such as risks of catching fire, less-than-optimal storage performance, and more.
This is why scientists have been looking for more user-friendly alternatives to lithium-ion storage and have found a scalable one in sodium-ion batteries.
Advantages of sodium-ion batteries
Compared to lithium-ion batteries, sodium-ion batteries are advantageous on multiple fronts. They are made from sodium, which is abundantly available and easier to source than the extensive mining needed for lithium....
