The start-ups hoping to return battery making to the US
Batteries based on sodium-ion technology could be made in the US with locally sourced materials.
As Europe experienced scorching heatwaves in the summer, a San Diego-based battery company noticed an increase in demand for home energy storage solutions. Unigrid, the company in question, sells a nine kilowatt hour battery that allows homeowners to store power from the grid during low-rate periods, which can then be used to power air conditioners during peak heat times.
Darren Tan, co-founder and CEO of Unigrid, mentioned that the company has already shipped the first 100 units, with plans to ship 1,000 by the end of the year. Unigrid's battery is a sodium ion device, rather than the more common lithium ion, and experts believe it could be cheaper to manufacture and operate. However, there is debate over the best design for sodium ion batteries, and some US competitors have struggled in recent years.
China currently leads the world in sodium ion battery manufacturing, so US companies will need to work hard to compete. Unigrid's battery is currently made with sodium ion cells made in China, but the company may switch to US-sourced cells in the future. Safety concerns surrounding chromium-3, which can form the toxic chromium-6 under certain conditions, have been largely dismissed by Unigrid's CEO.
The company's battery has passed safety tests and certification for sale in Europe and is currently being evaluated for the US market. Unigrid's battery is priced at roughly $100 per kilowatt hour, which is higher than lithium ion batteries but has the potential to drop to $30 per kWh. Sodium ion batteries are expected to dominate larger energy storage solutions due to their lower energy density compared to lithium ion batteries.
Written by urgent.news from BBC Business's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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