#SodiumIonBatteries offer an alternative to tricky #lithium

Oct 26th 2023

Excerpt: "Fortunately, lithium is not the only game in town. As we report this week, a clutch of firms are making batteries based on sodium, lithium’s elemental cousin. Since sodium’s chemical properties are very similar to those of lithium, it too makes for good batteries. And sodium, which is found in the salt in #seawater, is thousands of times more abundant on Earth than lithium and cheaper to get at. Most of the companies using sodium to make batteries today are also Chinese. But pursuing the technology in the West might be a surer route to energy security than relying heavily on lithium.

"Besides its abundance, sodium has other advantages. The best lithium batteries use #cobalt and #nickel in their electrodes. Nickel, like lithium, is in short supply. #Mining it on land is #EnvironmentallyDestructive. Proposals to grab it from the #seabed instead have caused rows. A good deal of the world’s cobalt, meanwhile, is extracted from small mines in the #DemocraticRepublicOfCongo, where #ChildLabour is common and working conditions are dire. Sodium batteries, by contrast, can use #electrodes built from #iron and #manganese [and wood #lignin], which are plentiful and uncontroversial. Since the chemical components are cheap, a scaled-up industry should be able to produce batteries that cost less than their lithium counterparts.

"Sodium is not a perfect replacement for lithium. It is heavier, meaning sodium batteries will weigh more than lithium ones of an equivalent capacity. That is likely to rule them out in some cases where lightness is paramount. But for other applications, such as #GridStorage or #HomeBatteries, weight is irrelevant. Several Chinese carmakers are even beginning to put sodium batteries in #ElectricVehicles."

Read more:
https://www.economist.com/leaders/2023/10/26/sodium-batteries-offer-an-alternative-to-tricky-lithium

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/7x6JX

#SolarPunkSunday #EnergyStorage #SodiumIon #NewTechnology #GiantLeap #Reuse #WasteReuse #NoLithiumMining #NoMining

Access to discounted electricity rates and cost-cutting VPPs is coming, rooftop solar or not.

https://cleantechnica.com/2026/02/11/now-anyone-can-join-a-vpp-with-or-without-rooftop-solar/

#rooftopsolar #vpp #virtualpowerplant #solar #solarpower #solarenergy #pv #electricity #utilitybills #sustainable #sustainability #homebatteries #batteries #energystorage #energy #renewableenergy

Access to discounted electricity rates and cost-cutting VPPs is coming, rooftop solar or not.

https://cleantechnica.com/2026/02/11/now-anyone-can-join-a-vpp-with-or-without-rooftop-solar/

#rooftopsolar #vpp #virtualpowerplant #solar #solarpower #solarenergy #pv #electricity #utilitybills #sustainable #sustainability #homebatteries #batteries #energystorage #energy #renewableenergy

#FYI #JustHaveAThink #batteries #renewableenergy #solarpower #windpower #GoodNews

Since #SodiumBatteries are rolled out by #China now, which are much more useful in a wide range of temperatures from (-20°C to 60°C) up to (-70°C to 100°C), mega-batteries will replace fossils even faster.
I still advocate for more #homebatteries and #microgrids to stabilize the grid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fR--t-eMq_Y

Not a bad year for the #homebatteries and #solarpanels

Currently 26x250W panels on a 5KW SMA Sunnyboy grid-tied inverter, and 8x 425W panels via #victronenergy MPPTs straight to the batteries.

Another two 425W panels sitting in the shed to be attached and connected when the weather is less cold and windy.