Widespread adoption of sodium-ion batteries could be limited without greater breakthroughs in technology, a new study has found.
The Stanford University paper, published in Nature Energy, which evaluated over 6,000 scenarios to test the robustness of their road maps, found that competitive potential was under threat.
The study by STEER (a new partnership between Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability’s Precourt Institute for Energy and SLAC-Stanford Battery Centre) said the lithium market stands at $50 billion per annum and rising.
Following the effects of Covid on mineral supply chains, and the consequential rocketing price of lithium in 2022, many battery companies saw sodium as the next alternative and invested in sodium-ion as a cost-effective sustainable alternative to lithium-ion.
Despite their potential, the amount of energy density in sodium-ion batteries per pound tends to be lower than lithium-ion batteries. That makes the cost per unit of energy stored higher for sodium-ion, potentially limiting widespread take-up.
Adrian Yao, lead author, founder and team leader of STEER, said: “We recognise that if, when and how sodium-ion batteries might undercut lithium-ion on price was largely speculative, especially given that the price of lithium-ion continues to fall.”
Part of STEER’s approach involves industry engagement before, during and after research. A public preprint was released with feedback solicited and implemented, according to the study.
Several routes for battery developers are highlighted, with a view to enabling more competitive pricing against the lower cost of lithium-iron-phosphate. The most significant of these is developing greater energy density and avoiding the use of critical minerals. More specifically, the study suggests targeting lithium-iron-phosphate energy densities while avoiding the expense of nickel.
Advances and new chemistries are worth pursuing, according to the researchers. Current reliance on lithium-ion batteries as global energy storage needs increase could potentially pose security, economic and geopolitical risks, they said.
“One key thing we learned from industry practitioners is that while battery sale prices are important, technologies only succeed at the systems level – say, an electric vehicle or a grid-scale battery energy storage system. That’s why we’re now expanding our scope to provide more holistic perspectives, including understanding the cost of safety and other systems considerations,” he said.