A partnership of three UK stakeholders aims to prove sodium-ion technology can match and beat lithium-ion for storing solar energy.
Sodium-ion battery firm Faradion, smart energy storage specialist Moixa Technology, and WMG, University of Warwick, will pool resources and IP to develop sodium-ion cells as a cheaper alternative to lithium-ion batteries.
The partnership aims to develop a sodium-ion battery that is cheaper to produce, and meet the life cycle requirements of solar energy storage.
However, some in the battery industry have voiced reservations, including delegates at January’s AABC conference.
Criticism Francis Massin, CEO of Faradion, dismisses them.
“Solar energy storage is an important growth market of the next five years and this partnership means that the UK has the opportunity to be at the forefront of technology development,” he said.
Chris Wright, CEO of Moixa Technology, said: “Moixa are excited to be working with Faradion on this project, we believe that energy storage solutions such as Moixa’s Maslow have the potential to transform how the world uses energy, and pulling down the cost of the batteries is key to scaling this vision.”
Rohit Bhagat, Associate Professor at WMG said: “We have invested heavily in our Energy Innovation Centre, and are pleased to be part of this project as we see sodium-ion batteries offering strategic and technological advantages for solar and grid energy storage applications.”
This collaborative work is being part-funded by Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency.
Last month BBB reported how Faradion was partnering with AGM Batteries to bring 2-10kW/h energy storage systems to market.
Massin told BBB the firm’s sodium-ion technology will be comparable with lithium-ion in price and performance within two years. Read the full story here:
