Two years ago, sodium-ion battery pioneer Natron Energy was busy preparing its specially formulated sodium batteries for mass production. The company slipped a little past its 2023 kickoff plans, but it didn't fall too far behind as far as mass battery production goes. It officially commenced…
  • Skeezix@lemmy.worldEnglish
    81·
    6 months ago

    So what’s the deal, are they better, stronger, faster? Or take a hit for the cost/environment?

    • jqubed@lemmy.worldEnglish
      37·
      6 months ago

      Potentially cheaper and uses more abundant materials than lithium ion, but not as energy dense, so not ready yet for automotive purposes. They have a much higher cycle life and faster charge/discharge rates, though, so good potential for applications that don’t need to move like data center power backups.

      • northendtrooper@lemmy.caEnglish
        92·
        6 months ago

        My first goto would be a cellphone battery. Having a cellphone battery lasting months longer than what I had to deal with on my old phone. I welcome this.

        • carzian@lemmy.mlEnglish
          23·
          6 months ago

          Its not as energy dense, overall battery life will be worse. The battery won’t degrade as fast overtime, so the battery will keep more total capacity over the years, as compared to a lithium ion battery that would have noticeably less battery after a few years of use.

    • over_clox@lemmy.worldEnglish
      14·
      6 months ago

      From my limited understanding of the technology, sodium is more common and easier to obtain than lithium, and is less damaging to the environment to mine.

      May not pack the same energy density though, but it’s a tech still in the works…

    • Diplomjodler@lemmy.worldEnglish
      12·
      6 months ago

      At the current energy density, they’re more suitable for stationary storage. But we need a lot of that, so that’s a win. Sodium is cheap and abundant, so those cells should be a lot cheaper to produce.

      • Num10ck@lemmy.worldEnglish
        14·
        6 months ago

        if we’re all driving around in a short bus theres plenty of room for this density of battery.

    • Cornelius_Wangenheim@lemmy.worldEnglish
      12·
      6 months ago

      There’s not enough known lithium deposits in the world to make the batteries needed to decarbonize transportation and provide the energy storage needed for a fully renewable grid. That is not true of sodium, which is cheap and abundant.