[throwitaway222]

I already started seeing Sodium based batts on Alibaba. But they are 3.1 volts, so I imagine there will be a new slew of supporting BMSs and other things that need to get involved.

Watching closely.

[unwind]

Wow, yeah, they have even trickled down to AliExpress already [1]! Hadn't seen that, thanks for the tip!

Pricing for the one linked (cheapest when I sorted my search results, but magic happens when you sort by price on AE so take with a pinch of ... sodium I guess) is around $9 for a single cell (3 V, 3500 mAh) or $100 for a 20-pack. No idea if chargers are available, haven't checked.

Edit: actually include the link.

1: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005870547110.html?spm=a2...

[rini17]

Yes and they have steep discharge curve. Some youtubers subjected them to puncture tests too and they did not catch fire, that is looking good.

[silverquiet]

What is the advantage of a sodium based battery?

[turblety]

Sodium-ion batteries are rechargeable batteries that use sodium ions (Na+) as its charge carriers12.

They are similar to lithium-ion batteries in terms of working principle and cell construction, but they replace lithium with sodium as the intercalating ion1.

Sodium-ion batteries are cheaper to produce, safer to use, and operate better in extreme temperatures than lithium-ion batteries3.

However, sodium batteries of equal capacity are heavier and larger than their lithium equivalents3.

[roer]

At least some of this seems like an a summary of this: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/physics-and-astronomy/s...

Did you forget your sources? And why did you write in such a strange way?

[radiojosh]

In what way could you possibly interpret that writing as "strange"? That was an excellent, straightforward response.

[ProfessorLayton]

Some might find ending every last word in every sentence with an arbitrary number a bit strange.

If I had to guess it seems like they meant to cite their sources, but forgot to do so.

[burnished]

I don't think this is a healthy level of suspicion to levy against an otherwise correct summary. If you think their comment would be improved with a citation then simply adding it would be good - cited comments are relatively common here but not mandatory and generally not how people communicate.

[defrost]

The extra weight is an issue for cars.

Not so much for neighbourhood battery packs that smooth local area roof solar or for industrial scale battery parks next to solar and wind farms.

[silverquiet]

Yeah, I have enough high school chemistry knowledge to know that lithium and sodium are in the same column on the periodic table at least and can read about energy density and cost, but I'm really wondering where these things will fit in in the economy. In theory I might dabble with hobbyist level solar systems and controllers and battery packs, but I don't exactly feel like sourcing a bunch of 18650 cells and spot welding things together - give me an already packaged battery please.

[pjc50]

When you mention lithium people put up all sorts of objections about "scarcity". Whereas sodium is an extremely abundant component of seawater. (You do have to find something to do with the spare chlorine ion, though)