[3eb7988a1663]

I suspect sodium is better than lithium today. The win is that sodium is much more forgiving of high temperatures so they can be run without cooling fans/pumps. Lithium battery installations are actually loud owing to all of their cooling infrastructure.

No cooling means the sodium batteries are easier/cheaper to maintain (no mechanical failures). Maybe not as energy dense, but you could still come out ahead long term when accounting for Capex+Opex.

[horsawlarway]

Seems likely. But I can't buy sodium ion today like I can LFP.

The chemistry definitely seems to be better than LFP long term, but higher manufacturing costs and low scale means it's just not as available.

CATL is predicting that they'll hit price parity for sodium against LFP this year, commercial scaling still needs to happen, though.

Meanwhile, manufacturers can pick up prismatic LFP from all sorts of places, at great prices (ex - https://www.18650batterystore.com/collections/lifepo4-prisma...)

[bryanlarsen]

You can by sodium ion batteries today. They're more expensive, but work better in the cold.

https://www.bluettipower.com/products/sodium-ion-battery-pio...

[horsawlarway]

You can't really get them in the sort of energy density you need for an ESS at any comparable price to LFP right now, so they only really make sense in really limited spots.

Ex - the closest I can find is something like: https://batteryfinds.com/product/3-1v-210ah-sodium-ionna-ion...

but just compare against LFP: https://www.18650batterystore.com/products/eve-mb31-grade-a-...

So...

LFP: 4.0KWh @ $275.00 Sodium: 2.6KWh @ $568.00

Right now, it's older generations of the chemistry, and you end up paying twice as much for half the power. So yeah... unless you really need the temperature extremes, it makes a lot more sense to stick with LFP.

But CATL at least is claiming they have cells in the pipeline for this year that get NA+ down to comparable $/KWh as LFP, and then yes - I'd much prefer to use the newer chemistry.

If sodium follows the same trend as LFP did, they'll get much cheaper at scale, and performance will go up markedly over the next 15 years. I won't be at all surprised to see them end up completely dominating the space in the long run, but we're not yet at the spot where they're better than LFP (at its most mature).

[3eb7988a1663]

Peak Energy already has 3MWh units deployed (first deployment in July 2025) and more sales on the books. Yes, they are laughably low volume vs the established lithium BESS, but it is happening and you can at least get in the queue. They are hoping to open a US plant in 2027.

[0] https://peakenergy.com/