Sodium-Ion Batteries Paving the Way for Grid Energy Storage

Abstract

The recent proliferation of renewable energy generation offers mankind hope, with regard to combatting global climate change. However, reaping the full benefits of these renewable energy sources requires the ability to store and distribute any renewable energy generated in a cost-effective, safe, and sustainable manner. As such, sodium-ion batteries (NIBs) have been touted as an attractive storage technology due to their elemental abundance, promising electrochemical performance and environmentally benign nature. Moreover, new developments in sodium battery materials have enabled the adoption of high-voltage and high-capacity cathodes free of rare earth elements such as Li, Co, Ni, offering pathways for low-cost NIBs that match their lithium counterparts in energy density while serving the needs for large-scale grid energy storage.In this presentation, metrics of energy density, cost, and lifetime are compared across various battery chemistries, where NIBs are surmised as front runners to meet the needs of the grid storage market. Fundamental obstacles toward commercialization include electrolyte composition, anode performance, electrode-electrolyte interfacial stability, safety hazards, and sustainable recyclability are analyzed, along with discussions for potential solutions to tackle them. To truly enable NIBs for grid storage, it would require the scientific community to shift development efforts beyond the academic level toward applied research, supported by investments and inputs from the industry to enable a concerted push toward practical cell/pack level testing and evaluation similar to what LIBs have achieved over the past four decades. Ultimately, today’s NIBs may or may not be the perfect solution for every challenge faced by grid-scale energy storage, but it will certainly have far-reaching impacts in enabling renewable energy storage and distribution to improve our electrical grid’s resilience.