Peak’s expertise makes use of sodium ions which can be sourced from pure rock salts and brines, corresponding to soda ash, which can be simply accessible and cheaper than lithium, the business commonplace. Sodium batteries can have an extended cycle life, in response to chief government officer Landon Mossburg, so that they have an extended lifespan than than lithium-ion variations.
“Sodium-ion batteries are a significant development for large-scale power storage,” Mossburg mentioned in an interview. “They’ll final as a lot as 15,000 cycles in comparison with lithium-ion’s 8,000.”
Curiosity within the expertise took off in 2022 when lithium costs climbed, prompting supply-chain issues. Lithium batteries are additionally liable to fires after they’re broken. Nevertheless, sodium-ion designs have much less power density and aren’t effectively fitted to the booming electric-vehicle market, in response to Yiyi Zhou, an analyst with BloombergNEF. Current declines in lithium costs have additionally made the dominant expertise extra aggressive.
Peak’s administration staff has a powerful clean-energy background, with executives that labored beforehand at Tesla Inc., SunPower Corp. and Northvolt AB. The corporate plans to supply long-duration storage techniques for grid-scale storage. One other firm, Natron Power Inc., opened this yr a sodium-ion battery plant in Michigan, focusing on information facilities.
“Most grid storage lasts two to 4 hours, however there’s a requirement for 10-hour techniques,” mentioned Cameron Dales, Peak’s president. “Sodium-ion might supply a more cost effective answer for large-scale storage.”
(By Rafaela Jinich)