It appears that a company in China called CATL has been able to produce batteries that use sodium instead of lithium.  Sodium is much more abundant than lithium.

If this works out then battery storage is going to take off even more than it already has

 

CATL are working on lots of stuff, like the Qilin battery (1000 kilometres and super fast charge - 0 to 80% in 5 minutes - coming 2023)  and condensed matter battery tech and yes, sodium battery too. It has been speculated that their technology may beat solid state to the punch. CATL are the biggest battery manufacturer on the planet. 

 

https://cleantechnica.com/2022/06/24/catl-qilin-battery-with-1000-km-range-coming-in-2023/

 

 

 

Edited July 26, 20223 yr by martin-w

I don't know all of the sources of sodium but surely one of them could be from the byproduct of a desalination plant.  We could have power plants that produce electricity, clean water, and raw materials for energy storage devices.  Sounds like a triple win to me.

Energy storage is rapidly increasing here in the US.  Texas is set to triple its solar capacity by the end of this year mostly because it it currently cheaper. see https://www.dallasfed.org/research/economics/2022/0208#:~:text=Recently%2C though%2C improving economics and,a risk to that outlook.   I understand they hope to put in even more next year.

Cheaper battery storage systems will fit in nicely.  I know that I love the little system I've built.  It is unreal how easy it was and how easy it is to set some panels out in the sun along with a charge controller and recharge your batteries no different than if you were using a 120VAC charger.  And then you run appliances off of it.  The more batteries the better.

Shocking! 🌩️