Visitors visit sodium ion battery products from a Chinese company at the first China International Supply Chain Promotion Expo. In our work and life, lithium batteries can be seen everywhere. From mobile phones, laptops and other electronic devices to new energy vehicles, lithium-ion batteries are used in many scenarios, with smaller volume, more stable performance and better circulation, to help people make better use of clean energy.

In recent years, China has ranked among the top in the world in key technology research and development, material preparation, battery production and application of sodium ion batteries.

 Reserve advantage is large

At present, the development of electrochemical energy storage represented by lithium-ion batteries is accelerating. Lithium energy ion battery has high specific energy, specific power, charge and discharge efficiency and output voltage, and long service life, small self-discharge, it is an ideal energy storage technology. As manufacturing costs fall, lithium-ion batteries are being heavily installed into electrochemical energy storage, with strong growth momentum.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in 2022, China’s new energy storage capacity increased by 200% year on year, and more than 20100 megawatt projects were connected to the grid, of which lithium battery energy storage accounted for 97% of the total new installed capacity.

“Energy storage technology is a key link in implementing and implementing the new energy revolution. Under the background of the dual-carbon target strategy, the new energy storage in China is developing rapidly.”Sun Jinhua, academician of the European Academy of Sciences and professor of the University of Science and Technology of China, vividly said that the new energy storage is currently showing a” lithium dominant ” situation.

Among the many electrochemical energy storage technologies, lithium-ion batteries have occupied a dominant position in portable electronic equipment and new energy vehicles, forming a relatively complete industrial chain. But at the same time, the shortcomings of lithium-ion batteries has also attracted concern.

Resource scarcity is one of them. Experts say the global distribution of lithium resources is extremely uneven, with about 70 percent in South America, and only 6 percent of the world’s lithium resources.

How to develop low energy storage battery technology that does not rely on rare resources? The pace of upgrading of new energy storage technologies represented by sodium-ion batteries is being accelerated.

Similar to lithium-ion batteries, sodium-ion batteries are a secondary battery that relies on sodium ions to move between the positive and negative electrodes to complete the charge and discharge work. Li Jianlin, secretary general of the Energy storage standard Committee of the Chinese Electrotechnical Society, said that globally, the reserves of sodium are far more than lithium and widely distributed, and the cost of sodium ion batteries is 30-40% lower than that of lithium batteries. At the same time, sodium ion batteries have better safety and low temperature performance, and high cycle life, which makes sodium ion batteries become an important technical route to solve the pain point of “one lithium alone”.

The industry has a good future

China attaches great importance to the research and development and application of sodium ion batteries. In 2022, China will include sodium ion batteries in the 14th Five-Year Plan for Science and Technology Innovation in the Field of Energy, and support the cutting-edge technology and core technology and equipment of sodium ion batteries. In January 2023, the ministry and other six departments jointly issued “about promoting the development of energy electronics industry guidance”, to strengthen the new energy storage battery industrialization technology research, research breakthrough super long life high safety battery system, large-scale large capacity efficient energy storage key technology, speed up the research and development of new batteries such as sodium ion battery.

Yu Qingjiao, secretary general of Zhongguancun New Battery Technology Innovation Alliance, said that 2023 is called the “first year of mass production” of sodium batteries in the industry, and China’s sodium battery market is booming. In the future, in two or three rounds of electric vehicles, home energy storage, industrial and commercial energy storage, new energy vehicles and other segments, sodium battery will become a powerful supplement to the lithium battery technology route.

In January this year, China’s new energy vehicle brand JAC yttrium delivered the world’s first sodium battery car. In 2023, the first generation of sodium ion battery cells first launched. The cell can be charged at room temperature for 15 minutes at room temperature, and the power can reach more than 80%. Not only the cost is lower, but also the industrial chain will be autonomous and controllable.

At the end of last year, the National Energy Administration announced a pilot demonstration project of new energy storage. Two of the 56 finalists are sodium-ion batteries. In the view of Wu Hui, president of China Battery Industry Research Institute, the industrialization process of sodium ion batteries is developing rapidly. It is estimated that by 2030, the global demand for energy storage will reach around 1.5 terawatt hours (Twh), and sodium-ion batteries are expected to gain a large market space.”From grid-level energy storage to industrial and commercial energy storage, to home energy storage and portable energy storage, the entire energy storage products will be widely used in sodium electricity in the future.”Wu Hui said.

 Application road and long

At present, sodium ion battery attracts attention from various countries. The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported that as of December 2022, China had more than 50 percent of the total global valid patents in sodium ion batteries, while Japan, the United States, South Korea and France ranked second to fifth. Sun Jinhua said that in addition to China’s clear acceleration of technological breakthroughs and large-scale application of sodium ion batteries, many European and American and Asian countries have also incorporated sodium ion batteries into the energy storage battery development system.

Di Kansheng, deputy general manager of Zhejiang Huzhou Guosheng New Energy Technology Co., LTD., said that sodium ion batteries can learn from the development process of lithium batteries, develop from product to industrialization, reduce costs, improve performance, and promote application scenarios in all walks of life. At the same time, safety should be put in the first place, and the performance characteristics of sodium ion battery should be played.

Despite the promise, experts say sodium ion batteries are still a long way from real scale.

Yu Puritan said that the current industrialization development of sodium battery is faced with challenges such as low energy density, technology to be mature, the supply chain needs to be improved, and the theoretical low cost level has not yet been reached. The whole industry needs to focus on the difficult collaborative innovation to promote the sodium battery industry to the ecological and higher level development.(Reporter Liu Yao)