China switches on first large-scale sodium-ion battery

MAY 15, 2024

China Southern Power Grid Energy Storage, the energy storage division of China Southern Power Grid, has commissioned a 10 MWh sodium-ion battery storage station in Nanning, southwestern China.

The company said the facility is the first large-scale project of its kind in China, and the first phase of a 100 MWh global project.

“China has put into operation the first large-scale storage station with sodium-ion batteries, marking a new era for low-cost batteries for large-scale use,” said China Southern Power Grid in a statement.

The 10 MWh sodium ion battery energy storage station features 210 Ah sodium ion battery cells that can be charged to 90% in 12 minutes, according to the company. The system consists of 22,000 cells.

“Compared with lithium-ion batteries, the raw material reserves of sodium-ion batteries are abundant, easy to extract, low cost and have better performance at low temperatures, so they have obvious advantages for large scale energy storage,” the company stated. “With these batteries, storage cost can be reduced by 20% to 30%, and the cost per kilowatt-hour of electricity may be reduced to CNY 0.2 ($0.0276).”

Source:China switches on first large-scale sodium-ion battery – pv magazine International (pv-magazine.com)