Will your next battery be based on salt?

Sodium-Ion battery technology promised a lot when it first hit our headlines more than two years ago. But has it delivered? Well, let's find out...

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NEVER FORGET : EXXON KNEW..!

Research Links

MINVIRO Life Cycle Analysis of Sodium Ion

Northvolt

BYD

Unigrid

Wood Mackenzie market analysis

Market Prices

Faradion

Acculon Energy

ING Report on Sodium Ion market penetration

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[Atheist-Libertarian]

Energy Density is not a concern for Stationary Storage.
It just need to be cheap.

[BattNW]

I haven't invested in any sodium ion startups, but I'm hugely invested in this little blue marble we live on, and very much appreciate the (occasional) good news and insight you provide to us on keeping it habitable. Thank you, Dave!

[MrAcogan]

Love the idea of revisiting previous “game changing” tech 😊 to see where they are now, as ever keep up the good work 👍

[timothywatkins]

The more investment into all types of electrical energy storage the better. Great work on parsing the data of these technologies and presentations that are understandable, informing, entertaining and balanced. Well done 👍

[ppower]

I think it's important that multiple technologies are pursued as there are many different applications requiring energy storage. Keep up the good work researching and explaining for the interested but less dedicated.😁👍

[SkepticalCaveman]

Sodium batteries seems like a great fit for stationary storage. This would free up LFP to be used for cars and other vehicles. Whats left is airplanes and ships, and I think that swappable aluminium air batteries can solve the electric airplane's energy density problem, since charging planes takes too long time anyway.

[brianmckeever]

I thoroughly enjoy your thoughtful and thought-provoking presentations.

[davidaustin]

Dave, love these recap the tech episodes!

[davekenyon]

Hi Dave. Great work as usual! Shame about all the trolls who now submerge the comments in flatulence. Anyway, how about a future double-hander revisit with Rosie on 'alternative' windmill designs which seem to have resurfaced on social media?

[spankeyfish]

Na-ion batteries are already on sale on alibaba and other from various Chinese sellers.

[dougpurdy]

What a pleasure to find a rational well explained science channel afloat in a sea of disinformation from oil interests and luddites. Thank you for this small island of sanity in a sea of propaganda. From climate change to battery chemistry your work is excellent and unbiased and makes me feel optimistic that there are rational people working on today and tomorrow's technological challenges who might yet save humanity from itself.

[ChannelScottify]

Nice, a video just about the technology. The lack of "us vs them" comments in appreciated.

[ravinagaraj]

A small quibble: The overall electrical generation system must get greener for any battery technology to provide appreciable benefit. Without that, we are just replacing carbon rich primary movers (ICE) with secondary storage for carbon rich primary generation(Coal, Oil, NG, Wood, Biomass), involving additional losses and increasing the carbon footprint for making, maintaining and recycling the secondary storage. In addition, we are concentrating the locations of emission, exacerbating the effects in certain locales.

[paulwatson]

Viable recycling of batteries of various chemistries around the world definetely needs more attention than its getting currently.
I remember how much trouble the company I worked for years ago had with this side of things down here in OZ. Practically every battery pack we used was comprised of the 'usual' cylindrical cells. They are probably in landfill.

[staling]

I've bought a few sample Sodium batteries. Looks ideal for Mobility Scooter upgrades from 2 x 12v to 1 x 24v and still adds a bit of weight for stability with greater range...

[critiqueofthegothgf]

glad to see you revisiting emerging technologies, some of which are hailed to be society's silver bullets; one too many tech channels tend to make short form videos on these technologies, praise them to death and never talk about them again, once they fade away into obscurity

[JohnBoen]

7:00.

What an awesome infographic - I do data science work and need to present data from time to time.

What an exceptionally effective way to present the data.

[jocelynevkb]

Since 2010, Spain invested in multiple thermal energy storage systems using molten salt. A 1GWh molten salt storage capacity system is about to be commissioned & represents one third of Spain's forecasted 2030 requirements.
Check it out, pretty impressive. We were flying over the earlier Sodium storages in Southern Spain: lots of wind turbines & concentric solar panels ...

[autohmae]

My guess is as production increases/budgets increases they might be able to improve things even more or cost goes down which could help it become more attractive as an option.

[ffmedic]

Great unbiased and well explained video. The piece that really needs further understanding with Na-ion is if it is safer than Li-ion when it fails. Is the thermal runaway energy less, is there less toxic emissions produced? If the answer to these questions is yes, this may make Na-ion the go-to chemistry for indoor stationary storage.