Sodium-ion batteries

Hindalco will invest INR 800 crore to build a new battery foil manufacturing plant near Sambalpur in Odisha. The facility will initially produce 25,000 tonnes of the foils for Lithium-ion and Sodium-ion battery cells.

Waaree Technologies plans 5 GWh battery cell production capacity leveraging 3DBattery’s lithium-ion and sodium-ion battery technology.

Mukesh D Ambani, the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, says the company aims to open a fully integrated solar gigafactory by the end of 2025. It also plans to initiate megawatt-level sodium-ion cell production by 2025.

The sodium-ion battery technology has been designed and developed by KPIT Technologies.

The global sodium-ion battery market will grow at 16.2% annually to touch $2.6 billion by 2028. Major drivers include an increasing demand for these batteries as a lithium battery replacement for renewable energy storage and the growing trend towards low-speed electric cars.

The minister also underlined the need for diversification of supply chains by using alternative battery technologies such as sodium-ion.

Reliance Industries said its solar unit will buy UK-based sodium-ion battery technology provider Faradion for GBP100 million (US$135 million) including debt, as the Indian conglomerate pushes forward with its ambitious plan to move into the renewable energy industry.

The Gurgaon-based data-driven fleet service provider—which launched India’s first all-electric heavy-duty truck last year—will use Faradion’s sodium-ion batteries in its commercial vehicles.

A German-Israeli research group has gathered for three days to discuss which storage technologies may outperform lithium-ion batteries in the future. They concluded that there is no such a thing as a “post Li‐ion” era in sight. They recommended a “side‐by‐side” approach for multiple technologies in different applications, as well as the hybridization of technologies. The group highlighted the strong potential of redox flow storage, which in their view may outperform Li‐ion, although only for stationary applications.

The sodium-ion battery technology developer has bagged its first order from ICM Australia and is looking at India as the next destination for manufacturing with the initial target set as 1 GWh.