Natron plans first US sodium-ion gigafactory

At a time when many lithium-ion battery makers are slowing down, Natron Energy has announced that it will build the first large-scale sodium-ion battery factory in the US.

Natron’s $1.4 billion factory in North Carolina is expected to produce 24 GW h of sodium-ion batteries per year. The new plant would be 40 times larger than the facility Natron inaugurated in Michigan just a few months ago.

Natron uses Prussian blue cathode and anode material. Prussian blue stores less energy than lithium-based cathode materials and the layered oxide materials favored by sodium-ion battery companies in China.

But batteries made with Prussian blue can go through far more charging cycles than those competing chemistries and can discharge electricity very quickly. The raw materials for sodium-ion batteries are also cheaper and easier to obtain than lithium.

While sodium-ion batteries’ low energy density makes them less appealing to carmakers, the low cost, long cycle life, and quick discharge make them useful for stationary energy storage. Natron says it hopes to sell its batteries, for example, to data centers that need backup electricity.

Companies making materials for lithium-ion batteries—including Umicore, BASF, and Northvolt—have recently announced plans to slow down investment due to slower-than-expected growth of electric car sales. But Sam Adham, a battery industry analyst with CRU Group, says the market for stationary energy storage is still growing quickly.

Adham says Natron must overcome some big hurdles to succeed. The company will have to convince customers currently using lithium iron phosphate batteries—a relatively cheap lithium-ion chemistry that has been used for decades—to switch to a new technology. And Natron will have to prove it can successfully manufacture batteries on a large scale.

“It’s not just proving that the technology works in the application,” Adham says. “How do you manufacture it?”

Meanwhile, some companies have already commissioned large-scale sodium-ion battery plants in China, where carmakers hope to use them in low-mileage vehicles. CRU Group estimates that Chinese firms will produce 130 GW h of sodium-ion batteries by the end of the decade.