Sodium battery replaces lead-acid – the advantages of application scene are obvious

At present, the price of lead-acid batteries is about 0.5 RMB/Wh, while the price of sodium batteries is about 0.75 RMB/Wh in the early stage of mass production. With the realization of large-scale mass production in the future, the ideal price of sodium electricity will be reduced to about 0.3 RMB/Wh.

In terms of performance, sodium batteries have surpassed lead-acid batteries in terms of energy density, cycle life, and low-temperature characteristics. According to relevant industry data, the energy density of sodium batteries is 100-150Wh/kg, which is 3-5 times that of lead-acid batteries, and the cycle life is more than 1600-1800 times, more than twice that of lead-acid batteries.In terms of application, lead-acid batteries are currently mainly used in the fields of automobile starter power, two-wheeled vehicles battery swap station, and communication energy storage.

In addition to the strong binding of the low-voltage characteristics of the lead-acid battery to the starting power supply of the two-wheeled vehicles, the replacement range of the sodium battery in other fields of the lead-acid battery is wider.

Sodium battery application scenario – two-wheeled vehicles

At present, lead-acid batteries account for more than 70% of the Chinese two-wheeler market. However, under the new national standard, two-wheeled vehicles are transforming towards green and environmental protection, and it is the general trend to eliminate lead-acid batteries with short lifespan and high pollution.

Under such circumstances, the two-wheeler market calls for batteries with high cruising range, high energy density, and light weight. Lithium batteries and sodium batteries have a greater chance of replacing lead-acid batteries. However, based on safety and price considerations, sodium batteries are more popular than lithium batteries.

In terms of performance, the 6,000-time theoretical cycle life of sodium batteries has reached the standard of lithium batteries, which is a leap forward for lead-acid batteries with an average cycle life of 300-500 cycles. On the one hand, the jump in battery life further improves the economy of two-wheelers. On the other hand, sodium batteries replace lead-acid batteries, reducing the frequency of lead-acid battery replacement and reducing the burden on the environment.

It is worth noting that sodium batteries have more prominent advantages in low-temperature performance. At -20°C, sodium batteries can still maintain a discharge efficiency of more than 90%, and can operate normally at a minimum of -40°C.

Not only that, the safety performance of motorcycle battery pack is also the focus of most consumers. From the perspective of the material itself, sodium has high chemical stability, and the internal resistance of sodium batteries is also relatively high. After thermal runaway, the short-circuit current is smaller and the instantaneous heat generation is relatively weak.

Some battery companies have carried out the most stringent acupuncture tests on sodium batteries, which can ensure that there is no smoke, no fire, no explosion during the whole process, and the temperature rise is low during the actual charging process. It can be said that the safety performance of sodium batteries is not inferior to that of lead-acid batteries.

In general, there are great opportunities for sodium batteries to replace lead-acid batteries in the two-wheeler market, but good products are not self-proclaimed. Obtaining the approval of the terminal market is only the first step to open up the sodium battery two-wheeler market.

At present, some battery companies such as the top 10 electric motorcycle manufacturers in the world have developed sodium batteries for the two-wheeler market and will apply them in the two-wheeler market. It is worth mentioning that Zoolnasm announced last year that it signed an exclusive strategic cooperation agreement with a listed car company with the top two installed capacity of two-wheelers in the world.

The two parties intend to establish a long-term cooperative relationship on the project of sodium ferric sulfate battery for electric vehicles, and jointly develop a series of sodium ferric sulfate batteries and supporting battery systems suitable for the electric vehicle market.

Sodium battery application scenarios – energy storage

In 2022, China’s energy storage lithium battery shipments will reach 130GWh, and shipments are expected to break through to 240GWh in 2023. As the demand for energy storage batteries continues to increase, the penetration rate of sodium batteries in the energy storage market is expected to increase rapidly.

In terms of communication energy storage, sodium batteries play a role in replacing lead-acid batteries. In the past, lead-acid batteries were the main energy storage batteries for communication. However, lead-acid batteries pollute the environment, are bulky and have low energy density, and cannot meet the application requirements of new-generation communication technologies such as 5G base stations and pico base stations.

Not only that, communication energy storage batteries require 2,000 backup power cycles, and the rate is generally 0.5C, which requires higher battery cost and safety. Therefore, sodium batteries are more likely to replace communication lead-acid batteries.

According to the list of bid-winning enterprises for communication lithium batteries previously announced by relevant departments, companies such as Great Power, EVE, Aidriving, and Narada have begun to deploy sodium batteries, and may gradually replace lead-acid batteries in the future according to market demand.

In addition, data center backup power is also an important scenario where sodium batteries replace lead-acid batteries.

On the one hand, from the perspective of data center demand, it focuses more on high-rate short-term discharge, and the backup time develops from hours to minutes. Among them, UPS is an important device to ensure power supply for the data center, and the UPS battery backup time requirement is not less than 15 minutes.

The sodium battery has excellent rate performance. At room temperature, the rate discharge efficiency above 2C is as high as 90%, which can meet the needs of high-power start-up and meet the needs of data centers for instant start-up.

On the other hand, the large amount of electricity consumed by data centers consumes a lot of energy, and lead-acid batteries are more polluting to the environment. Under the dual-carbon policy, the prospect of lead-acid batteries in the data center market is gradually declining. In this regard, sodium batteries have environmental protection requirements to replace lead-acid batteries in data center scenarios.

Application prospect of sodium batteries

In general, industry professionals believe that the market demand for sodium batteries to replace lead-acid batteries is considerable.

Taking Guangdong Province as an example, as a major economic province, the existing scale of data centers in the six major application scenarios of telecommunications, Internet, public institutions, manufacturing, energy, and finance is relatively large. Superimposed with China’s dual-carbon policy, the green transformation needs of the six data center application scenarios are fully demonstrated.

It is worth mentioning that in the document issued by Guangdong Province on promoting the high-quality development of the new energy storage industry, it is emphasized that the data center is an important part of the development of the new energy storage industry. With the further development of sodium-ion battery technology, it will help data centers to save energy and reduce carbon emissions, and in the future, it is expected that data centers will participate in the power grid and benefit from it.