Battery options fizzle as sodium-ion startup shuts

Data center operators and designers want a safer, more efficient battery option. Lead-acid units have low energy density and need substantial maintenance, while lithium-Ion batteries address those issues, but carry the risk of thermal runaway. Sodium-ion promised a good alternative chemistry, but the market (or at least a weighty set of investors) has rejected it.

Natron Energy, the leading supplier and most vocal supporter of sodium-ion batteries in the US, has ceased operations, closing a manufacturing plant in Holland (Michigan) that was due to manufacture 600 MW (estimated 15 MWh energy capacity) of batteries per year, and canceling a planned $1.4 billion factory able to manufacture 24 GW (estimated 600 MWh) of batteries per year In North Carolina.