If there’s one factor holding batteries again, it’s value.
Essentially the most widespread sort of battery, lithium-ion, nonetheless prices round $140 per kilowatt-hour for a pack. Whereas that’s low sufficient to have triggered quickening adoption of electrical autos, even the most cost effective lithium-ion chemistries are nonetheless too costly to place a giant battery in each house to guard in opposition to blackouts.
As an alternative, producers have began to discover sodium-ion batteries, not as a alternative, however as a complement to lithium-ion.
“When produced on the identical scale, sodium-ion ought to be about half of the place lithium-iron-phosphate is when it comes to value to supply as a result of the uncooked supplies are 100 occasions cheaper,” Darren Tan, co-founder and CEO of Unigrid, instructed gajed.
Regardless of the promise, sodium-ion isn’t fairly prepared for widespread use. Batteries made with it should not very dense, making them too massive and too heavy for EVs. Plus, many variants behave in another way from lithium-ion after they’re charging and discharging, that means packs made with sodium-ion want new electronics to handle them.
Tan’s startup thinks it has solved these issues by utilizing a brand new chemistry based mostly on sodium-chromium-oxide in a single half of the battery and tin within the different (although Tan emphasizes the corporate can substitute different supplies on both aspect). Unigrid’s batteries don’t take up any more room than a lithium-iron-phosphate cell, generally much less. Plus, their energy output mimics that of lithium-ion so the corporate can use the identical electronics, and they’re made with broadly obtainable supplies. “Chromium is produced at twice the amount of copper annually,” Tan mentioned.
The corporate was borne out of Tan’s analysis at UC San Diego, the place he was a doctoral pupil underneath Shirley Meng, a prolific supplies scientist who focuses on power storage. Their objective wasn’t simply to create a less expensive battery, but additionally one which’s safer.
Unigrid’s batteries gained’t go into thermal runaway and catch hearth till the interior temperature rises to a number of hundred levels Celsius, Tan mentioned. “Sodium-ion shouldn’t simply be like lithium-ion, it ought to be approach safer such that we are able to put it in buildings, hospitals, information facilities, so we are able to obtain widespread distributed power storage,” he mentioned.
To ship that many batteries, Unigrid isn’t going to be constructing its personal factories. As an alternative, it’ll be working with smaller battery producers that exist merely to make different firm’s designs. Consider them like TSMC, which produces pc chips for firms like Apple and Nvidia, albeit a lot smaller in scale. Unigrid’s chemistry works on their current tools, and Tan mentioned there’s sufficient spare capability at these amenities to supply batteries on a megawatt-hour scale.
Unigrid’s first market shall be power storage for buildings and small campuses, however it’s additionally trying to provide producers of so-called gentle EVs, issues like scooters, bikes and tuk-tuks. Small autos like these are well-liked in India and Southeast Asia, the place the extraordinary warmth could make lithium-ion batteries susceptible to overheating. “There’s an enormous alternative there the place the local weather may be very heat and many battery fires happen,” Tan mentioned.
To get its sodium-ion batteries into manufacturing, Unigrid has raised a $12 million Sequence A. The spherical was led by Transition VC and Ritz Enterprise Capital with participation from Union Sq. Ventures and Foothill Ventures.
Tan hopes that Unigrid shall be promoting cells prior to later. “We actually needed to do one thing that would make a extra instant and shorter time period affect, one thing that we may get into the market within the subsequent 5 years,” he mentioned.