The Basque centre is working with startups, manufacturers and industrial companies to validate and scale sodium-based technologies.
CIC energiGUNE, the Basque benchmark centre in electrochemical and thermal energy storage and conversion, is driving from the Basque Country the development, validation and scale-up of sodium-ion-based technologies, with the aim of accelerating their transition from the laboratory to real industrial applications.
The growing pressure on critical materials such as lithium, together with the need to move towards more sustainable, resilient and competitive energy supply chains, is positioning sodium-ion batteries as one of the alternatives with the greatest potential to complement lithium in the coming years.
The centre works with startups, manufacturers, materials developers and industrial companies to reduce technological risks and facilitate the maturation of sodium-ion-based solutions, a chemistry that is gaining international prominence thanks to its use of more abundant materials that are more widely distributed across the globe.
“Energy storage will require different chemistries and technologies to respond to the needs of the energy transition. Sodium-ion is attracting enormous interest because it enables work with materials that are much more abundant and globally distributed than lithium,” explains Nuria Gisbert, Director General of CIC energiGUNE. “Europe needs to promote its own capabilities in strategic energy technologies and generate industrial knowledge around more sustainable and resilient solutions.”
Although lithium will remain key in many segments, sodium batteries offer particularly interesting advantages in applications where cost, safety, sustainability and scalability are priorities, such as stationary storage, certain mobility solutions or industrial applications.
One of the sector’s main challenges remains turning promising technologies into solutions that are truly manufacturable and competitive at industrial scale. Many chemistries achieve good results in the laboratory but encounter difficulties when moving to real manufacturing processes.
“One of today’s major challenges is not only to improve battery performance, but to demonstrate that batteries can be manufactured reliably, scalably and competitively,” says Jon Ajuria, Head of the Sodium-Ion Research Line at CIC energiGUNE. “That is why we work not only on advanced materials, but also on validation, processing, benchmarking and technology transfer to industry.”
To this end, CIC energiGUNE develops capabilities ranging from computational modelling and materials discovery to prototyping, electrochemical validation, degradation analysis, industrial scalability and techno-economic assessment. These capabilities enable the centre to collaborate with different industrial profiles, from startups and materials manufacturers to cell producers and technology integrators.
In addition to scientific development, the centre works to validate sodium-ion technologies under realistic operating conditions and accelerate their technological maturity, helping to reduce the gap between research and industrialisation.
The growing need to reduce dependence on critical raw materials and strengthen more resilient energy supply chains is turning sodium-ion into one of the most closely watched emerging technologies within the international battery ecosystem.
Source:https://cicenergigune.com/en/news/cicenergigune-sodium-batteries-alternative-lithium
