Canary Media: Peak Energy’s new battery is cooler than lithium-ion systems
Rather than trying to catch up with China by replicating the battery technologies already in mass production there, a smaller U.S. cohort is taking a different tack: building factories for next-generation batteries.
Peak Energy is one of the newest members of that cohort. The startup took a big step this summer when it shipped its first sodium-based grid-battery system for installation in the field. The 875-kilowatt/3.5-megawatt-hour battery is now being completed in Watkins, Colorado, at a testing facility known as the Solar Technology Acceleration Center.
Since the sodium batteries can operate safely at up to 113 degrees F, Peak could forgo the temperature-control equipment (fans, pumps, liquids) needed for the current favorite, lithium ferrous phosphate (LFP). If this first installation works well and the cost savings are as consequential as promised, Peak plans to build U.S. manufacturing for the whole package, cells and all.