Sodium Nickel Chloride batteries
Sodium Nickel Chloride battery technology is a unique battery type that boasts a number of inherent advantages over lithium ion:
– Very broad operating temperature range (-20 C to +60 C, compared to around 0 C to +40 C for many lithium ion batteries), which means they’re suitable for a wider range of environments.
– Fully recyclable, and no toxic or dangerous chemicals are used in their manufacture.
– No fire risk, due to the chemistry of the batteries
– Requires no internal cooling system (larger lithium-ion battery systems have active cooling).
Their disadvantages mainly relate to their expected cycle life and cost. The GridEdge Quantum battery, for example, has an expected cycle life of 3,500 cycles at 80% depth of discharge, compared to over 4000 cycles (some as high as 10,000!) for lithium ion batteries.
How much will a sodium-nickel-chloride battery setup cost?
GridEdge currently sells their Quantum 9.6kWh battery, which is an all-in-one unit, for $20,000 installed. This is a much more expensive cost-per-kwh than lithium-ion batteries of similar capacity.