Invest 2 billion yuan! Another sodium battery material project signed

Investment in sodium battery projects remains hot. On March 12, the VAST sodium-ion battery cathode material project with a total investment of 2 billion yuan was signed and settled in Wangcheng Economic Development Zone, Changsha, Hunan. It will build a sodium-ion battery cathode material production line with an annual output of 50,000 tons.

The project is planned to be constructed in two phases. The first phase will build a 5,000-ton cathode material production line, which is scheduled to be put into operation in early September 2024. The second phase will build a 45,000-ton layered oxide and cathode material production line, which is scheduled to be fully put into operation by the end of 2027.

It is understood that Zhejiang Vast Sodium Technology Co., Ltd. (referred to as: Vast Sodium) was established in 2022. It is a high-tech company focusing on the development and production of new generation energy storage systems-sodium ion battery key materials and special energy storage equipment. type enterprise. In 2023, VAST Sodium and Veken Technology signed a strategic cooperation agreement to carry out in-depth cooperation around "sales of sodium ion cathode materials, procurement of sodium ion battery cells, and technical cooperation and development of 1GWh special energy storage equipment".

In February this year, the first 100kWh sodium-ion battery light-storage integrated near-zero carbon system in PetroChina's North China Oilfield developed by Vast Sodium was put into operation, realizing the use of mobile, skid-mounted sodium-ion battery energy storage equipment in oil field scenarios. Application demonstration. The high-performance materials independently developed by Vastel Sodium rely on long life, low gas production, and low temperature resistance, and successfully passed the extreme low temperature test of minus 18 degrees Celsius in North China.

Sodium batteries have been a popular technology route in recent years. Compared with lithium batteries, sodium batteries have many advantages. "Sodium-ion batteries have high charge and discharge rates, no over-discharge characteristics, allow discharge to zero volts, and are easy to transport; they also have a wider temperature range adaptability, and the sodium-ion battery capacity retention rate is 70% at low temperatures of -40°C. It can also be used in cycles of charging and discharging at high temperatures of 80°C." Industry insiders pointed out.

In terms of resource reserves, the sodium resource reserves on the earth are hundreds of times that of lithium resources. Data show that sodium ranks sixth among global elements. Sodium resources are widely distributed around the world and are extremely abundant. The reserve ratio in the earth’s crust is as high as 2.64%, which is 423 times that of lithium resources. The refining technology is simple.

The "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Development of the Energy Electronics Industry" issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology clearly mentioned the need to develop new batteries such as sodium-ion batteries. Among them, sodium-ion batteries should focus on the low cost and high safety of batteries, develop efficient modular system integration technology, and accelerate technological breakthroughs and large-scale application of sodium-ion batteries.

Industry insiders pointed out that from the perspective of downstream applications, sodium batteries may first be used in low energy density scenarios such as energy storage, two-wheeled vehicles, and A00 models, and are expected to gradually extend to higher-endurance vehicle-level applications. Zheshang Securities predicts that my country's total sodium power demand will reach 88GWh in 2025, and sodium power demand will reach 378GWh in 2030.