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If there ’s one thing holding back assault and battery , it ’s cost .
The most far-flung type of battery , Li - ion , still costs around $ 140 per kW - hour for a pack . While that ’s low enough to have triggeredquickening adoptionof galvanising vehicles , even the sleazy lithium - ion chemistries are still too expensive to put a big barrage in every home to protect against blackouts .
Instead , manufacturers have started to research sodium - ion battery , not as a replacement , but as a full complement to atomic number 3 - ion .
“ When bring forth at the same graduated table , sodium - ion should be about half of where lithium - smoothing iron - phosphate is in terms of cost to produce because the tender material are a hundred clip cheaper , ” Darren Tan , co - father and CEO ofUnigrid , told TechCrunch .
Despite the promise , sodium - ion is n’t quite quick for far-flung use . Batteries made with it are not very dense , making them too large and too heavy for electron volt . Plus , many variants behave differently from lithium - ion when they ’re charging and discharging , mean camp made with sodium - ion need Modern electronics to manage them .
Tan ’s startup thinks it has solve those problems by using a new chemistry establish on sodium - atomic number 24 - oxide in one half of the battery and tin can in the other ( though Tan emphasizes the troupe can substitute other materials on either side ) . Unigrid ’s batteries do n’t take up any more quad than a Li - iron - phosphate cellular telephone , sometimes less . Plus , their great power output mimic that of lithium - ion so the company can use the same electronics , and they are made with widely useable materials . “ Chromium is produced at twice the quantity of copper each twelvemonth , ” Tan said .
The party was born out of Tan ’s research at UC San Diego , where he was a doctorial pupil under Shirley Meng , a prolific stuff scientist who focuses on energy storage . Their finish was n’t just to create a cheaper battery , but also one that ’s safer .
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Unigrid ’s battery wo n’t go into thermal blowout and catch fire until the internal temperature rises to several hundred degrees Celsius , Tan say . “ Sodium - ion should not just be like lithium - ion , it should be way safer such that we can put it in buildings , hospitals , data essence , so we can attain far-flung distributed energy storage , ” he say .
To deliver that many barrage , Unigrid is n’t go to be building its own factories . alternatively , it ’ll be knead with smaller shelling producer that subsist simply to make other companies ’ designs . Think of them like TSMC , which produces computer chips for companies like Apple and Nvidia , albeit much little in plate . Unigrid ’s chemistry work on their survive equipment , and Tan said there ’s enough spare capacity at these facilities to produce batteries on a megawatt - time of day ordered series .
Unigrid ’s first market will be energy computer storage for buildings and little campuses , but it ’s also looking to add manufacturer of so - called clear EVs , things like scooter , motorcycles and tuk - tuks . Small vehicles like these are popular in India and Southeast Asia , where the vivid heat can make atomic number 3 - ion stamp battery prone to overheating . “ There ’s a huge opportunity there where the climate is very tender and oodles of battery fires occur , ” Tan said .
To get its sodium - ion batteries into production , Unigrid has prove a $ 12 million Series A. The round of drinks was led by Transition VC and Ritz Venture Capital , with involvement from Union Square Ventures and Foothill Ventures .
Tan hopes that Unigrid will be sell cells earlier than later . “ We really wanted to do something that could make a more quick and shorter - term impact , something that we could get into the market in the next five years , ” he say .
