Natron EnergyStart the sodium battery Ion in Santa Clara, California, Stop running On September 3 due to financing cases. Just one year ago, the company topped the headlines for it Plan To build the first 1.4 billion USD factory In North Carolina to manufacture up to 14 GB of an hour of sodium ion batteries. While experts say that the closure of Natron should not be considered a harbinger of the rest of the emerging industry in the United States, they admit that the West behind China, which benefits from it dominance In the Li -Ion batteries to advance the sodium battery Ion.
In the United States, startups in sodium ion, such as Natron, launched in 2012, tend to rely on goodwill from financiers, Km IbrahimRetired Professor of North Eston University in Boston and a Consulting Consulting Lithium Ion Electronic science. This can be challenges for companies when financing the temporal tables of innovations.
“Companies are unable to make progress enough to keep pace with the pressure practiced by investors,” he says.
Natron Battery Blue Blue
Until recently, Natron was seen as a leader of the package in the American sodium market. Part of the company’s attractiveness was its pioneering approach to low -cost poles, and connectors in the positive and negative battery stations, which communicate with the non -metal part of the circle. Used Prussian blueTincture found in paints and dyes, to make both the cathod Three battery systems. In addition to the presence of a low cost of materials, the chemical composition of the blue broiler contains large pores, which helps it to facilitate the transfer of ion faster among the electrodes.
Natron was First in the world To market the sodium battery Ion using Brusse Blue, a real achievement that is considering manufacturing Chinese batteries, he says Tyler EvansCo -founder and CEO of Mana batteryA Broomfield, Colorado Sodium-ion Battery Cell Startup, which was launched in 2023.
“They were doing it in the West, and they were expanding the technology range that was relatively low energy density for a very specific market sector,” says Evans.
Mana is another startup in the United States that focuses on bringing sodium Ion batteries to the market.Nicholas Senstock/which
This market included storing networks, backup copies of the data center, and the electric vehicle charging stations-fixed applications on a large scale as features such as safety and cost classification of energy density rise. Natron’s success in this field, including his plans for the North Carolina factory, pushed questions about whether sodium ion can appear as a direct alternative to Lithium ion batteries. United Airways and Chevron They were on the list of Natron investors.
But Evans says that increasing the low energy density product while building manufacturing lines is expensive. “If you are considering building a manufacturing facility as you want to produce 10 GB of batteries, if your energy density is very low, the production of an equivalent of batteries requires more manufacturing lines,” says Evans.
“If you are considering building a manufacturing facility as you want to produce Gigawat capacity of the batteries manufacturing, if the power density in the battery cell is very low, then producing this capacity requires more manufacturing lines,” says Evans.
In 2023, Natron’s systems reached the market. The company held with Encorp to to publish The first multi -megat capacity platform in industry for industrial applications. A year later, in 2024, Natron to open The first trade domain manufacturing facility in the United States in the Netherlands, Michigan to provide data centers with energy storage. US Department of Energy Arpa-E Program available 19.8 million dollars To Natron as part of an upgrade of $ 300 million to move from the manufacture of lithium -ion battery to the manufacture of sodium ion battery. This facility closed its doors at the same time as Natron’s headquarters in California was on September 3.
The request from Natron has led to an automatic message to contact the company The main shareholderSherwood partners. Sherwood Partners did not respond to a request for comment.
Sodium Ion for the costs of Li -Ion battery costs
Adrian Yao He is the founder and the Stanford Command team InitiativeA research program funded by the Ministry of Energy. He is also the author of January 2025 book paper Evaluate how to measure sodium ion batteries even Li -ion batteries in terms of technology and cost.
While he admired Natron’s technology and its producer, he says that the company may have been before the curve in the place of the data center market it carved for itself. “Excessive numbers at the present time, their primary interest is only communication and building databases,” says Yao. “I think the timing in that course may be early, and it is unfortunate that things do not always work.”
Natron joins Stanford Foundation As the second Sodium Ion company to fold this year. Bedrock cited the challenges in the market and innovation for its closure in April.
“The battery works are very difficult. There is a lot of graves.” Andrew ThomasHead and founder Acculon EnergyThe startup marketing in Columbus, Ohio Two battery units With sodium ion cells for industrial energy and EVS that are transmitted at low speeds, such as golf vehicles. Unlike Natron, Acculon, which was launched in 2022, is used more traditional oxides for the metal layer and other sodium chemistry.
Thomas says this discrimination makes it difficult to extract conclusions about the American sodium batteries industry as a whole in light of the closure of Natron. Comparing the different sodium ion chemistry, such as blue mineral oxides or privatical layers, is similar to comparing apples with orange.
“I do not think that one of the failures represents any unable country, but we are in a highly uncomfortable position given the base installed in China,” says Thomas.
China is the dominant player in the development of sodium -ion batteries, as companies like Catl display their designs at the technology fair.Yuan Cheng/VCG/AP
China’s dominance in the manufacture of batteries
China has always dominated the batteries, and sodium Ion batteries are no exception. Today, China produces more than 75 percent of the world’s batteries, according to International Energy Agency. On the Sodium Ion front, the developers love Cattle They moved to the second generation batteries, with April Release From Naxstra, a brand directed towards EV applications.
Yao says he wants to see the United States focus more focus on building its manufacturing ingenuity to compete with China. Yao says: “My broader transition to half of the Western ball in terms of our thinking and obsession with trying to devise ourselves from the problem, is that we focus a lot on technology,” Yao says. “We have a little experience in manufacturing … Our return rates are easy, and our workforce is not trained.”
Founders such as Evans and Thomas are optimistic about their prospects, as the increasing demand for storing network, data centers and low -cost mobile applications pays the need for applications that they say that sodium Ion batteries are uniquely equipped to support them in terms of temperature, safety, and cost scales. When it comes to manufacturing, Mana takes a page from the Chinese play book by partnership with the current manufacturers to increase production.
Evans says there is an appetite for this type of partnership in the United States now. “I think it is a sweet sodium marketing spot.”
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