US gets first sodium-ion battery giga factory as Natron invests $1.4 bn in North Carolina

Sodium-ion battery technology company Natron Energy announced plans to build a giga factory in Edgecombe County, North Carolina, at a total investment of nearly $1.4 billion.

The facility, which will have capacity to produce 24 GW of proprietary sodium-ion batteries a year at full capacity, is being billed as the first sodium-ion battery gigafactory in the United States.

Natron's plans indicate it will be a 1.2 million sq ft plant located at the 437-acre Kingsboro megasite. Once fully operational, it will enable the company to scale-up production capacity to 40 times its current level, it said in a release, adding that the batteries will be delivered to a wide range of customers "in the industrial power space, including data centers, mobility, EV fast charging, microgrids, and telecom, among others."

Colin Wessells, Founder and co-CEO, Natron Energy, said in a statement: "This flagship manufacturing facility will dramatically accelerate our efforts to deliver sodium-ion batteries to customers who are hungry for safe, reliable, and environmentally responsible energy storage solutions."

Wessells said the company had evaluated over 70 sites across nine states before settling on its location.

Natron says its sodium-ion batteries offer "higher power density, more cycles, a domestic US supply chain, and unique safety characteristics over other battery technologies". They are also the only UL-listed sodium-ion batteries on the market at present.

The company claims its patented Prussian blue electrodes store and transfer sodium-ions faster, and with lower internal resistance than any other commercial battery on the market today.

"The company's battery chemistry presents zero strain during charging and discharge, 10x faster cycling than traditional lithium-ion batteries, and 50,000+ cycle life. Natron's supply chain requires zero lithium, cobalt, nickel, or other difficult-to-obtain minerals. Made from commodity materials including aluminum, iron, manganese, and sodium electrolyte, Natron's cells, modules, and battery represent an environmentally and socially responsible alternative to lead-acid and lithium-ion batteries," the company said in its release.