As the global demand for batteries grows in the race to decarbonize, research is evaluating potential complements to the industry favourite, lithium-ion.
Especially in applications involving electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries might be the darlings of the renewable energy industry, but their popularity has been fraying at the edges. China’s chokehold on lithium—the country is expected to control a third of the world’s output by 2025—is leading the West to pursue alternatives that would ease supply-chain constraints.
A potential candidate is to be had right down the periodic table from lithium: sodium.
The premise of sodium-ion is that switching one element for the other and retaining similar cathode-anode and electrolyte combinations as lithium-ion will lead to similar battery performance characteristics. And sodium-ion batteries will be easy to scale as manufacturing processes can copy the ones already established for lithium-ion.
AMTE Power plc (LON:AMTE) is a recognised brand in the production of high-quality lithium-ion batteries across a range of markets including automotive, aerospace, defence, oil & gas and energy storage. They have been been producing cells for over 30 years at their factory in Scotland, which can trace its roots back to the birth of lithium-ion battery cell technology, first patented in the UK.
