What is the prospect of polarization in the industry of power sodium ion batteries in Ningde era?

After Ningde Times announced that it would release sodium ion batteries, it triggered a new round of attention in the market.

On May 25, the Sodium Ion Battery concept Unit continued to be active. Among them, China Salt Chemical, Shengyang shares once touched the board; the Great Wall of China, Rongbai Technology and so on rose. As of May 25, Ningde Times shares rose 1.95% to close at 395.53 yuan per share, with a total market capitalization of 921.377 billion yuan.

At present, the lithium-ion battery industry ushered in a high boom, and led to a rise in lithium prices. In the view of many people in the industry, sodium-ion batteries may become an important supplement to lithium-ion batteries; however, many people believe that the substitution of sodium-ion batteries for lithium-ion batteries is actually very weak. So, what is the market prospect of the sodium ion battery bet by Ningde era?

Sodium ion battery is not a new technology.

In fact, sodium ion battery is not a new technology.

From the point of view of the periodic table, sodium and lithium belong to the main group of alkali metals and have similar physical properties to lithium; from the working principle, sodium-ion battery is also a kind of secondary battery, which mainly depends on the movement of sodium ion between positive and negative poles, similar to lithium-ion batteries.

"the advantage of sodium ion batteries is that they are cheap. Because of the abundant sodium reserves and large consumption of salt, the battery demand has no effect on the price of sodium. The disadvantage is that the energy density is not high, even lower than the lithium iron phosphate battery, the most important thing is that the current industrial chain is not systematic. " Industry insiders say.

According to incomplete statistics, at present, there are nearly 20 enterprises at home and abroad related to the industrialization of sodium ion batteries. China mainly has China Science and Technology Sea Sodium, Sodium innovative Energy, Star Sodium Power and other companies. Among them, due to the lack of lithium, cobalt and other important lithium upstream resources, Europe pays more attention to the development of sodium ion batteries.

Why the Sodium Ion Battery has sprung up as a New Force

At present, lead-acid batteries and lithium-ion batteries are the main commercial secondary batteries. Among them, lead-acid battery is easy to cause environmental pollution, relatively low energy density and relatively short cycle life.

On the other hand, the reserves of lithium resources are limited and unevenly distributed, and the price is uncontrollable. "at present, about 70% of lithium resources are in South America, resulting in 80% of China's lithium resources being imported, which makes it difficult to support the demand and development of new energy vehicles and large-scale energy storage industries at the same time. At the same time, it now seems that it is very difficult to achieve a substantial and sustained reduction in the cost of lithium resources. " Hu Yongsheng, researcher of the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and founder of Beijing Zhongke Hainna Science and Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as: Zhongke Hainna), told Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily.

Take Zhongke Hai Na as an example, from the application scene, its completed sodium ion battery industrialization demonstration projects mainly include: electric bicycles, household energy storage cabinets, low-speed electric vehicles and energy storage power stations.

"the development of sodium-ion batteries is expected to alleviate the limited development of energy storage batteries caused by the shortage and uneven distribution of lithium resources, which can be used as an important supplement to lithium-ion batteries, and can also gradually replace lead-acid batteries that seriously pollute the environment. It has important economic value and strategic significance. As the closest to lithium-ion battery technology, sodium-ion battery can rely on the current mature lithium-ion battery industrial system to achieve rapid industrialization in the near future. " Hu Yongsheng told Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily.

Controversial prospect of sodium ion battery

At present, people in the industry have different views on the development prospect of sodium ion battery.

By combing through the data, a reporter from Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily found that at present, the main controversial point in the industry is "whether sodium-ion batteries can support and guarantee lithium-ion batteries."

"the characteristics of sodium electricity determine that it is located as energy storage and lead-acid substitution, which has little impact on the current lithium electricity market. At the same time, sodium electricity has a potential raw material cost advantage, but the whole life cycle cost is limited by cycle performance. " Huaan Securities told Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily that 70 percent of China's lithium resources need to be imported, and sodium-ion batteries are the support and protection of lithium-ion batteries.

Lark Research told Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily, "Sodium ion battery is currently in the early stage of industrialization, it is difficult to compete directly with lithium ion battery for quite a long time in the future, and it is more likely to play a complementary and alternative role." And because of its different performance characteristics, its application scenarios are more likely to be non-lithium-ion battery mainstream applications, such as low-speed electric vehicles, partial energy storage, construction machinery, base station communication backup power and so on. "

"I don't know how many companies will develop sodium ion batteries after that, but I'm sure there are only a few, only a few. From a technical point of view, sodium ion battery has indeed reached the initial stage of commercial application, but the sodium ion battery industry chain is far from a system at present. " Mo Ke said in an analysis to the reporter of Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily.

In addition, Hu Yongsheng analyzed to Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily that "sodium-ion batteries do not have the advantage of energy density." its charge and discharge rate performance (10 minutes full 90%), high and low temperature performance (minus 40 to 80 degrees), cycle performance (> 4500 times), etc., compared with lithium-ion batteries, or even have more advantages. "

In his view, "at present, the positioning of sodium-ion batteries is the most economical and high-safety energy storage battery, which can achieve the price of lead-acid batteries and the performance of lithium-ion batteries on a large scale." At present, China's sodium ion battery has reached the international leading level in terms of material system, comprehensive performance, industrialization speed and demonstration application, and has completely independent intellectual property rights. It has the opportunity to take the lead in realizing the industrialization and commercial application of sodium ion batteries all over the world. "