A sodium–sulfur (NaS) battery is a type of molten-salt battery that uses liquid sodium and liquid sulfur electrodes. This type of battery has a similar energy density to lithium-ion batteries, and is fabricated from inexpensive and low-toxicity materials.
The sodium–sulfur battery uses sulfur combined with sodium to reversibly charge and discharge, using sodium ions layered in aluminum oxide within the battery's core. The battery shows potential to store lots of energy in small space.
This paper presents a review of the state of technology of sodium-sulfur batteries suitable for application in energy storage requirements such as load leveling; emergency power supplies and uninterruptible power supply. The review focuses on the progress, prospects and challenges of sodium-sulfur batteries operating at high temperature (~ 300 °C).
Utility-scale sodium–sulfur batteries are manufactured by only one company, NGK Insulators Limited (Nagoya, Japan), which currently has an annual production capacity of 90 MW . The sodium sulfur battery is a high-temperature battery. It operates at 300°C and utilizes a solid electrolyte, making it unique among the common secondary cells.
They say it is far cheaper to produce and offers the potential to dramatically reduce energy storage costs. An international research team has fabricated a room-temperature sodium-sulfur (Na-S) battery to provide a high-performing solution for large renewable energy storage systems.
The battery has four times the energy capacity of lithium-ion batteries and is much cheaper to produce. The team used sodium-sulfur, a type of molten salt that can be extracted from seawater, to create the battery, making it a more cost-effective alternative to lithium-ion batteries.
OverviewApplicationsConstructionOperationSafetyDevelopmentSee alsoExternal links
NaS batteries can be deployed to support the electric grid, or for stand-alone renewable power applications. Under some market conditions, NaS batteries provide value via energy arbitrage (charging battery when electricity is abundant/cheap, and discharging into the grid when electricity is more valuable) and voltage regulation. NaS batteries are a possible energy storage technology to support renewable energy generation, specifically wind farms and solar generation plants. In t…