Amid the accelerated expansion of the global new energy industry, "lithium resource scarcity" and "high costs" have become key bottlenecks restricting the development of the battery industry. Sodium-ion batteries, with their low dependence on "lithium resources", are emerging as an important solution to this problem, with their core advantages focusing on two dimensions: resource endowment and cost structure.
Sodium ions are widely present in natural resources such as seawater, table salt, and mirabilite, with global reserves far exceeding those of lithium resources (the crustal abundance of sodium is approximately 2.36%, thousands of times that of lithium). This means sodium-ion batteries do not rely on a few lithium mining areas, significantly reducing the geographical constraints and geopolitical risks of the supply chain, and providing a stable resource foundation for long-term large-scale production.
The electrode materials of sodium-ion batteries can use cheaper elements such as iron and copper (without relying on precious metals like cobalt and nickel as lithium batteries do), and the electrolyte cost is also lower. According to industry estimates, after mature mass production, the material cost of sodium-ion batteries is expected to be 20%-30% lower than that of lithium iron phosphate batteries, making them particularly suitable for cost-sensitive scenarios such as large-scale energy storage and base station backup power.
Currently, sodium-ion batteries have taken the lead in breaking through in the energy storage field, with several domestic enterprises' sodium-ion energy storage power stations having achieved grid-connected operation. With technological iteration, their energy density is gradually improving, and in the future, they will also extend to fields such as low-speed electric vehicles and household energy storage, becoming an important supplement to lithium batteries and promoting the development of the new energy industry in a more sustainable direction.
