Battery manufacturer Natron Energy ceases operations

Natron Energy plant in Holland, Michigan (Photo: Natron Energy)

Natron Energy, a battery manufacturer with headquarters in Santa Clara, California, has ceased operations, including its manufacturing plant in Michigan.

The specialist manufacturer of sodium-ion cells had announced plans for a new $1.4 billion battery manufacturing plant in North Carolina which would have had an annual output of 24 GW – reported to be a 40-fold increase on existing production.

But just a year later, capital-intensive plans to scale up production saw the company collapse.

Sodium-ion batteries have a series of advantages over lithium-ion. In addition to supporting considerably more charging cycles than li-ion, the cells use materials available in the US and Europe which helps to diversify the upstream supply chain.

But production was still reliant on cathode and anode materials supplied largely from China, which made the company vulnerable to pricing outside its control.

Other factors played against Natron Energy. UL (Underwriters Laboratory) certification of the sodium-ion batteries was delayed, which prevented the company from fulfilling $25 million in customer orders. Additionally, a 70% decrease in lithium prices undermined the sodium-ion value proposition.

Sodium-ion batteries are particularly suited to use with large-scale energy storage projects. Yet even in China, S&P Global has reported that the batteries are more than twice the cost of LFP cells – this, though, is balanced by the number of charge/discharge cycles.

It remains to be seem whether another US-based company will be able to make a successful run at volume production of sodium-ion cells.