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Faradion, Moixa Technology and Warwick University to develop sodium-ion battery technology for solar storage

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  • Partnership will see three stakeholders develop battery technology for solar energy storage
  • Affordability of sodium-ion technology makes solar energy storage more accessible
  • Solar energy storage could reduce CO2 by 500,000 tonnes per year

1 March 2016 - The innovator of sodium-ion battery technology, Faradion, is partnering with smart energy storage specialists, Moixa Technology, and WMG, University of Warwick to develop sodium-ion cells as a low cost alternative to lithium-ion batteries for solar energy storage. This collaborative work is being part funded by Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency.

A significant proportion of the cost of solar energy storage systems comes from the lithium-ion battery. With sodium-ion cells anticipated to be 30% cheaper to produce, Faradion’s technology could make solar storage more accessible, opening up the possibility of domestic renewable energy storage to a greater number of households and businesses worldwide. Developments in this area could lead to a CO2 reduction of 500,000 tonnes each year.

By using highly abundant sodium salts rather than lithium, it is expected that sodium-ion batteries will be significantly cheaper to produce. Another key element to the partnership will be to prove that sodium-ion technology can meet the life cycle requirements of solar energy storage. A conventional lead-acid battery would currently need to be replaced up to five times throughout the lifetime of a photovoltaic (PV) solar system.

Faradion will bring to the partnership its knowledge of sodium-ion battery technology, cell performance, battery markets and licensing. Moixa Technology, which is a leading developer of smart storage and direct current technologies will provide its ability to design, build and test photovoltaic energy storage systems and its knowledge of this market. WMG at the Universityof Warwick will supply the large scale prototype manufacturing and electrode coating capabilities.

Francis Massin, CEO of Faradion, said: “This partnership with Moixa Technology and WMG, University of Warwick,offers a great opportunity, not just for Faradion, but for global CO2reduction. Solar energy storage is an important growth market of the next five years and this partnership means that the UK has the opportunity to be at the forefront of technology development.”

Chris Wright, CEO of Moixa Technology, said: “Moixa are excited to be working with Faradion on this project, we believe that energy storage solutions such as Moixa’s Maslow have the potential to transform how the world uses energy, and pulling down the cost of the batteries is key to scaling this vision.”

Rohit Bhagat, Associate Professor at WMG said "We have invested heavily in our Energy Innovation Centre, and are pleased to be part of this project as we see Sodium-ion batteries offering strategic and technological advantages for solar and grid energy storage applications."

Media contacts

Alex Michaelides – amichaelides@torqueagencygroup.com
Telephone: 020 7952 1078

About Faradion Ltd
Faradion is pioneering the next generation of advanced, low-cost battery materials. These novel materials employ sodium-ion (Na-ion) technology which, when incorporated into batteries, will be virtually indistinguishable in terms of performance from the leading lithium-ion (Li-ion) products currently on the market.

Na-ion batteries have a number of benefits compared to battery technologies already on the market, with the foremost advantage being the low cost. The sodium salts used to prepare these battery materials are highly abundant, coming from more renewable sources than those of equivalent lithium salts, making them both cheap and easily obtainable. If compared to the equivalent salts used to make Li-ion batteries, the cost is approximately 1/10th.

Faradion was virtually the first investment made by Finance Yorkshire and is headquartered in Sheffield’s Innovation Centre. See more at: www.faradion.co.uk

About Moixa Technology 
Moixa Technology has a vision to transform how the world uses electricity. Moixa Technology has been developing smart storage and smart DC solutions and enabling technologies since 2008 with the support of over £2.5m of public funding contracts and R&D grants from DECC and InnovateUK. MASLOW is designed as a compact, rapid to install energy storage solution, for powering peak energy demands in homes and small offices, and to support aggregation and storage as a service for grid income, as well as providing local resilience on connected DC LED lighting and electronics.

http://www.moixatechnology.com   http://ww.meetmaslow.com

MASLOW®, DC Ready® and MOIXA® are registered trademarks of MoixaEnergy Holdings Ltd.  Moixa recently received additional Patent grants including US8849471, GB2476213, (WO2014087124A1 pending).

Faradion was virtually the first investment made by Finance Yorkshire and is headquartered in Sheffield’s Innovation Centre. See more at: www.faradion.co.uk

About WMG

WMG is an academic department of the University of Warwick, and one of the world’s leading research and education groups. They are at the forefront of innovative technology, leading major multi-partner projects that create and develop exciting new processes and products which lead to major breakthroughs are of huge benefit to organisations. Their undergraduate and postgraduate education programmes attract students from across the globe who recognise and the value their approach to research and impact driven education. 

WMG has a long history of research into hybrid, electric and low carbon vehicles, and is at the forefront of research, providing guidance and technical know-how in three key areas of Energy Storage; Energy Management; and Complex Electrical Systems.

The Energy Innovation Centre is a one stop shop for the development of new battery chemistries from concept to fully proven traction batteries, available in sufficient quantities for industrial scale testing. The Centre also includes a battery characterisation laboratory, aggressive testing chambers and an electric/hybrid drives test facility. Through the Centre they work in collaboration with companies, on projects in areas such as powertrain architecture, control optimisation strategies, secondary power source modelling and energy storage technologies.