First sodium-ion battery storage station at grid level opens with cells that can be charged in 12 minutes

schizoidman@lemmy.ml to Technology@lemmy.ml – 307 points –
First sodium-ion battery storage station at grid level opens with cells that can be charged in 12 minutes
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I'm curious what the temperature resiliency is for sodium-ion batteries. I had a power outage recently where I was relying on a lithium-ion battery. As the temperature in the house plunged, it because so inefficient that charging a single phone overnight drained a quarter of the battery.

If I'm not mistaken sodium ion is better with temperature and durability. The biggest problem is energy density, so they can't compete in any applications where size and weight matter. This leads to their 2nd biggest problem, which is that there's so much production infrastructure for lithium that no one wants to invest in new assemblies for other battery chemistries

They're meant to have a much wider temperature range than Li-ion, theoretically.

If I'm not mistaken, those portable power stations with AC inverters consume power even when not in use. You probably should use the DC output wherever possible.

It has outputs through USB-A, USB-C, AC, and DC-vehicle (whatever it's called). I think the AC inverter was off, though I had been using it earlier. I was definitely charging fully through the USB-C output. Good point, though.

What size? That sounds like a little 2000mah power bank.

That's the thing, it wasn't. It's an Ecoflow Delta Power Station, We tested boiling 1.5 liters of water off it and it used 15% of the capacity. Meanwhile, charging the phone overnight drained 30%.

That doesn't seem normal. Did you like use the phone all night otherwise it should charge up quickly and then not use any noticeable energy.

You would think, but we went directly to bed with as many blankets and coats as we could find. Just plug it in and let it charge. The phone has a maximum power draw of maybe 20W when speed charging. Not exactly boiling water.

I need to do some more formal testing, but I've found the discharge rate of my ecoflow to be baffling compared to my Jackery or a big Bluetti I have. My experience has been similar to yours.

Which has surprised me because in general I've only heard good things about them.

Did you find it was connected to temperature or other drop offs in capacity?

I've got some 20-ish kWh LiFePo in the basement. The internal temperature barely reacts to a forgotten window in a cold winter night. The whole thing is just many kilograms of thermal mass. Are you sure the battery temp was your problem?

Battery temp is certainly a problem. Hard to compare between y'all's stories what the issues are.