General Motors is expanding its grid-scale storage capabilities by betting on sodium-ion, which remains a relatively niche battery chemistry. Earlier this week, the Fortune 500 company announced a partnership with Peak Energy, the leader of a handful of companies looking to commercialize sodium-ion in the U.S.
The partnership comes with a strategic investment into Peak Energy by the automaker’s venture arm GM Ventures, and it will see the two companies collaborate closely to develop and deploy new sodium-ion battery cells. GM will retain exclusive manufacturing rights, while Peak will incorporate the cell into its energy storage systems.
Cameron Dales, co-founder and chief commercial officer of Peak Energy, told Latitude Media that the announcement is significant both for the company and for sodium-ion broadly. The backing, he said, could help Peak graduate from “a promising but earlier-stage technology company” to a “highly credible” one. And it’s a signal that the idea of using sodium-ion for grid storage is moving into the mainstream, he added, after being tested in small pilots over the past couple of years.
“It’s important for our end customers to see a company with the financial and manufacturing resources and the history of GM [back sodium-ion],” Dales said. “They view it as a validating announcement that this is real, it’s reaching scale.”
