India, 18 September 2024: Cygni Energy Private Limited, a Hyderabad-based energy storage solutions player has been a strong advocate of Sodium-ion based solutions as a challenger to Lithium for specific applications.
Sodium based batteries have limited critical minerals making them significantly more sustainable. The chemistry is also inherently more safe and has many attractive features like the ability to support safe fast charging, high cycle life and superior tolerance to extreme temperatures. For many applications in India such as 3W and stationary storage the low energy density of Sodium-ion is not a constraint. Lastly, as Sodium is abundantly available the lower price volatility can significantly de-risk India’s decarbonization journey.
As part of this partnership, Cygni Energy will develop India specific storage solutions for suitable applications with HiNa’s cutting edge Sodium-ion cells. Telecom Towers are well suited for Sodium Ion as many of the towers are located at places which are sub-zero and extreme hot temperatures. It is also very well suited for Commercial and Industrial Energy storage on account of high safety and low-cost. The range of applications is wide and includes 3W vehicles, grid scale stationary storage, Solar based street lights, and home storage. HiNa will offer their deep expertise on the behaviour of the chemistry and inputs for development of chemistry specific sub-components for developing the storage solutions.
HiNa is a pioneer in Sodium-ion technology with 100+ core technology patents and a proven market leader with 12+ years of innovation. HiNA developed the First Sodium-Ion Industry Standard. It is one of the few players globally with commercially proven Sodium-ion cells with its patented Layered Oxide Cathode technology . HiNA has two Giga-watt scale manufacturing facilities that are already operational. HiNa’s technology was used to power a 100 MWh grid storage facility proving the maturity of its technology for industrial deployment.
Speaking on the announcement, Venkat Rajaraman, CEO, Cygni Energy said, “HiNa is a Global Leader in Sodium-ion space and hence a great partner to build exciting applications with this technology. The Sodium-Ion battery provides exceptional performance at low temperatures and scores very high on safety. The cycle performance is comparable to Lithium batteries and doesn’t depend on critical minerals. Sodium-Ion battery can be fast charged in 30 min or less and provides an excellent cost-performance. India will shortly need to look beyond Lithium to truly accelerate our decarbonization and Sodium-ion is a great bet in that direction”.
Commenting on the partnership, Dr. Kun Tang, CEO and Co-Founder of HiNa said, “India is investing aggressively to decarbonize its power and transportation sector and Sodium-ion is a great fit in that roadmap due to its potential for low cost and extreme temperature tolerance. Cygni Energy is a great partner for us and their state of the art battery manufacturing facility which can boost the rapid promotion and application of sodium-ion batteries in India. This partnership will help us to build cutting edge Sodium-ion based energy storage solutions for India!”