America's First Sodium-Ion Battery Manufacturer Ceases Operations (wral.com)
- Reference: 0179036396
- News link: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/09/05/2126200/americas-first-sodium-ion-battery-manufacturer-ceases-operations
- Source link: https://www.wral.com/story/battery-maker-natron-closes-shop-killing-plans-for-1-000-jobs-in-north-carolina/22144342/
> [2]Natron Energy has announced the [3]immediate cessation of all operations , including its [4]manufacturing plant in Holland, Michigan , and plans to build a [5]$1.4 billion "gigafactory" in North Carolina . A company representative cited "efforts to raise sufficient new funding [being] unsuccessful" as the rationale for the decision.
>
> When previously covered by Slashdot, comments on the merits of sodium-ion included the ability to use aluminum [6]in lieu of heavier, more expensive copper anodes ; [7]a charge rate ten times that of lithium-ion ; and [8]Earth's abundance of sodium -- though at least one anonymous coward [9]predicted the cancellation of the project .
[1] https://slashdot.org/~Grady+Martin
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natron_Energy
[3] https://www.wral.com/story/battery-maker-natron-closes-shop-killing-plans-for-1-000-jobs-in-north-carolina/22144342/
[4] https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/24/05/03/2317204/lithium-free-sodium-batteries-exit-the-lab-enter-us-production
[5] https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/24/11/09/0414255/americas-first-sodium-ion-battery-gigafactory-announced-cost-14-billion
[6] https://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?cid=64934601&sid=23515293&tid=154
[7] https://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?cid=64447116&sid=23311752&tid=154
[8] https://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?cid=64448130&sid=23311752&tid=154
[9] https://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?cid=64934511&sid=23515293&tid=154
Blame Trump and his administration (Score:5, Informative)
Investment right now is hard since Trump is making everything unstable. People do not want to invest when there's instability. Trump's administration has also taken an extremely anti-EV and anti-solar/anti-wind position, which means for the next few years, all the obvious use cases for these systems will be at best precarious.
Re:Blame Trump and his administration (Score:4, Insightful)
Oh the batteries will get investment just not in the US, that was kind of their whole point.
Re: (Score:3)
In other words, it's just handing the technology over to CATL in China.
CATL got tons of Chinese government money to do big R&D and are currently the leaders in sodium ion technology. And the batteries are to be cheaper (lots of sodium ions around - we have oceans full of it, and the anode and cathode materials are cheap and plentiful).
Government investing in new technology helps promote use of that technology. Trump is basically handing China the next generation battery technology and likely to be able
You know I was thinking (Score:2)
Why didn't Europe counteract the Russian propaganda so the Trump didn't become president.
Then it dawned on me that they were hoping Trump would destroy the American economy so that they could supplant us as a global power.
It's an extremely dangerous game. I don't think the world realizes just how absolutely batshit crazy America is. And we still have the largest military on the planet. Plus failing empires usually engage in military conquest to shore up emptying coffers from incompetent leadership..
Re: (Score:1)
Why didn't the EU counteract Russian propaganda? Because it wasn't WHOLLY Russian, and we've got enough of our own problems over here with such issues, too - there's a group of rich people, including those who own a LOT of international media, who are prefectly happy with turning the US in a fascist/neo-feudalistic state, and for continuing to divide the EU, too, (so it should be no surprise why they and Putin have common goals), and it was obvious to many of us looking from the outside, just HOW MUCH more
Re: (Score:2)
> Why didn't Europe counteract the Russian propaganda so the Trump didn't become president.
One reason might be because it didn't really do anything. The main reason you think it does is that you yourself are highly susceptible to exactly this kind of thing, so you're just used to believing that it's highly effective.
> I don't think the world realizes just how absolutely batshit crazy America is. And we still have the largest military on the planet. Plus failing empires usually engage in military conquest to shore up emptying coffers from incompetent leadership...
> I'm sure they're counting on nukes but like I said we are so much crazier than the rest of the world thinks we are. We honestly do not care that you have nukes. About 40% of us think God or the golden dome will protect us... And the other 60% is too busy trying to survive another day to do anything to stop that 40% from doing crazy shit anymore
See what I mean?
Re: (Score:1)
Both sides of the aisle are behind AI which needs a mountain of upgrades to the electrical grid. So I don't think this is quite true.
Re: (Score:2)
> AI which needs a mountain of upgrades to the electrical grid
This is actually the single reason why I want to see more AI investment, especially for companies like fecebook, apple, and amazon, who are going basically nowhere with it but still need to invest heavily into the grid in order to have it. I honestly don't think AI is going to deliver on much of what it promises any time soon. But in the short-to-mid term, throwing a lot of investment into e.g. nuclear power (which we're incredibly behind on because the surrounding regulations are borderline insanity here)
CATL beat them to the punch (Score:2)
I just saw where they've got sodium ion batteries coming out the factory door at $10/kwh.
Wanna bet... (Score:2)
Wanna bet that their business plan, much like Solyndra's business plan back in the day, was based on nearly endless supplies of government-backed money to fund their business when rational investors wouldn't...
> A company representative cited "efforts to raise sufficient new funding [being] unsuccessful" as the rationale for the decision.
Once Trump got into office, the money spigot got turned off, and lots of otherwise risky/speculative projects like this one will struggle to find funding.
(As a reminder, the government allowed Solyndra to solicit their final round of funding (before going out-of-business) by guaranteeing the final-rou
Re: (Score:2)
Fun fact, the DOE program that funded Solyndra.....made MILLIONS in profit.
[1]https://www.npr.org/2014/11/13... [npr.org]
Total loaned $34.2 billion
Losses $780 million 2.28% default rate is damned good.
Repayment $810 million in interest payments
$30 million profit
[1] https://www.npr.org/2014/11/13/363572151/after-solyndra-loss-u-s-energy-loan-program-turning-a-profit
Re: (Score:2)
> Wanna bet that their business plan, much like Solyndra's business plan back in the day, was based on nearly endless supplies of government-backed money to fund their business when rational investors wouldn't...
Their business plan was to develop sodium-ion batteries. This requires a lot of speculative research, which requires time and money. Meanwhile, Chinese CATL launched a new sodium-ion battery line. And BYD is building a $2B sodium-ion factory right now.
In 5 years, the US will face international battery competition from two fronts: solid-state batteries for high-performance cars and electronics, and sodium-ion batteries for grid-scale projects and cheap cars. With thousands of patents protecting all the imp
Not the point. (Score:1, Troll)
There was never going to be any batteries. The government money went into the pockets of the people who it was intended for. It's purpose was served.
Re: (Score:2)
You do have to like how the editors give shoutouts to obvious troll posts.
Re: Not the point. (Score:2)
Based on what evidence? There must be something more than the comment of an anonymous troll on /. to make you claim corruption.