Projects using novel, non-lithium battery technology have been progressed by organic flow battery firm CMBlu, liquid metal battery firm Ambri, and the NAS battery division of NGK Insulators.
A long-duration energy storage system using NGK’s sodium-sulfur (NAS) batteries has been commissioned by a subsidiary of German chemicals company BASF, which seeks out high growth opportunity businesses to work with.
Update 25 March 2021: NGK Insulators responded to a request for more info from Energy-Storage.news and confirmed that the NAS battery storage system will be sited at the 5MW Uliastai solar PV project which is included in the ADB’s Upscaling Renewable Energy Sector project for Mongolia.
BASF is using NGK Insulators’ sodium sulfur batteries as its entry point into the energy market, with the German chemical company signing up as a sales partner to the Japanese manufacturer.
Lithium and sodium sulfur batteries will be used for the first time in new territories, after NEC ES and NGK inked deals to deliver projects to an island archipelago in Brazil and in Dubai respectively.
Schneider Electric and NGK Insulators have reached the conclusion of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) under which both companies will explore global opportunities to jointly market NGK’s NAS (R) battery and Schneider Electric’s inverter (Conext Core XC ES).
A total of around 4.9GW/14GWh of grid-scale BESS entered commercial operations around the world last month, a 29% fall year-on-year owing to an unusually slow month in China.
