The California Energy Commission’s (CEC) Realizing Accelerated Manufacturing and Production for Clean Energy Technologies (RAMP) program has awarded UNIGRID, a competitive grant. Through the “Advanced Sodium-ion Battery Production in California” project, UNIGRID will be able to set up a specialized battery pilot production plant in San Diego that can produce sodium-ion battery cells on an annual basis at MWh scale. UNIGRID’s Low-Rate Initial Production (LRIP) line will be designed, built out, and validated at a new 12,000 square foot facility in Sorrento Valley, San Diego, with the help of the $2.9 million grant.
UNIGRID’s advanced sodium-ion battery technology features:
- An Ultra-safe chemistry: Passed UN 38.3 and UL 9540A at the cell level — a rare achievement in energy storage.
- A wide operating temperature: Capable of operating continuously between -40°C and 60°C.
- Long cycle & calendar life: Operation up to 10,000 cycles at 100% DoD.
- No critical materials: No lithium, nickel, cobalt or copper.
- High Power capabilities: 15 minute charge & 5 minute discharge rates.
“This RAMP award is a major step forward—not just for UNIGRID, but for the future of safe, sustainable, and affordable energy storage in California,” stated Erik A. Wu, CTO at UNIGRID and Principal Investigator of the award. “We are grateful to the CEC for recognizing the value of our technology and supporting our mission to bring next-generation sodium-ion batteries to market.”
With the safety and supply chain hazards of lithium-ion batteries, UNIGRID’s sodium-ion batteries provide a strong substitute for grid resilience and distributed energy storage as energy needs continue to grow.
