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PaulKeebleyesterday at 7:07 AM1 replyview on HN

One thing I hadn't groked about Sodium Ion was the enormous Voltage range leads to a bit of an issue when it comes to current. You have a 4x voltage from top to bottom of the battery and this also means your current is 4x as well for the same power output. This becomes a bit of an issue and it is part of the efficiency equation, not just externally to the battery where wires have to be much larger than LFP or LI but internally due to internal resistance.


Replies

namibjtoday at 12:03 AM

Ehhh not really a problem unless you idolize 12/48 V style systems that aren't adequate for these modern chemistries (i.e., non-lead-acid based) that scale down effectively to single digit amp hours per cell. You can keep the current around a comfortable 20A at any pack size, just by increasing the voltage. Say 5Ah cells. At 1.5kV (the highest easily practical with mainstream transistors and sticking to the "simple" circuit designs), that's 7.5kWh per such battery string.

That's a small home solar setup's entire battery.