Inlyte Energy CEO Details Iron-Sodium Battery Economics
Inlyte Energy is developing iron-sodium batteries using table salt and iron powder, which CEO Antonio Baclig claims can achieve a cost of $1-$15 per kWh, significantly lower than lithium-ion's estimated $30/kWh. The company acquired a UK-based pilot line with 45 years of intellectual property to accelerate its manufacturing process. Baclig stated the goal is to help the U.S. develop a new battery chemistry to reduce reliance on China's lithium-ion supply chain.
- Inlyte Energy was founded in 2021 by CEO Antonio Baclig, a Stanford PhD in Materials Science, and was incubated at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab's Activate program. The company raised an $8 million seed round in October 2023, led by At One Ventures with participation from investors including Anglo American and Climate Capital. - The company's technology is a re-engineered sodium metal halide battery, a design originally developed for electric vehicles in the 1980s but which was not cost-competitive with lithium-ion. By replacing expensive nickel with iron and optimizing the design for stationary grid storage instead of vehicles, Inlyte aims to significantly lower costs. - Inlyte's acquisition of UK-based Beta Research in 2022 gave it access to a pilot production line and the expertise of the scientists who originally developed sodium metal halide battery technology over 40 years ago. This move was an unusual pre-seed international acquisition for a climatetech startup. - Recent factory tests of its full-scale system demonstrated an 83% round-trip efficiency, which is competitive with lithium-ion systems and significantly higher than other long-duration storage technologies that typically range from 40-70%. The tested modules, at over 300 kWh each, are the largest sodium metal chloride battery modules ever built. - A key commercialization step is a demonstration project with Southern Company, a major U.S. utility, to install an 80-kilowatt/1.5-megawatt-hour system at its Alabama test site in 2026. Inlyte is also targeting data centers as a potential market, offering a replacement for diesel generators and uninterruptible power supply systems. - Inlyte is partnering with Swiss company Horien Salt Battery Solutions (formerly FZSoNick) to develop its first U.S. factory, aiming for commercial production by 2027 with an initial planned capacity of 2 GWh per year. - Sodium-ion batteries generally have lower energy density (80-150 Wh/kg) compared to lithium-ion (120-265 Wh/kg), but offer advantages in safety, wider operating temperatures (-40°C to 80°C), and cost, with raw materials being roughly 30% cheaper. - Turkey is targeting 80 GWh of energy storage capacity by 2030 and has seen a surge in license applications for storage projects, totaling 160 GW of potential capacity. Local developments include Kontrolmatik's plan for a 1 GWh battery system paired with a 250 MW wind farm and Vestel's launch of a domestic battery energy storage system for EV charging.
