ESS & Juniper Energy Sign Agreement for 500 MWh+ of Sodium-Ion Energy Storage Deployments

Battery maker ESS Tech and developer Juniper Energy have agreed to work together on a large sodium-ion battery storage buildout, with plans for 500 megawatt-hours or more of installations over time. Sodium-ion batteries work like the lithium-ion batteries used in home solar-and-storage systems, but rely on sodium instead of lithium. Sodium is more abundant and easier to source domestically, which the companies say makes it a safer, more secure alternative as supply chains for lithium batteries face geopolitical pressure and new sourcing rules.

The first project under the deal is a 10-megawatt, 80-megawatt-hour storage installation in California, expected to start operating in 2027. It will use ESS's new modular sodium-ion system, called Bridge, paired with software that manages how the batteries charge and discharge. Juniper Energy says that if this project goes well, it intends to buy 500 megawatt-hours or more of ESS batteries by 2032.

This is a large-scale, utility-level storage project, not a home battery product. It won't put a sodium-ion battery in your garage anytime soon. But it matters for homeowners in a broader sense: more large batteries on the grid, especially ones built with cheaper, more available materials, can help make electricity supply more stable and potentially hold down costs as demand grows from things like data centers and electric vehicles. If sodium-ion technology proves itself in projects like this one, it could eventually show up in smaller systems for homes and businesses, though that is not part of what was announced here.