Bluetti NA300 Sodium-Ion Solar Generator Promises A Battery Revolution
Batteries have become a critical part of everyday life, especially as we become more dependent on electrical devices that run on them, from smartphones to laptops to even electric vehicles. Despite their essential role, batteries haven't exactly changed by leaps and bounds in the past years. Bluetti, one of if not the most prolific makers of solar generators a.k.a. portable batteries, is now trying to push the envelope of battery technology by presenting one such product that swaps the typical lithium-ion for sodium-ion.
Lithium-ion batteries are the most common type in mass use today, ranging from the small ones inside your smartphone to the larger ones in electric cars. Bluetti itself is heavily dependent on this technology for its products, particularly the LiFePO4 kind used by EVs. Unfortunately, the ubiquity of Li-ion batteries is starting to work against it because of supply shortages. A more common source material for batteries is needed, and Bluetti is now proposing its answer.
The portable battery maker explains that sodium has two particular properties that make it a suitable replacement. It shares similar chemical properties with lithium, so it could be used to create sodium-ion batteries. Equally important, however, is the fact that sodium outnumbers lithium in the Earth's crust a thousand-fold.
Of course, there are other benefits that make sodium-ion better than lithium-ion batteries, says Bluetti. It charges faster, for one, and has better overall cost-efficiency. More importantly, it can operate and charge at lower temperatures, down to -20°C (-4°F). Unfortunately, there is one key disadvantage, with sodium-ion offering a lower energy density than a lithium-ion battery of the same size.
That is why the new Bluetti NA300 sodium-ion solar generator only offers 3,000Wh of power compared to its look-alike, the 5,100Wh EP500. If that weren't enough, though, Bluetti will also be selling new B480 sodium-ion battery packs, each offering an additional 4,800Wh of power. Supporting up to two B480's, the NA300 can deliver a whopping 12,600Wh total capacity or even more if you throw in a Fusion Box. Of course, the solar generator comes with all the perks that its lithium-ion sibling offers, including fast 6,000W charging via simultaneous AC and solar sources.
As the world's first sodium-ion solar generator, the Bluetti NA300 may offer less power in the same size, but everything else is improved or at least the same. All that's left to find out is whether it will also be priced the same, and we'll have to wait for CES 2022 to find that out.