Overview of the Low-Cost Earth-Abundant Na-Ion Storage (LENS) Consortium

With the increase in the deployment of batteries for various application, supply chain challenges related to critical battery materials have come to the forefront. Sodium-ion batteries present an alternate to current Li-ion cells that, if commercialized, would diversify the material sets and ensure resiliency in the supply chain.
In this talk, we will discuss a recent US effort in sodium-ion batteries for vehicle applications with the creation of the Low-cost Earth-abundant Na-ion Storage (LENS) Consortium. This $50M program over 5 years aims discover, develop, and demonstrate a new class of sodium-ion batteries that match, and aspire to surpass, the specific energy and energy density of current graphite/lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries with long life and low cost, while minimizing, and ultimately eliminating, reliance on critical elements. LENS brings together a world-class team that comprises 6 national labs (Argonne, BNL, LBNL, PNNL, SNL, SLAC) and 8 universities (FSU, UCSD, UH, UIC, UM, URI, UWM, VT). The R&D targets and the approaches of this newly created consortium will be discussed in the talk.