Another Sodium Energy Storage Startup Vows To Carry On After Natron Crashes

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US workers can kiss another 1,000 factory jobs good-bye, now that the “salt battery” firm Natron has closed its doors. The closure is also a setback for renewable energy stakeholders, who were counting on a new generation of low-cost batteries for wind and solar storage. However, it’s not the end of the line for sodium batteries. Another US energy storage startup, Inlyte, is still on track to begin domestic production of it new sodium-iron battery formula.

Lights Out For The Natron Sodium Battery …

It seems like only yesterday that Natron was gearing up to produce its sodium batteries at a former lithium-ion battery facility in North Carolina. As of last year, Natron was prepping the site for an initial capacity of 600 megawatts, leading up to the gigascale buildout of additional factories in the future.

As of earlier this week, though, the hammer came down. Natron announced that it is winding down operations at its Michigan headquarters as well as the North Carolina shop.

The company did not provide a detailed explanation, but lurking in the background of every factory closure these days is US President Donald Trump and his misbegotten tariff wars, along with his persistent attacks on the domestic wind and solar industries.

Trump’s allies in Congress can also take a bow for destroying good-paying factory jobs all over the US. With Republicans in control of both the House and Senate, the President’s demand for a job-crushing tax bill — the “One Big Beautiful Bill” — sailed through Congress in July.

“The OBBB was enthusiastically supported by every Republican member of Congress from North Carolina, including so-called senators Thom Tillis and Ted Budd, and representatives Greg Murphy, Virginia Foxx, Addison McDowell, David Rouzer, Mark Harris, Richard Hudson, Pat Harrigan, Chuck Edwards, Brad Knott, and Tim Moore,” CleanTechnica’s Steve Hanley noted last week.

… Lights On For Sodium Energy Storage

So much for those 1,000 new jobs. Nevertheless, as President Trump surely knows, the renewable energy transition is unstoppable. Real estate investors and developers are continuing to fill the demand for onsite renewable energy, particularly solar energy, and they are fueling the demand for more, better, cheaper energy storage technologies, too.

Sodium emerged as a significant area of energy storage research about 50 years ago, but lithium-ion technology leaped ahead on the basis of superior energy density, durability, and other key parameters. Still, sodium offers the advantages of an abundant, non-toxic, non-flammable, and relatively inexpensive supply chain.

In addition, sodium offers the potential for long-duration energy storage at the grid-scale level, which the US Department of Energy (such as it is today) defines as at least 10 hours, ideally much longer. In contrast, the typical lithium-ion battery array only lasts around 4 hours or so.

Researchers have been chipping away at the limitations of sodium technology over the past 50 years, and that brings us to Inlyte today (see more sodium battery background here).

The Inlyte Solution

Inlyte surfaced on the CleanTechnica radar in March of this year when it announced plans for accelerating its manufacturing timeline in the US, in partnership with the Swiss sodium battery specialist HORIEN Salt Battery Solutions (formerly FZSoNick). Following the success of a pilot-scale plant in the UK, the new “Inlyte Factory 1” in the US will integrate Inlyte’s sodium-iron formula into HORIEN’s manufacturing system.

In June, Inlyte also managed to squeeze a $4 million grant out of the Energy Department, through the agency’s CiFER (Critical Facility Energy Resilience) program.

“Inlyte and its partners will develop and demonstrate an iron and sodium long duration energy storage system to improve energy resilience at the Alliance Redwoods site in Occidental, CA,” the Energy Department somewhat cryptically explained in a press statement.

Inlyte provided more details in a press statement of its own. Alliance Redwoods is a nonprofit organization and retreat destination for church groups and other nonprofits. It was selected for the sodium-iron battery demonstration partly due to its designation as an evacuation center and fire protection staging area in a high-risk area for wildfires, where both diesel fuel and lithium-ion energy storage technology are at a disadvantage.

“The project, developed with partner Vital Energy Solutions, will enhance wildfire resilience for a critical evacuation zone, reduce facility electricity costs, and provide a diesel-free alternative for long-duration backup power,” Inlyte explained. “Inlyte’s domestically manufactured, non-flammable battery solution is uniquely suited for this project, maintaining performance at high ambient temperatures.”

The plan is to integrate the 200-kilowatt, 4 megawatt-hour, sodium-iron energy storage system in a microgrid featuring a 570-kilowatt solar array. Despite the relatively small size of the overall system, Alliance is expecting a big payoff. Inlyte estimates that the organization could shave as much as $300,000 off its annual electricity bill once the microgrid is up and running in 2027.

In addition, the new system will provide a good two weeks worth of backup power in emergencies, enabling Redwoods to ditch the cost of maintaining a diesel backup generator. In case of an emergency, the extra added benefit of noise-free, pollution-free power generation will make life easier for first responders and evacuees at the site, too.

“The project will also provide backup power for Russian River Utility’s nearby water pump station, which is essential for public water supply and firefighting efforts,” Inlyte added.

Everybody Wants More & Better Energy Storage

A member of the Alliance board, Mike Dethlefsen, neatly summed up the case for on-site renewable energy and energy storage. “With Inlyte’s battery and our solar array, we can operate independently from the grid during outages at a greatly reduced cost,” he said. “Crucially, it ensures we can remain operational to serve our community and power other critical local infrastructure when the grid goes down.”

Those same factors can apply to any number of community assets and commercial properties. Inlyte already anticipates replicating the Alliance model elsewhere.

In the latest news from Inlyte, on September 5, the company announced that former Tesla manufacturing director Alison Armstrong is joining its executive team, along with Sandor Hollo (former CTO of GE Energy Storage) and Dilip Goswami, (former CEO of Molekule and venture partner at At One Ventures).

“The new leadership appointments mark a pivotal moment for Inlyte Energy as it transitions from technology development to commercial-scale production,” Inlyte explained.

As part of that transition, Inlyte has partnered with the leading utility Southern Company on a utility-scale version of its energy storage technology, to be demonstrated at a location in Birmingham, Alabama. Installation is expected before the end of the year.

Inlyte expects an evaluation period of at least one year to follow. “Results will be shared across a broad utility network, in collaboration with EPRI,” the company added, referring to the independent, influential nonprofit organization Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI).

EPRI launched in 1972, and it has been on a decarbonization tear of late. With a seal of approval from EPRI under its belt, Inlyte could be poised to make the most of an opportunity that slipped through the fingers of Natron.

Photo: The US startup Inlyte continues to plan for commercial production of its new sodium-iron battery, designed for long duration renewable energy storage (courtesy of Inlyte).