Peak Energy shipped out its first sodium-ion battery energy storage system, and the New York-based company says it’s achieved a first in three ways: the US’s first grid-scale sodium-ion battery storage system; the largest sodium-ion phosphate pyrophosphate (NFPP) battery system in the world; and the first megawatt-hour scale battery to run entirely on passive cooling – no fans, pumps, or vents.
That’s significant because removing moving parts and ditching active cooling systems eliminates fire risk. According to the Electric Power Research Institute, 89% of battery fires in the US trace back to thermal management issues. Peak’s design doesn’t have those issues because it doesn’t have those systems.
Instead, the 3.5 MWh system uses a patent-pending passive cooling architecture that’s simpler, more reliable, and cheaper to run and maintain. The company says its technology slashes auxiliary power needs by up to 90%, saves about $1 million annually per gigawatt hour of storage, and cuts battery degradation by 33% over a 20-year lifespan.
“This isn’t just another product launch – it’s a breakthrough in energy storage,” said Paul Durkee, Peak’s VP of engineering. “The system is dead-simple with no moving parts, no planned maintenance, and negligible aux loads. It’s the lowest total-cost grid storage technology to be deployed anywhere in the world.”
Sodium-ion batteries work well in hot or cold weather without auxiliary cooling systems. That makes them cheaper and easier to maintain, especially for utility-scale projects. They also use more abundant materials. The US holds the world’s largest soda ash reserves, a key sodium-ion ingredient, and the full raw material supply chain can be sourced domestically or from allied countries.
“We see energy storage not only as an economic imperative, but also as a national security priority,” said CEO and co-founder Landon Mossburg. “We are committed to onshoring the manufacturing of this critical industry, and this launch proves our ability to execute quickly.”
Peak is working with nine utility and independent power producer (IPP) customers on a shared pilot this summer. That deployment unlocks nearly 1 GWh of future commercial contracts now under negotiation. The company plans to ship hundreds of megawatt hours of its new system over the next two years, and it’s building its first US cell factory, which is set to start production in 2026.
Launching the US’s first grid-scale sodium-ion battery comes less than two years after Peak Energy came out of stealth mode and just a year after it closed a $55 million Series A round.
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