Peak Energy has set out to use cheaper and more abundant raw materials to design sodium-ion battery energy storage systems (BESS). While a sodium-ion BESS is 30% less energy dense than those made from lithium-ion chemistries, they are also about 20% to 40% cheaper, says Landon Mossburg, who co-owns Peak Energy with Cameron Dales.

The United States has 19% of the world’s soda ash, from which sodium is derived. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, six companies in Wyoming and California comprise the US soda ash industry. which is the largest in the world.

Peak Energy sees the ability to scale as another bottleneck. To overcome this challenge, the company is leveraging partnerships with international and domestic sodium cell manufacturers to introduce this technology to the United States, while generating enough income to establish a local engineering site and gigafactory.

“We’ll do this in three phases,” Mossburg said.

Currently ongoing, the first phase involves importing the sodium-ion battery cells from manufacturers based in Asia, Europe and North America while producing packs in the United States. The company plans to launch small-scale demonstration systems early next year with an expected energy capacity and duration of 3 MWh.

“When stacked together, they can create a larger scale utility system,” Mossburg said.

The company will scale these systems to several 100 MWh commercial projects throughout 2026.

Peak Energy is currently testing cells from potential partners to decipher the best technology for US markets. However, Dales suggests their systems will likely consist of a hard carbon anode and a layered oxide, Prussian white or polyanion cathode.