Courtesy: Peak Energy

FACTORED IN:
•Peak Energy has shipped its first sodium-ion battery system ahead of a shared pilot with nine utilities and independent power producers this summer.
•Peak’s battery system removes active cooling, pumps, and fans—features the company says account for over 85% of historical BESS failures.
•The company aims to begin U.S. cell production in 2026.

Sodium-ion battery storage startup Peak Energy has announced its first shipment of its system that will be used in a shared pilot with nine utility and independent power producers (IPP) this summer.

The Colorado-based company touts its battery as the first ever fully passive megawatt-hour (MWh) scale battery storage system, the largest sodium-ion phosphate pyrophosphate (NFPP) battery system in the world, and the first grid-scale sodium-ion storage solution deployed to the U.S. grid.

By removing active cooling, fans, pumps, and other moving parts, Peak Energy claims its 3.5 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) eliminates over 85% of the root causes behind historical BESS failures, dramatically reducing lifetime costs. According to Peak, this approach allows the battery to operate across a wide range of temperatures without requiring auxiliary systems, which are typically used to prevent overheating in lithium-ion systems.

Performance testing by Peak indicated the system could reduce auxiliary power use by up to 90%, saving approximately $1 million annually per gigawatt-hour installed compared to lithium iron phosphate (LFP) systems and cutting battery degradation by 33% over a 20-year period.

The company further notes that recent federal policy changes have elevated the urgency to develop domestic energy supply chains, adding that sodium-ion batteries do not require critical minerals like lithium, cobalt or nickel. The U.S. holds the world’s largest reserves of soda ash, a key ingredient for sodium-ion cells, and the company claims its supply chain can be sourced entirely from domestic or allied nations.

Peak said it is currently developing its first U.S. cell factory, which is expected to begin production in 2026

“We see energy storage not only as an economic imperative, but also as a national security priority. Time is of the essence if the U.S. wants to take ownership and maintain control of its energy future,” said Landon Mossburg, CEO and Co-Founder at Peak Energy.

The company’s pilot system is the first step in commercializing its technology. Peak plans to deploy “several hundred megawatt-hours” of sodium-ion storage over the next two years, with contracts under negotiation with IPPs and hyperscale data center operators.

The announcement follows a raise of $55 million in Series A funding last year and the company’s emergence from stealth in 2023.

This article originally appeared on Factor This: Power Engineering.

August 4, 2025
By Kevin Clark