GM Backs Sodium Ion Batteries for U.S. Grid Storage • Hacker News Board

Re: GM Backs Sodium Ion Batteries for U.S. Grid Storage

#111

Post by rbanffy » Mon, Jul 27, 2026, 8:40 AM UTC

throwaway27448 wrote: post #41

Surely this will just be Chinese hardware with a "made in America" label slapped on it. I can't fathom why anyone would allow GM of all companies to get any contracts

They have the manufacturing capacity others lack, and that’s hardly surprising when they have more STEM grads than previous superpowers have grads. Dedollarisation will severely limit debt-financed development for the US, so, if the US wants to regain its manufacturing might, they need to hurry up. That China will be a dominant superpower is a given, but it’s always healthy to have a multipolar world.

Re: GM Backs Sodium Ion Batteries for U.S. Grid Storage

#112

Post by hgomersall » Mon, Jul 27, 2026, 2:13 PM UTC

tim333 wrote: post #82

hgomersall wrote: post #78

I've been pondering the question of what happens if you change the design requirements to say, 20 charge/discharge cycles in total, then use it over seasonal timescales. Can you get the price so low that you can scale up enough battery storage to buffer a whole season?

I don't think anyone's cracked that yet. There was a YC startup trying to do stuff with iron oxide. ( https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/batteries/gigantic-form... ) And proposals using aluminium but again not in action. Also zinc air https://inc42.com/startups/sthyr-energy-aims-to-tame-169-bn-... the trouble is it's easy enough to propose such things but hard to be economically competitive with existing solutions.…

I've been thinking about Polysulphide-Air for this. There are certainly engineering questions, but on the face of it it looks like it might be tractable. I think the trick is to view it like a winter base-supply, and treat it like a power station that runs when solar is less.

Re: GM Backs Sodium Ion Batteries for U.S. Grid Storage

#113

Post by throwaway27448 » Mon, Jul 27, 2026, 3:48 PM UTC

thelastgallon wrote: post #46

throwaway27448 wrote: post #41

Surely this will just be Chinese hardware with a "made in America" label slapped on it. I can't fathom why anyone would allow GM of all companies to get any contracts

This is the same story everywhere. Nobody has the know-how or the deep ecosystems needed to do these things. India has a "made in India" mandate which is hilarious. >80% of solar panel (polysilicon, ingots, and silicon wafers) is from China. Situation is worse with batteries and EVs. Tata, which has been making vehicles for quite some time doesn't have any clue how to make EVs and is building an entire plant with a C…

I think you're right that politicians and the "deep state" (career bureaucrats) are easy to manipulate.

But there is an obvious explanation: short-term economic growth is a contradictory goal to building local industry. China has built their economy around scale and the rest of the world takes advantage of this. Scaling local industry will be expensive and require investment. Of course politicians are eager to provide both growth and the aesthetics of local industry while paying off their patrons.

This is unsustainable. At some point things will snap and people will swing wildly to the left or right.

Regardless of ideological or humanitarian concerns with China, they are clearly able to manage an economy with a longer term strategy than anyone else on earth, excepting maybe Cuba, North Korea, and Iran. Singapore and Rwanda also seem to be less affected by the malaise of short-term pleasuring of investors. Even norway with its sovereign wealth fund hasn't managed to diversify—or perhaps they simply don't have the labor or resources to do so.