First sodium-ion battery ESS with 25-year service life comes in 30 MWh modules
At the same Munich product event where CATL debuted the Tener Stack LFP ESS giant last year, it now introduced the Tener sodium-ion ESS that can clock a 15,000-cycle lifespan when operating around the 25°C mark.
This is good for 25 to 30 years of grid service with 70% capacity retention, or roughly twice the real-world longevity that can be expected from most LFP deployments in high-cycling applications. The system sets a new benchmark for the sodium-ion category, as both BYD’s MC Cube sodium-ion BESS and HiNa’s Na-ion energy storage system are advertising a 10,000-cycle lifespan.
CATL Tener sodium-ion ESS specs
The modular architecture of CATL’s sodium-ion Tener exceeds 30 MWh of rated capacity, with each module weighing under 42 tons, so a 1 GWh installation would only need 34 of them. More importantly for utility operators, the Tener Na-ion retains over 92% of its capacity at -20°C or can sustain more than 10,000 cycles at 45°C without any added insulation or forced cooling, thanks to CATL's wide-temperature dipole technology at work.
During potential thermal runaway, the surface temperature will be around 200°C, which is 60% lower than lithium batteries, while the cell expansion force is reduced by 40%, making the sodium-ion Tener inherently safer than its lithium counterpart. The system sips power at just 1% of self-consumption, which is half the industry average and adds a good amount of recovered energy over a 30-year lifespan. Last but not least in Tener's specs are its noise emissions that sit at 65 dB, a level that makes it suitable to install near population centers.
CATL plans to install more than 200 GWh of sodium-ion ESS capacity, with domestic deliveries targeting September 2026 and a global rollout in 2027, leveraging the kind of manufacturing capacity that no competitor can match today. The Tener Na-ion modules are also drop-in compatible with existing LFP platforms, so utilities don't need to redesign anything to switch chemistries. CATL recently mentioned that sodium-ion batteries are becoming cost-competitive with lithium cells and is quick to try and corner the Na-ion market for both electric cars and energy storage systems.
Source(s)
Add as a preferred source on Google
