CATL on June 22 unveiled what it described as the world's first utility-scale sodium-ion battery energy storage solution, introducing a sodium-ion storage system called Tianheng Sodium.

The system can provide more than 30 MWh of energy per unit and adopts a fully modular architecture that separates energy storage modules from power conversion modules, the company said.

CATL said the first batch of the sodium-ion storage systems will be delivered to customers in China in September. The company aims to ship 1 GWh of the systems by the end of 2026.

Deliveries to overseas markets are scheduled to begin in June 2027.

Sodium-ion batteries are widely viewed as a potential complement to lithium-ion technology because they rely on more abundant raw materials and can offer advantages in certain operating conditions, particularly for large-scale energy storage applications.