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Re:Pakistan says rooftop solar output to exceed grid demand ... by toomuchtodo on Thursday November 27, 2025 @02:40PM (#46072585)
LFP chemistries are approaching ~$50/kWh, and CATL's sodium chemistry is supposed to be ~$40/kWh (per CATL); soon it will be more expensive to ship the battery storage than the storage itself.

"Watershed moment:" Big battery storage prices hit record low in China auction - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44504630 - July 2025 (4 comments)

IEA: The battery industry has entered a new phase - https://www.iea.org/commentaries/the-battery-industry-has-en... - March 5th, 2025

Naxtra Battery Breakthrough & Dual-Power Architecture: CATL Pioneers the Multi-Power Era - https://www.catl.com/en/news/6401.html - April 21st, 2025

China Already Makes as Many Batteries as the Entire World Wants - https://about.bnef.com/insights/clean-transport/china-alread... - April 19th, 2024

Re:Pakistan says rooftop solar output to exceed grid demand ... by kragen on Thursday November 27, 2025 @03:15PM (#46072859)
Currently "Sodium Battery Cell" is priced at US$50–70/kWh on the Shanghai Metals Market, which gives every appearance of being a real thing: https://www.metal.com/en/markets/43. They list LFP batteries currently at US$38–52/kWh: https://www.metal.com/en/markets/42

I think you may be dramatically overestimating how much container shipping costs.

Re:Pakistan says rooftop solar output to exceed grid demand ... by kragen on Friday November 28, 2025 @12:48AM (#46075863)
("Shanghai Metals Market" is reportedly a consultancy which provides price data, not a market.)
Re:Pakistan says rooftop solar output to exceed grid demand ... by sagarm on Thursday November 27, 2025 @05:42PM (#46073824)
Sodium batteries have significantly lower round-trip efficiency, so they have to be cheaper to win against LFP.
Re:Pakistan says rooftop solar output to exceed grid demand ... by torginus on Thursday November 27, 2025 @08:14PM (#46074696)
That's because of the huge range of voltages in the charge curve - resistive losses in wiring scale with the square of current. When the voltage drops, the current needs to increase for the same power.

If you can accept low power/current output (which EVs cant, but homes can), this isn't so bad.