From ESS News

Chinese sodium-ion battery manufacturer HiNa Battery has signed a five-year agreement with South Korea’s Volta Co. for the supply of 10 GWh of sodium-ion batteries, marking a significant expansion of the companies’ existing cooperation.

The strategic agreement was signed on Sept. 2 and builds on an earlier 15 MWh storage program involving utility-scale, commercial and industrial, and residential applications, according to HiNa Battery. The company did not disclose the contract value, annual delivery schedule or timing of the first shipments.

Under the cooperation framework, HiNa Battery will provide sodium-ion cell technology and manufacturing capacity, while Volta will lead energy storage system integration and market development in South Korea. Kwangwoon University will participate as a technical verification partner, providing research, testing and validation support.

The arrangement creates a three-party structure combining Chinese cell manufacturing with local system integration and independent technical verification. HiNa said the earlier 15 MWh program provided the application basis for expanding cooperation to the five-year supply framework. Public information on the validation projects remains limited, with no detailed disclosure of their locations, individual capacities, cell configurations or operating data.

HiNa Battery, whose technology originated from sodium-ion research led by Hu Yongsheng at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Physics, has been one of China’s early commercial developers of sodium-ion batteries.

Its current storage products include the HE240, a 240 Ah cell designed primarily for large-scale storage, and the NE170, a 170 Ah product targeting frequency regulation and distributed storage. HiNa said the HE240 underwent two years of production validation at its GWh-scale manufacturing line in Fuyang, Anhui province, while the NE170 has entered batch delivery.

The company has also begun testing overseas demand. In July 2025 it delivered a 1.1 MWh sodium-ion battery cluster to a German energy company for integration into a containerized storage system. The product met IEC 62619, UN 38.3, RoHS and REACH requirements, according to HiNa.

The South Korean agreement comes amid an acceleration in sodium-ion storage commercialization in 2026.

In April, CATL and Chinese storage integrator HyperStrong signed a three-year, 60 GWh sodium-ion battery cooperation agreement, which CATL described as the world’s largest sodium-ion storage supply agreement to date.

CATL subsequently signed an agreement with Dutch energy technology company Alfen in July to deploy 5 GWh of sodium-ion storage systems across Europe, with projects expected to begin from 2027.

These agreements suggest sodium-ion batteries are beginning to move beyond pilot installations toward GWh-scale procurement, particularly in stationary storage where lower dependence on lithium resources, wide-temperature performance and high cycle capability may offer advantages. However, lithium iron phosphate remains the dominant chemistry for stationary storage, benefiting from far larger manufacturing scale and a mature supply chain. The commercial significance of HiNa Battery’s 10 GWh agreement will therefore depend on how quickly the five-year framework translates into firm project deployments and recurring deliveries in the Korean market.