GM Energy brings V2G support with a new energy storage battery

In terms of the number of AI data centers and the amount of money being paid to customers, Poppe said, “So we see that every gigawatt we can add to the grid will bring down 1 percent for everybody.” Poppe also said that AI can help the company to work more efficiently with existing resources. “We’ve developed a new playbook for simultaneous engineering using AI to optimize grid placement, grid utilization, and what needs to be in the right place, so we can have the lowest possible incremental costs,” Poppe said.

It still doesn’t look like Poppe’s vision is working for PG&E customers.

The salt of the earth

A sodium-ion battery module.

Credit: Roberto Baldwin

V2G support and deployment on the GM line is a must, but in support of a fixed grid, battery storage is the future.

Recognizing this, GM also announced sodium-ion batteries designed specifically for Energy Storage Systems (ESS) to support the electric grid. While EV batteries require powerful chargers and discharge cycles while being designed to be as light as possible, ESS batteries require long life and to be as cheap as possible.

“Our approach is simple: make the right battery for the right use,” Kurt Kelty, GM’s vice president of battery and sustainability, said at a press conference in San Francisco.

The sodium pyrophosphate (NFPP) batteries being developed together with Peak Energy, according to Kelty, should be 20 percent cheaper to maintain than the current ESS batteries. Peak Energy already has a sodium-ion NFPP ESS deployed. What GM has announced is what it sees as the next generation of batteries, and it hopes to begin production of its NFPP flavor in 2028.

GM did not share a manufacturing cost or target capacity for its batteries. Part of the 20 percent reduction in the cost of running a GM-produced sodium-ion battery with ESS is that the batteries operate within a higher temperature range than LFP and NMC, between -40°C (-40F) and 60°C (140°F). GM says it’s looking at 10,000 to 20,000 cycles, which is more than LFP batteries.