SoftBank’s mobile arm is gearing up to scale up its intriguing zinc-halogen battery cell chemistry to annual production of 1 GWh.
By ESS news
Japanese investment conglomerate SoftBank Group said its telecommunications arm, Japan’s SoftBank Corp, will build zinc-halogen battery cells and storage systems for the Japanese market and scale up to 1 GWh per year.
Production of both batteries and solar panels will take place at SoftBank’s factory in Osaka, Japan, and the site will house both an AI data center and an AI hardware factory. On the battery side, it will collaborate with South Korean battery company Cosmos Lab and AI company DeltaX Co.
Cosmos Lab will work with SoftBank on what it called the next generation of zinc-halogen battery cells, and with DeltaX on the battery designs. Two companies will be established: AX Factory will serve as a hub for AI data center operations and hardware manufacturing, and GX Factory will serve as a manufacturing hub for next-generation batteries, solar panels and related products.
In the press release, Softbank said: “At the GX Factory, SoftBank plans to begin production of battery cells and energy storage systems beginning in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2028 (FY2027), with the goal of achieving mass production at a gigawatt-hour (GWh)-per-year scale around FY2028.”
Zinc halogen
Zinc halogen batteries use pure water as the electrolyte, adding an innate safety to the design. Aqueous zinc-ion batteries have been pursued in the past, both in laboratories and in production, but have a small share of the battery market. Halogen elements include iodine, bromine or chlorine.
In general, the practical implementation of halogen cathodes faces challenges. According to peer reviews, these include intrinsically low electrical conductivity, severe corrosion and competing hydrolysis reactions. However, the relative abundance of key materials can make them cost-effective, intrinsically safe and with a relatively long lifespan.
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