Molten Salt Battery Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Battery Type ( Liquid Metal, Sodium-Sulphur, Others ), By End-Use ( Military, Power Plants, Electric Vehicles, Others ) and regional Forecast, 2024-2032

Energy storage is an important tool to enable and unlock the benefits of the effective integration of the renewable power generated in the given area. The players involved in the energy storage market are focused on developing advanced energy storage systems, which are mainly for the developed economies. The molten salt battery is a type of battery system that uses molten salts as electrolytes and provides high power and high energy density. Molten salt batteries store the energy from the solar and wind power plants to supply it to the grids. The molten salt battery system operation is carried out at an elevated temperature, and the temperature is maintained by self-heating during the charging and discharging of the battery.

By battery type, the molten salt battery market is classified as the liquid metal battery, sodium sulphur battery, and sodium-nickel chloride battery, among others. In the liquid metal battery, the electrodes and the electrolyte are in the liquid state, and the battery is used in the grid-scale electricity storage. The sodium sulphur battery consists of sulphur and sodium electrodes with an electrolyte between them. The sodium sulphur battery has applications in renewable energy storage. By end-use, the molten salt battery has energy storage and supply applications in military, power plants, and electric vehicles, among others.

Lithium-ion batteries have been used in energy storage applications in renewable energy plants. However, the manufacturers in the energy storage market are focused on developing new batteries, which would be more cost-effective and efficient as compared to lithium-ion batteries. Molten salt batteries being one of them, are in the introduction phase in the market and have applications in the energy storage systems for renewable grids. Owing to an economical cost and high efficiency over the conventional counterparts, the molten salt battery market is expected to witness robust growth in the coming years. The molten salt batteries have applications in electric vehicles, and the growth in the sales of electric vehicles is expected to drive the sales of molten storage batteries in the near future.

The molten storage batteries are manufactured by a handful of manufacturers in the market. Owing to this, the molten salt batteries are not available in all locations and hence lead to growth at relatively slower rates.

Key Players Covered

Some of the major companies that are present in the global molten salt battery market are NGK Insulators, Ltd, Ambri, Aquion, and Sumitomo, among others.

Regional Analysis:

The global molten salt battery market has been segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. The electric vehicle sales in North America have increased at steady rates in the recent past. Additionally, solar capacities in the U.S are increasing at healthy rates. Owing to this, the molten salt battery market is expected to grow at high rates in North America during the forecast period. The solar renewable capacity addition has drastically increased in the Latin America region. Brazil, Chile, and Mexico are among the key countries to have witnessed robust growth in renewable capacity addition. The growth of the renewable energy industry in Latin America is forecast to boost the sales of molten salt batteries in the coming years.

Europe region is among the key markets for the sales of electric vehicles. According to the reports of the International Energy Agency, countries like Norway, Germany, and France reported a significant growth in the new sales of electric vehicles. Owing to the growth of electric vehicle sales, the molten salt battery market is expected to grow at a decent pace in Europe. The power generation industry in the Middle East and Africa region is growing rapidly owing to robust growth in the solar capacity addition in Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and the United Arab Emirates, among others. Growth in the solar capacity addition in the Middle East and Africa region is expected to augment the market growth of the molten salt battery market in the near future.

In the Asia Pacific region, China was reported by EIA to be a global leader in the new sales of electric vehicles in the year 2018. In addition, the renewable energy industry in Asia Pacific region has grown at an appreciable rate in the recent past. This is likely to propel the growth of the molten salt battery market in the Asia Pacific region.

Segmentation

Key Industry Developments

• In June 2019, BASF New Business GmbH entered into a sales partnership agreement with NGK Insulators, Ltd, which allows BASF to sell the sodium sulphur batteries of NGK through its global channels.


• In May 2019, Alfa Laval, Concord New Energy Group, and Breakthrough Energy Ventures invested US$ 26 million in a storage start-up of X-company. The start-up under the name Malta is planning to build a standalone thermal energy storage pilot based on concentrated solar power (CSP) Molten Energy Storage.


• In May 2019, Noor III CSP tower in Morocco was reported to perform exceedingly well, giving higher outputs than the target outputs. The plant is among the world’s largest operational CSP power plants using the molten salt storage technology.