HiTHIUM’s 4MWh sodium-ion system aims for 30-year life

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes · Last updated: 18 September 2026

HiTHIUM has unveiled the ∞Power N4.0MWh, a containerised 4MWh sodium‑ion battery system it says is designed for a 30‑year service life and utility-scale grid use. The company introduced the system on 16 September 2026 alongside its ∞Cell N785Ah cell and plans to begin full‑scale production and deliveries in 2027, as first reported by Interesting Engineering. HiTHIUM frames the design around long calendar life, a stacked‑cell architecture and a dedicated battery management system that it says will deliver high state‑of‑charge accuracy while cutting footprint and auxiliary power needs.

Energy storage technologies must overcome two barriers to achieve large-scale deployment: affordability and availability,

Dr. Nazar Yi, Chief Technology Officer of HiTHIUM

How the N4.0MWh system is built for long life

HiTHIUM describes the N4.0MWh as a stacked‑cell system with a dedicated battery management system intended to extend calendar life and reduce operational overhead. The vendor says its design reduces the system footprint by 30% and that a combined air‑and‑liquid cooling arrangement uses automated thermal controls plus integrated weather monitoring to switch cooling modes and cut auxiliary power consumption. Those changes are presented as part of the company’s case that an electrochemical system can meet infrastructure service‑life expectations.

The company reports a 24‑hour comprehensive efficiency that exceeds 88% and cites a state‑of‑charge estimation accuracy of 2.5% or better for the system’s management software. HiTHIUM also gives the system a service‑life target of 30 years, which it equates to 10,950 days of validation. Those are company performance claims rather than independently published test results; they imply a combination of cell longevity, conservative thermal management and precise state estimation.

Cell chemistry, performance claims and manufacturing fit

The ∞Cell N785Ah is a sodium‑ion cell HiTHIUM built specifically for energy‑storage durations it says range from two to eight hours. The company claims the cell has a service life of 20,000 cycles, a figure that, if met in real deployments, would place it in a bracket suitable for daily cycling applications and multi‑hour shifting.

HiTHIUM also says the sodium‑ion cells will run on its existing 1,000 Ah lithium‑ion manufacturing platform, including cell and system integration lines. That compatibility is the company’s route to scale: adapting established production tooling and integration processes rather than building wholly separate manufacturing facilities. The claim ties the technology’s commercial case to execution risk in adapting processes and qualifying cells at scale.

Performance claims that need field proof

Several of HiTHIUM’s technical metrics are stated as company measurements and require third‑party validation in grid conditions. The firm reports that its state‑of‑charge estimation has an accuracy of 2.5% or better, that power‑conversion‑system utilization is more than 20% higher than its prior sodium system, and that auxiliary and standby consumption fall by 30% and 50% respectively under the new thermal controls.

Those improvements, if reproduced in independent tests, would materially lower operating expenditures and improve usable energy throughput. The company has launched an ∞Edge Pioneer Program to test cells and systems in extreme environments and says it will disclose progress over the next three years; such program results will be the primary evidence to confirm cycle life, calendar degradation and real‑world efficiency claims.

Market fit, resource case and application targets

HiTHIUM positions sodium‑ion on resource grounds: sodium is more abundant and widely distributed than lithium, which the company and its CTO, Dr. Nazar Yi, cite as an availability advantage for scaling grid storage. The vendor is targeting utility‑scale projects while also aiming to push systems into commercial and industrial storage, residential uses and energy‑access projects.

Commercial ambition is accompanied by a price target: HiTHIUM says it wants to move energy storage toward a levelized cost of storage of RMB 0.1 per kWh. The company plans full‑scale production and deliveries in 2027 and to introduce technology packages for extreme environments as it gathers field data. Whether those price and application targets translate into competitive procurements will depend on deployment scale, local grid requirements and how the sodium cells compare with incumbent lithium‑ion systems on total lifecycle cost.

Case for and against commercial adoption

The bottom line

HiTHIUM’s ∞Power N4.0MWh and ∞Cell N785Ah set out a familiar commercial playbook for alternative chemistries: claim competitive cycle life and efficiency, tie the new cell to existing production tooling, and use field testing to prove durability. The company’s timelines—production in 2027 and multi‑year field trials through the ∞Edge Pioneer Program—give procurement teams specific milestones to watch. The technical metrics reported (20,000 cycles, SOC accuracy ≤2.5%, >88% 24‑hour efficiency) are measurable; converting those company claims into procurement confidence will require published test data and deployed performance in real grid environments.

What to watch

• Watch for HiTHIUM to begin full‑scale production and deliveries of the ∞Power N4.0MWh system in 2027.
• Watch for progress disclosures from the ∞Edge Pioneer Program during 2027–2029; HiTHIUM has said it will disclose progress over the next three years.
• Watch for HiTHIUM to introduce technology packages for extreme environments; no date has been set for those product introductions.