Overview
- Peak Energy announced Wednesday that it selected Sacramento’s Metro Air Park for a 183,000‑square‑foot factory it calls the nation’s first dedicated sodium‑ion grid storage plant.
- The company says the site will cost up to $71 million, produce as much as 4 GWh of battery systems a year and create about 239 local jobs with an average wage above $90,000.
- Peak markets passively cooled sodium‑ion systems as cheaper and safer than lithium‑ion, claiming roughly 20% lower storage costs and a 99% uptime guarantee, but those performance and safety figures are company‑reported and not independently verified.
- Peak says it has more than 6 GWh in customer commitments and named partners including Jupiter Power, Energy Vault, RWE Americas and a strategic GM/GM Ventures partnership to develop next‑gen cells.
- The company projects production and shipments beginning Q1 2027 but local reporting gives a later operational target of end of 2027, and local partners such as SMUD say the plant could help integrate more renewables and lower customer bills while offering retraining and regional economic benefits.