ATENA+

A European initiative for the future of energy storage

As Europe’s energy system transitions toward more renewable sources, the need for efficient and sustainable energy‑storage solutions is growing. Sodium‑ion batteries are emerging as a promising alternative to lithium‑ion technology, thanks to sodium’s abundance, lower cost, and suitability for stationary applications. The project Advanced Technology for stationary Energy storage systems in NA-ion (ATENA+) will demonstrate how the technology can be scaled up and deployed in real‑world environments.

The project is funded by the EU’s research programme Horizon Europe and runs from January 2025 to December 2028 (Grant Agreement No. 101192673). With nearly 7 million euros in support, the consortium is working to develop the entire value chain for sodium‑ion batteries, from raw materials to system‑level demonstration.

A comprehensive approach to sodium‑ion batteries

ATENA+ takes a holistic approach to the development of sodium‑ion batteries. The work includes:

• raw‑material processing and electrode development
• cell manufacturing and process upscaling
• advanced performance and safety testing
• design of modules and battery‑management systems
• system validation in five different use cases within stationary storage and short‑range vehicles

How SEEL and RISE contribute to the project

SEEL will perform electrochemical assessment of the Na-ion cells consisting of both calendar and cycling aging tests performs at different operating temperatures, P-rates, and SOC intervals. RISE is responsible for safety assessment and will conduct test to determine cells safety (flame, rupture, explosion, leakage etc) and thermal runaway (energy, quantity of gas released, gas composition, temperature, toxicity etc.) behaviours.

European collaboration between leading actors

The consortium consists of 13 partners from across Europe, where research institutes, industrial companies, and innovation organisations work together to drive development: CIDETEC (Spain), Saft (France), Topsoe Battery Materials (Denmark), Stora Enso (Finland/Sweden), E‑Lyte Innovations (Germany), Iberdrola Renovables Energia (Spain), ZSW (Germany), RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, SEEL Swedish Electric Transport Laboratory (Sweden), VITO (Belgium), Life Cycle Engineering (Italy), Fondazione ICONS (Italy) och Engreen (Italy).

Together, they aim to strengthen the European value chain and accelerate electrification and the green transition.