ESS Unveils Bridge: A Scalable Sodium-Ion Storage Platform for Utilities and Data Centers

Energy storage specialist ESS has pulled back the curtain on Bridge, a sodium-ion battery platform built around a modular architecture. Rather than relying on lithium, the system leans on sodium-ion chemistry, a choice that could sidestep some of the supply-chain and cost pressures tied to conventional lithium cells.

The company is positioning Bridge for three distinct arenas: grid-scale deployments, data center operators, and commercial installations. Its modular design means capacity can be expanded in increments, letting buyers scale storage up or down depending on site requirements instead of committing to a fixed footprint from the start.

Data centers in particular have become a focal point for storage vendors as power demand from AI and cloud workloads climbs. ESS’s pitch centers on pairing its sodium-ion approach with a flexible, building-block format that fits a range of project sizes.