An unusual European technology success story emerged last week. Northvolt, a Swedish company specialising in batteries, announced a major breakthrough in sodium-ion battery technology. Unlike conventional batteries that rely on lithium, nickel or cobalt - minerals that are currently sourced from external suppliers - Northvolt's innovation marks a departure from this dependency.

The long-standing challenge with sodium-ion batteries has been their lower energy density compared to lithium-ion counterparts, making them less suitable for critical applications such as electric vehicles and energy storage. However, Northvolt claims to have overcome this limitation by developing a sodium-ion battery with an energy density comparable to lithium-ion batteries used in residential and grid energy storage.

If Northvolt can successfully scale up this technology, it holds the promise of improving supply chain security in Europe. China currently dominates the battery supply chain, and Northvolt's progress could reduce dependence on Chinese sources.

But the story doesn't end there. China has been at the forefront of sodium-ion technology, although its batteries may still contain nickel and cobalt. CATL, a Chinese company, recently inaugurated a large-scale assembly plant for sodium-ion batteries and plans to integrate them into electric cars, initially alongside lithium-ion batteries.

While China cannot monopolise the sodium supply chain, the sodium-ion story underlines a crucial aspect of the contemporary geopolitical competition facing the West. The West now faces a formidable adversary that matches or exceeds its technological prowess in areas as diverse as electric cars, solar power, AI and semiconductor development.

The contrast with the past Cold War is striking. In the 1980s, the technological gap between the US and the Soviet Union in that era's most advanced field - information technology - was substantial. The USSR's limited computer infrastructure, with around 10,000 units compared to the US's 1.3 million in 1986, was a case in point. China, on the other hand, has managed to strike a balance between control and innovation, with a leadership that anticipates future trends. This century presents a very different landscape from the previous one.