The new installed capacity in 2023 is nearly 10 times of that at the end of the "13th Five-Year Plan"---
Accelerated pace of development of new energy storage industry (Industrial Economics Observations - From emerging industries to see the new quality of productivity)
The world's first 300-megawatt compressed air energy storage power plant is connected to the grid in Yingcheng, Hubei. Yu Jianbing photo
Foshan, Guangdong Province, nine lithium battery technology routes in the Baotang energy storage power station "the same stage competition", the installed capacity accounts for about 1/5 of the total amount of new energy storage in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Bay Area;
Hubei Yingcheng, the world's first (set) 300 megawatts of compressed air energy storage power station connected to the grid, the use of waste salt caverns as a gas storage, a single storage of electricity for a small and medium-sized city for 5 hours of continuous electricity;
Jiangsu Rudong, China's first 100 MWh gravity energy storage project to step up the construction of a 148-meter-high energy storage tower will be lifted and lowered gravity blocks for storage and discharge ......
Since this year, different technical routes of new energy storage have continued to land. The new energy storage refers to the energy storage technology that outputs electricity as the main form and provides services to the outside world in addition to pumped storage, including electrochemical energy storage, compressed air energy storage, gravity energy storage and so on. They can change the traditional power system that is issued immediately with the way, like a "super charging treasure", the new energy big or low power when charging, new energy power small or peak power discharge, is conducive to promoting the development and consumption of new energy and the safe and stable operation of the power system.
This year's "Government Work Report" puts forward, "the development of new energy storage". As of the end of the first quarter of this year, the country has been built and put into operation the cumulative installed capacity of new energy storage projects amounted to 35.3 million kilowatts/77.68 million kilowatt-hours, compared with the end of the first quarter of 2023, an increase of more than 210%. What are the characteristics of the current development of new energy storage? What challenges are still facing? The reporter conducted an interview.
Rapid growth in installed capacity, continuous breakthroughs in technological innovation, and richer application scenarios
Hubei Yingcheng 300 MW compressed air energy storage power station, 500 meters underground, with more than 1.5 million cubic meters of gas storage space of the underground abandoned salt caverns, is being injected to drain the brine debugging.
"Salt caverns are cavities formed after the underground salt layer has been mined, with the advantages of good airtightness, long service life, and less land occupation, making them an ideal place for gas storage." Li Jun, deputy general manager of China Energy Construction Numerical Group, said that the current unit construction cost of compressed air energy storage power stations is generally between 6,000 yuan and 8,000 yuan per kilowatt, which is gradually approaching the construction cost of pumped storage power stations.
May 11, with 10,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity from the battery container all sent out, Guangxi Volin sodium-ion battery energy storage power station successfully put into operation. This is China's sodium-ion battery energy storage technology for the first time to achieve large-scale application.
Tang Bin, a technical expert from Guangxi Electric Power Research Institute of the Southern Power Grid, introduced that compared with lithium-ion batteries, sodium-ion batteries have a wide range of resource sources, abundant reserves, and low prices; and they can be used in a wider range of environments ranging from minus 40 degrees Celsius to 80 degrees Celsius. At present, the energy conversion efficiency of the sodium-ion battery storage system of the power station is more than 92%.
Wind power photovoltaic power generation intermittent, volatility, large-scale, high proportion of access needs to be regulated power such as energy storage as support. And pumped storage affected by high siting requirements, long construction period and other factors, new energy storage has the advantages of flexible layout, short construction period, fast response speed.
In recent years, new energy storage has increasingly become an important support for China's construction of a new energy system and a new type of power system - the
Rapid growth in installed capacity. 2023, the new energy storage installed capacity of about 22.6 million kilowatts/48.7 million kilowatt-hours, is the "13th Five-Year" end of the installed capacity of nearly 10 times. The construction of new energy storage power plant has gradually presented a centralized, large-scale trend, as of the end of the first quarter of this year, more than 100,000 kilowatts of the installed capacity of the project accounted for 54.8%.
Technological innovation continues to make breakthroughs. Electric Power Planning and Design Institute vice president He Zhao introduction, although China's new energy storage technology route is still dominated by lithium-ion battery energy storage, accounting for more than 95%, but all kinds of new technology routes are accelerating the engineering application. Since last year, a number of 300 megawatts grade compressed air energy storage projects, 100 megawatts grade liquid current battery energy storage projects, megawatt flywheel energy storage projects started, gravity energy storage, liquid air energy storage, carbon dioxide energy storage, and other new technologies on the ground.
Application scenarios are richer. Into the Hefei Midea HVAC Equipment Co., Ltd, roof photovoltaic panels, ground energy storage box neatly arranged. "Low-valley tariffs or photovoltaic big hair when the storage of electricity, peak tariffs when the discharge, since the commissioning of last November, the cumulative savings of more than 1 million yuan in electricity costs." Company engineering minister Xu Bo said. Right now, Hefei is promoting the construction of nine user-side energy storage projects in the Feixi power grid, is expected to be completed by the end of June 100,000 kilowatt-hours of energy storage and peaking resource pools, to help meet the peak of summer.
User side, can reduce the cost of energy, improve the quality of energy; power supply side, accelerate the promotion of system-friendly new energy power plant construction, enhance the new energy network goodness; grid side, to provide peak shifting, frequency regulation and other services, in the weak areas of the grid to enhance power supply security capabilities ...... new energy storage can be integrated with the power system source, network, load and other links The new type of energy storage can be integrated with all aspects of the power system, such as source, network and load, to improve the level of clean energy utilization and power system operation efficiency.
Increase R&D efforts, promote the construction of integration and innovation platforms, and drive the synergistic development of the upstream and downstream of the industry chain
The upstream of the energy storage industry chain involves raw materials and equipment, the midstream involves energy storage system and integration, and the downstream involves power system energy storage applications. National Energy Administration data show that since the "14th Five-Year Plan", the new energy storage installed capacity directly pulls the investment of more than 100 billion yuan, driving the synergistic development of the upstream and downstream of the industry chain.
Vision Power Ordos battery base, after homogenization, coating, roller pressing, die cutting and other processes, a blue square electric core off the line one after another, and then will be transferred to the vision of energy storage in Hebei, Gansu and other places in the assembly base, assembled into a 20-foot 5 megawatt-hour container energy storage system.
"A single energy storage container can store 5,000 kWh of electricity. Compared with the mainstream 20-foot 3.35 MWh energy storage system in the market, the capacity per unit volume is larger, the footprint can be reduced by about 40%, the cycle life exceeds 10,000 times, and the full life-cycle cost of kWh drops by about 30%." Tian Qingjun, senior vice president of Vision Group, told reporters that in the first quarter of this year, Vision's energy storage shipments exceeded 1.2 GWh, up more than 50% year-on-year.
Tian Qingjun introduced that the new type of energy storage is upgrading to large capacity, high density, ultra-safety, long cycle and intelligence. "There is still a lot of room for technological progress in new energy storage in the future, and the cost of lithium battery energy storage kWh is expected to drop to below 0.1 yuan. At that time, 'unstable new energy + new energy storage regulation' is expected to reduce the cost of electricity to less than 0.3 yuan, compared with coal power with cost competitiveness, and promote the realization of carbon peak carbon neutral."
At the same time, the new energy storage industry, some of the core components and key materials technology still needs to be overcome, the industrial chain foundation and completeness has to be improved. Right now, domestic enterprises, research institutions, colleges and universities continue to carry out new energy storage technology innovation, application layout and other aspects of the research, to promote the industrial system is becoming more and more complete.
--Key technology and equipment research and development efforts continue to increase.
Expander is one of the key equipment for compressed air energy storage, to operate efficiently under high pressure, high load, high speed, there are high technical barriers. "We lead the major research institutes, head equipment enterprises, collaborative technical research and engineering practice, to overcome large capacity, high parameters, ultra-long time air compression/expansion unit process design and other international gaps in technology, to achieve 100% localization of key core technology and equipment." Li Jun introduction.
In recent years, 300 megawatts grade compressed air energy storage host equipment, all localized liquid current battery diaphragm, single megawatt flywheel energy storage system and other breakthroughs, helping China's energy storage technology to reach the world's advanced level.
--The construction of integration and innovation platforms has been accelerated.
Baiyun District, Guangzhou, machines roaring, frame lifting, a 220 kV substation dedicated to the testing of new energy storage products will soon be completed. "After its completion, R&D teams and manufacturers can complete real-scene testing here, allowing products to quickly move to the market." Liu Shi, deputy general manager of the National and Local Joint New Energy Storage Innovation Center and chief technical expert of SouthGrid Science and Technology Company, introduced.
As the only national manufacturing innovation center in the field of new energy storage, the National Local Co-construction of New Energy Storage Innovation Center is led by the Guangdong Provincial Government and the South China Power Grid, and jointly set up by 13 upstream and downstream enterprises of new energy storage materials, chips, batteries, etc., to open up the innovation chain and industrial chain of "laboratory-manufacturing-market" and "laboratory-manufacturing-market". The Innovation Center is led by Guangdong Provincial Government and Southern Power Grid, and jointly established with 13 upstream and downstream enterprises of new energy storage materials, chips, batteries, etc., to open up the innovation chain and industrial chain of "laboratory - manufacturing - market".
Qi Hongxun, President of China Energy Engineering Energy Storage Engineering Technology Research Institute, believes that the new energy storage industry is in a rapid development stage, technological innovation is the key to promote industrial progress. It is necessary to actively carry out research on new materials, new technologies and new equipment for energy storage, promote the organic integration of all aspects of industry, academia, research and utilization, accelerate the transformation of innovation results, and actively explore the new energy storage application market.
Improve the new energy storage policy system, and guide the scientific allocation and scheduling of various types of energy storage
Jiangsu will add about 4 million kilowatts of new energy storage into the national grid before the peak summer this year, to meet the demand for power supply and grid regulation; Guangdong plans to reach 600 billion yuan of new energy storage industry revenue by 2025, with an average annual growth rate of more than 50% ...... as an important technology to build a new type of electric power system and basic equipment, Realize the carbon peak carbon neutral goal of the important support, new energy storage development of the market prospect is broad. "This year, the installed capacity of new energy storage is expected to account for more than 50% of the installed capacity of energy storage, more than pumped storage." Zhongguancun energy storage industry and technology alliance chairman Chen Haisheng said.
In the interview, the reporter also learned that the new energy storage next to achieve scale, industrialization, market-oriented development, still need to work on safety, economy, green and other aspects.
The bottom line of safety risk prevention needs to be guarded. With the battery capacity and density enhancement, especially the number of electrochemical energy storage in series and parallel, the safety risk of energy storage plant is more prominent. Tsinghua Sichuan Energy Internet Research Institute Green Energy Storage Institute Director Chen Yongchong believes that the need to further improve the avoidance of thermal runaway and combustion and explosion of the intrinsic safety control technology, "in the protection of safety on the basis of green is also the direction of the development of the future of the new energy storage technology, such as perfecting the easy recycling of energy storage battery structural design and green recycling technology, to promote the green development of the whole life cycle, and enhance the international competitiveness of the industry. Enhance the international competitiveness of the industry."
Business models and policy mechanisms need to be further improved. The reporter learned in the interview, compared to pumped storage and other traditional flexible resources, new energy storage cost is higher, a single revenue model, is an important factor restricting its scale, industrialization development.
Southern Power Grid Energy Storage Company Energy Storage Research Institute responsible person Chen Man analyzed that, at present, the technical economy is relatively good lithium-ion battery cost of electricity is still higher than the cost of pumped storage; sodium-ion energy storage is still in the early stage of industrialization and application of the cost of raw materials to be industrial scale development can only be seen; flywheel, gravity, and other types of new energy storage technology industrialization of a low degree of technological economy is not yet comparable.
At the same time, new types of energy storage to participate in medium- and long-term trading, spot trading and other market rules are still gradually improved, there is a low market returns and so on. Many interviewees suggested that accelerate the construction of the power market system, give full consideration to the reasonable capacity demand, price tolerance cap, tariff diversion channels and other factors, improve the grid side of the new type of energy storage "capacity tariff + electricity tariff" formation mechanism; innovative business models and application scenarios, explore shared energy storage, cloud energy storage, energy storage aggregation, etc. Business model application.
"The next step, the National Energy Board will continue to improve the new energy storage policy system, encourage scientific and technological innovation, continue to promote the progress of the new energy storage technology industry, and continue to guide all types of energy storage scientific configuration and scheduling and utilization, to support the construction of a new type of energy system and a new type of power system." National Energy Board energy conservation and science and technology equipment, deputy director of the Department of Bian Guangqi said. (Ding Yiting Zhang Weixiong)
Source: People's Daily
