Digital Energy Storage Network News: “As of the end of the first quarter of 2024, the cumulative installed capacity of new energy storage projects that have been completed and put into operation across the country has reached 35.3 million kilowatts/77.68 million kilowatt hours, an increase of more than 12% from the end of the first quarter of 2023, and an increase of more than 12% from the end of the first quarter of 2023. An increase of more than 210%.” Bian Guangqi, deputy director of the Energy Conservation and Science and Technology Equipment Department of the National Energy Administration, said at a press conference held by the National Energy Administration that the National Energy Administration attaches great importance to the development of new energy storage and promotes technological innovation pilots. Demonstrate and strengthen the dispatching and application of new energy storage and other measures to promote the diversified and high-quality development of new energy storage. As an important support for achieving the goal of industrial and commercial carbon peak and carbon neutrality, new energy storage has entered a period of rapid development driven by both policy and market forces.
Pilot demonstration yields initial results
In 2024, new energy storage was included in the "Government Work Report" for the first time. As the ballast stone of the new power system, it is becoming more and more important as the penetration rate of new energy continues to increase.
Bian Guangqi introduced that among the projects put into operation, in terms of installed capacity, new energy storage power stations are gradually showing a trend of being centralized and large-scale. Projects with an installed capacity of less than 10,000 kilowatts account for 6.7% of the total installed capacity, and projects with an installed capacity of 10,000 to 100,000 kilowatts. The installed capacity accounted for 38.5%, and the installed capacity of projects above 100,000 kilowatts accounted for 54.8%.
In terms of energy storage time, the average energy storage time of new energy storage projects nationwide is 2.2 hours. Projects with energy storage time of less than 2 hours account for 12.9% of the total installed capacity. Projects with 2-4 hours of energy storage account for 74.6%. Projects with energy storage time of more than 4 hours account for 74.6%. The installed capacity accounted for 12.5%.
From the perspective of regional distribution, the northwest region is rich in wind and solar resources and has become the region with the fastest development of new energy storage in the country. The northwest region has put into operation 10.3 million kilowatts of new energy storage installed capacity, accounting for 29.2% of the country. North China has put into operation new energy storage installed capacity. Accounting for 25.3% of the country, central China accounts for 17.5% of the country’s new energy storage installed capacity, the southern region accounts for 15.2% of the country’s new energy storage installed capacity, East China accounts for 12.3% of the country’s new energy storage installed capacity, and Northeast China has New energy storage installed capacity in operation accounts for 0.5% of the country’s total.
In addition, energy storage technology innovation continues to make breakthroughs, and new energy storage pilot demonstrations have achieved initial results.
Bian Guangqi introduced that in early 2024, the National Energy Administration officially released a list of 56 new energy storage pilot demonstration projects in the form of an announcement, covering the main technical routes of current engineering applications, including 17 lithium-ion batteries, 11 compressed air energy storage, 8 flow batteries, 8 hybrid energy storage, 3 gravity energy storage, 3 flywheel energy storage, 2 sodium ion batteries, 2 carbon dioxide energy storage, 1 lead carbon battery, 1 liquid air energy storage. Since the release of the list of demonstration projects, relevant work has been progressing steadily, and some demonstration projects have been successfully connected to the grid and operated, effectively promoting the application and implementation of new technologies.
"With the rapid development of new energy, the power system has put forward greater demands for regulation capabilities. In order to improve the utilization rate of new energy storage and give full play to the regulatory role of new energy storage, the National Energy Administration adheres to 'problem orientation and system concept' and refines policy measures. The "Notice on Promoting the Grid Integration and Dispatching Application of New Energy Storage" was issued to standardize the grid connection and promote the efficient dispatching and application of new energy storage. It also proposed to power grid enterprises, power dispatching agencies and new energy storage project units. specific requirements," Bian Guangqi said.
Behind the growth is fierce competition
In recent years, energy storage has become one of the hottest topics in the new energy industry chain. Many companies that have not yet entered the new energy field have rushed in. According to data from Tianyancha, there are currently more than 100,000 companies in the energy storage field. The number of newly registered energy storage-related companies within a year has reached tens of thousands, and listed companies including food, liquor, real estate, toys, and ceramics have also entered the cross-border energy storage industry.
In addition to policy support, the decline in upstream raw material prices has further reduced the investment cost of energy storage and has also brought new opportunities for industry development.
It is reported that in energy storage equipment manufacturing bases such as Beijing, Hubei, and Inner Mongolia, production lines are in a busy state and are expected to continue into the second quarter. Orders for large energy storage power stations account for a large proportion, exceeding 80%; industrial and commercial orders have grown rapidly, with orders from the first quarter The year-on-year growth exceeds 200%; from the perspective of leading energy storage companies, there is generally a trend of price reduction and increase, and orders are full.
According to industry insiders, the new installed capacity of new energy storage is expected to reach 30 GW to 40 GW in 2024, and the total installed capacity will double again. Among them, source-grid side energy storage will still occupy the dominant position; due to the substantial improvement in economics, Industrial and commercial energy storage will usher in an explosive period.
However, the result of excessive market pursuit is serious homogeneity of energy storage products and intensified competition within the industry.
Previously at the 12th International Energy Storage Summit and Exhibition, some industry insiders admitted in interviews with reporters that due to the low technical threshold of energy storage systems, many cross-border companies have insufficient technology accumulation, vague product positioning, and lack of channel resources. , coupled with the fact that energy storage equipment is built but not used, investors pursue low-priced storage to reduce costs, which creates soil for the growth of similar products.
Another reason for product homogeneity is that companies only consider the simple stacking of hardware from the supply side during the R&D and manufacturing process, lacking closed-loop data management across the entire chain. According to Zhang Jianhui, chairman of Haibositron, equipment manufacturers lack effective feedback on on-site operation data, while investors and operators lack front-end system modeling. Equipment R&D and manufacturing are an open-loop system, with data completely separated.
When there are too many homogeneous products on the market, price wars will be inevitable.
According to statistics, in the past year, the price of energy storage cells has dropped by more than half, from 0.9 yuan/watt hour to less than 0.4 yuan/watt hour, and the average price of energy storage systems has dropped from 1.3 yuan/watt hour to about 0.7 yuan/watt hour. , has fallen below the product cost line of some companies, and prices continue to decline.
According to the China Energy News' analysis of the annual performance reports of listed energy storage companies in 2023, although some companies have experienced high growth in production capacity, it is common for revenue and profits to decline, or to increase revenue without increasing profits. This is also consistent with the rapid downward trend in the prices of energy storage systems and energy storage batteries.
New energy storage is still a blue ocean
Although the market price of new energy storage continues to decrease, in the eyes of industry insiders, the energy storage industry is still a "blue ocean." "Energy storage must be a long-distance race, just like a marathon, and it has just begun." said Tian Qingjun, senior vice president of Envision Group and president of Envision Energy Storage.
"The key bottlenecks faced by new energy storage technologies include the efficiency, cost, lifespan and safety of energy storage. In addition, the development and application of large-scale energy storage technology is also an important challenge." Economist, New Finance Expert Yu Fenghui said that in response to these problems, some of the scientific research results or technological innovations currently being tried to solve include: developing more efficient batteries, researching new physical energy storage technologies, such as flow batteries, solid-state batteries, etc., and developing safer energy storage system etc.
Since the "14th Five-Year Plan", new energy storage technologies have developed rapidly. Various technical routes have different characteristics such as energy storage power, duration, and response speed, and each has its own application scenarios. "With the joint efforts of all parties, new energy storage technologies continue to make breakthroughs, including 300-megawatt-level compressed air energy storage host equipment, nationally produced flow battery diaphragms, and single-megawatt-level flywheel energy storage systems. Helping my country's energy storage technology reach the world's advanced level. In order to further promote the progress of the new energy storage technology industry, our bureau organized and carried out new energy storage pilot demonstration work and always adhered to diversified technical routes during the project selection process. The number of lithium-ion battery energy storage projects. Accounting for 30% of all projects, other technical routes and hybrid energy storage projects account for 70%,” Bian Guangqi said.
In addition to innovation in technological paths, the industry believes that it is the right time to accelerate the scale, industrialization and marketization of new energy storage.
"New energy storage is expected to become an important support or important subject of the power system in the future." Chen Haisheng, director and researcher of the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, believes that the power system is now basically composed of three subjects: "source-grid-load". "Storage" will be added and transformed into four entities: "source-grid-load-storage". New energy storage will account for 10%-15% of the entire power system economy, becoming a trillion-yuan strategic emerging industry. , renewable energy storage is an important growth point for new productivity.
In April this year, the National Energy Administration issued the "Notice on Promoting Grid Integration and Dispatching Application of New Energy Storage", which aims to further standardize grid connection management, improve dispatching mechanisms, clarify technical requirements, and promote new energy storage to better play a systemic regulatory role. , to provide solid support for accelerating the construction of new power systems.
How will new energy storage develop? Bian Guangqi said: "In the next step, the National Energy Administration will work with relevant units to track demonstration projects, give full play to the demonstration project's demonstration effect, and put forward specific requirements for relevant units. Provincial energy authorities must strengthen pilot demonstration projects Management, continue to track the progress of project construction, strictly control construction quality, ensure the safe and orderly implementation of demonstration projects, increase special policy research and support for demonstration projects, coordinate and solve problems faced by the projects, and promptly summarize the advanced experience gained from demonstration projects to ensure pilot projects. The demonstration work has achieved the expected results. Demonstration project units must increase capital investment guarantees to ensure that the demonstration projects are put into production on schedule. At the same time, they must strictly implement the application plan, abide by the relevant systems for new energy storage project management, solidly promote project construction, strengthen system operation and maintenance, and ensure timely implementation. Compile demonstration project acceptance reports and regularly report project construction and operation status through the national new energy storage big data platform.”