Electrochemical energy storage is an energy storage technology and measure that uses chemical batteries to store electrical energy and release it when needed, including lithium batteries, lead-acid batteries, lead-carbon batteries, flow batteries, and sodium-sulfur battery energy storage.

Driven by the substantial increase in the scale of China’s new energy power generation and the continuous decline in the cost of lithium batteries, the market size of China’s electrochemical energy storage industry (in terms of installed capacity) increased from 131.4MW to 1,072.7MW, with an average annual compound growth rate of 69.0%. In the next five years, with the large-scale promotion of distributed energy such as distributed photovoltaics and distributed wind power, the electrochemical energy storage industry will face a broader market opportunity.

Energy Storage Industry Overview

New energy power generation promotes the expansion of electrochemical energy storage industry

Electrochemical energy storage has a fast response time, adapts to the fluctuations of wind power and photovoltaic power generation many times a day, meets the daily cycle energy storage demand, and can provide a certain degree of power for new energy to be connected to the grid. Buffering plays the role of smoothing fluctuations, peak shaving and valley filling, and energy scheduling, and electrochemical energy storage is not restricted by terrain, and has a wide range of applications. China’s new energy power generation is booming, providing electrochemical storage. The industry can provide strong support.

  • The cost reduction and cascade utilization of lithium batteries are conducive to the large-scale promotion of electrochemical energy storage projects
    • From 2010 to 2019, the global average price of lithium battery packs dropped from US$1,183/kW·h to US$156/kW·h, a drop as high as 86.8%. Among them, lithium battery packs in the Chinese market. The average price has been as low as USD 147/kW·h, which is the lowest in the world;
    • A large number of power batteries are decommissioned and used as backup options for energy storage batteries, which can effectively save energy storage costs;
    • The cost reduction is conducive to the large-scale promotion of electrochemical energy storage projects.
  • The development of distributed energy storage is an important development trend in the electrochemical energy storage industry
    • On the user side, energy storage can be combined with distributed energy such as distributed photovoltaics and distributed wind power to develop distributed energy storage and create low-cost, flexible and controllable power output.
    • Distributed in China. The installed capacity of distributed energy such as photovoltaics and distributed wind power has increased rapidly, creating conditions for the development of distributed energy storage.
lithium battery in the Chinese market

Related Glossary:

  • Energy storage: The storage of electric energy is related to technologies and measures that use chemical or physical methods to store electric energy and release it when needed.
  • Electrochemical energy storage: Energy storage technology and measures that use chemical batteries to store electrical energy and release it when needed.
  • Specific energy: the ratio of the electric energy released by the electrode material per unit mass participating in the electrode reaction.
  • Energy storage converter: Power Conversion System, which controls the charging and discharging process of the battery, performs AC-DC conversion, and can directly supply power to AC loads in the absence of a grid.
  • Battery Management System: Battery Management System, a system for intelligently managing and maintaining each battery unit, preventing overcharging and over-discharging of the battery, prolonging the service life of the battery, and monitoring the battery status.
  • Energy management system: the general term for modern power grid dispatching automation system (including hardware and software).
  • Peak shaving: Measures to adjust the power load during the peak hours of the power system.
  • Frequency regulation: Once the frequency of the grid deviates from the rated value, the control system of the unit in the grid automatically controls the increase or decrease of the active power of the unit, limits the change of the grid frequency, and maintains a stable automatic control process for the grid frequency.
  • AGC: Automatic Generation Control, automatic generation control, a system that adjusts the active output of multiple generators in different power plants in response to changes in load.
  • Battery PACK: battery system composed of the battery pack and busbar, soft connection, protection board, outer packaging, output (including connector), barley paper, plastic bracket, and other auxiliary materials.