Promoting The Faster Development Of New Energy Storage
In the context of carbon neutrality, it is estimated that the proportion of wind power and photovoltaic power in the new energy system in the future will reach 65%~70%. Due to the instability of wind power and photovoltaic power, a high proportion of new energy requires a large amount of supporting energy storage connector.
The rapid development of China's battery storage connector industry is inseparable from the strong support of government policies and forward-looking strategic deployment.
In 2014, the State Council issued the "Energy Development Strategic Action Plan (2014-2020)", proposing to include storage connector as one of the nine key innovation areas, and the energy storage industry was included in the national planning.
With the gradual rollout of the pilot project of renewable energy storage and distribution power stations across the country in 2019, the rapid development of renewable energy and its continuous penetration in the power system have laid the foundation for the large-scale development of energy storage. In recent years, provinces and cities have also begun to follow up in a timely manner based on the principles of scientificity and prudence, implement the specific planning and layout of the energy storage industry, and provide a good policy environment for the development of the energy storage industry under the "dual carbon" goal.
The 2021 "Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Development of New Energy Storage" further proposed that by 2025, China's new energy storage will enter the stage of large-scale development from the initial stage of commercialization, and have the conditions for large-scale commercial application. Among them, lithium battery energy storage in electrochemical energy storage can be widely used on the power generation side, the grid side, the user side and the microgrid side, and will become a pioneer in related energy storage technologies in the future. Due to the rapid development of the electric vehicle industry in recent years, the cost level of lithium-ion batteries has initially possessed the feasibility of large-scale application of energy storage.
With the rapid development of lithium batteries, it is expected that the battery recycling industry will also have great room for development in the future. Although from the current point of view, the global lithium resources are temporarily in sufficient supply, with the rapid expansion of the scale of the electric vehicle industry and the continuous improvement of energy storage configuration requirements in the power system, a large number of retired batteries will not only bring great pressure to the environment, but may also cause a supply gap in resources such as lithium metal. Battery cascade utilization is an important means to improve resource utilization efficiency and achieve green and circular development. At present, there are experimental data showing that the benefits of cascade utilization are higher than the benefits of direct recycling of raw materials. Therefore, from the perspective of economic benefits, cascade utilization is also a better choice.
At present, the energy storage industry is in a period of rapid development and faces many problems. There are mainly the following aspects:
The first is the safety of electrochemical energy storage. Although lithium-ion energy storage has great development potential, lithium-ion batteries face application constraints in terms of safety risks and aging problems in actual operation. The complexity of the power system also puts forward higher requirements for the safety standards, quality and efficiency of lithium-ion batteries. At present, the construction of relevant standards for energy storage in China has not yet formed an effective system, and the corresponding policy system is not perfect enough. Although the global energy storage safety standard system is in the process of formation, there are still many aspects that need to be further improved.
Secondly, the independent market entity status of energy storage is not yet clear. To promote the vigorous development of energy storage, in addition to policy guidance, a guaranteed profit model should be provided for energy storage to ensure that energy storage can obtain benefits in the power market. Although the "Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Development of New Energy Storage" issued by the government in 2021 proposed to clarify the independent market entity status of energy storage, in the specific application of energy storage, such as the development of shared energy storage and the provision of frequency and peak regulation and other auxiliary services for new energy stations, there is still a lack of targeted policy guarantees. Energy storage does not participate in electricity market transactions as an independent power producer and ancillary service provider, resulting in great uncertainty in energy storage revenue and limiting the development of energy storage.
Secondly, the diversified value of energy storage is not fully reflected. China's electricity market has undergone a series of reforms, but the construction of the electricity spot market and ancillary services is not yet perfect, and commodity attributes such as energy storage are not reflected in the price, making it difficult to give full play to the market advantages of energy storage technology. In recent years, various regions have further improved peak and valley electricity prices and seasonal electricity prices, but the value difference in different periods is not sufficient, which limits the profit space of energy storage and is not conducive to the rapid development of energy storage on a large scale.
***, the current policy support for energy storage needs to be strengthened. As a rapidly developing emerging technology, energy storage requires a large amount of capital investment to support its technological innovation. However, it is currently difficult for energy storage to make a profit and it is difficult to meet the demand for funds for energy storage development. The rapid development of photovoltaics and electric vehicles in China shows that fiscal subsidies can effectively promote the development of new technologies, which can not only effectively reduce the application cost of technology, but also quickly increase market acceptance.
In response to these problems, the following policy recommendations are proposed. ***, improve the safety standards for energy storage configuration. In addition to the safety issues of lithium-ion batteries, energy storage devices lack a unified standard safety system in the design, operation and maintenance, and recycling of waste batteries. The quality problems of energy storage products caused by this have created obstacles to their rapid development, which is not conducive to the long-term healthy development of the energy storage industry. Therefore, relevant regulations on energy storage safety standards should be established and improved as soon as possible, the energy storage safety awareness of various entities should be strengthened, and the responsibility for energy storage safety accidents should be implemented in place to provide strong legal and regulatory guarantees for the safe application of energy storage.
Second, improve the independent market entity status of energy storage. At present, the positioning of energy storage is still dependent on power generation equipment under the power system, which limits the flexibility of energy storage and is not conducive to the optimal configuration and dispatch of the entire system of energy storage. Therefore, energy storage can be included in the formulation of relevant policies as an independent identity during grid planning, and the access conditions, trading mechanisms and technical standards of energy storage in the power market can be further clarified in the power spot market and the supporting ancillary service market, so as to accelerate the promotion of energy storage to participate in various power market transactions as an independent market entity.
Third, accelerate the construction of the power spot market and ancillary service market. At present, the diversified value of energy storage is difficult to be reflected in the market, which is not conducive to mobilizing the enthusiasm of energy storage enterprises and individuals to participate in energy storage investment. Therefore, the advantages of energy storage urgently need a more standardized system and a more perfect electricity market. At present, the trading varieties of the domestic electricity spot market are limited, and the specific rules are still under exploration. Therefore, the reform efforts should be intensified from the central level so that all investment entities can fully recognize the value of energy storage and promote the large-scale application of energy storage.
Fourth, provide financial support and market access requirements. In order to accelerate the development of energy storage technology and maintain the leading position in the industrial chain, the following financial support can be considered for the energy storage industry: providing funding for demonstration projects of energy storage applications, providing capacity subsidies and electricity subsidies for energy storage installations, and adopting tax exemptions and accelerated depreciation policies for energy storage investment; in addition, it can be considered to provide market access supervision for the energy storage industry by giving priority to grid connection and issuing certified emission reduction quotas for new energy power equipped with energy storage.
