The Development Of Trillion-dollar Energy Storage Exceeds Expectations

In 2021, my country's energy storage connector industries achieved leapfrog development and delivered a brilliant "report card".
According to incomplete statistics from CNESA's global battery storage connector project database, as of the end of 2021, China has put into operation storage connector power projects with a cumulative installed capacity of 46.1GW, accounting for 22% of the total global market size, a year-on-year increase of 30%. Among them, the cumulative installed capacity of pumped storage has reached 39.8GW, and its proportion has decreased by 3% year-on-year; the market growth mainly comes from new energy storage, with a cumulative installed capacity of 5.73GW. In 2021, China's newly put into operation power energy storage project installed capacity exceeded 10GW, reaching 10.5GW. Among them, the new scale of pumped storage is 8GW, a year-on-year increase of 437%; the new scale of new energy storage is 2.4GW, a year-on-year increase of 54%.
A series of growth data of the energy storage industry (especially new energy storage) are closely related to the major opportunities for energy storage under the background of "dual carbon".
New energy storage refers to energy storage methods other than pumped storage, including new lithium-ion batteries, flow batteries, flywheels, compressed air, hydrogen (ammonia) energy storage, heat (cold) energy storage, etc., which are considered to be important forces for future power system regulation.
In 2021, the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration issued the "Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Development of New Energy Storage", proposing that the installed capacity of new energy storage will reach more than 30GW in 2030, and the development goals of the energy storage industry have been clarified and quantified from the policy level. In addition, as many as 14 provinces in my country have successively issued energy storage plans, and more than 20 provinces have clarified the requirements for the configuration of energy storage for new energy. Driven by favorable policies, the energy storage industry has developed rapidly.
At the same time, the energy storage industry has attracted great attention from financial capital. The "Energy Storage Industry Research White Paper 2022" shows that 2021 is the best year for market structured market performance. The energy storage index outperformed 90% of public and private equity funds throughout the year. The index value on December 31, 2021 was 1647.97, an overall increase of 64.80%. The ChiNext Index rose 12.02% during the same period.
"2021 is the first year for China's energy storage to transform from the early stage of commercialization to large-scale development. A series of favorable policies have been promulgated, new energy storage technologies have continued to break through, and the installed capacity of projects has increased significantly. The development trend of energy storage in 2021 has generally exceeded industry expectations." Chen Haisheng said at the 2022 Global Energy Storage Industry Development Review and Outlook Seminar and the "Energy Storage Industry Research White Paper 2022" release conference.
Nowadays, with the increase in the demand for regulation capacity of the power system, the scale of new energy development and consumption continues to increase, especially in the context of the concentrated construction of large-scale wind power and photovoltaic base projects, it is imperative to accelerate the large-scale application of advanced energy storage technologies, which is also conducive to ensuring the safe operation of the power system.
Liu Yafang, deputy director of the Science and Technology Equipment Department of the National Energy Administration, said: "New energy storage is a key technology to help large-scale development of a high proportion of renewable energy, support the construction of a new power system, and help achieve carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals. It is also of great significance to the security of energy supply and the security of the industrial chain and supply chain."
Du Xiangwan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, believes that through the horizontal "multi-energy complementarity" and vertical "source-grid-storage-load" development, as well as the coordinated planning of generation, transmission, distribution and use, mobilizing various flexible resources, and developing various commercial energy storage technologies, it will be possible to achieve a safe and reliable new power system. Among them, energy storage will play a very important role in realizing the "possible triangle" of the new power system (i.e., achieving safety, reliability, economic feasibility, green and low-carbon).