In the past, due to the small size of the energy storage industry and the fact that it has not yet entered the full economic point of time, the energy storage business of various companies has a relatively low proportion and the business volume is small. In recent years, with the reduction of industrial costs and the promotion of demand, the energy storage business Make rapid progress.

Generalized energy storage includes three types of electrical energy storage, thermal energy storage and hydrogen energy storage, of which electrical energy storage is the main one. Electric energy storage is divided into electrochemical energy storage and mechanical energy storage. Electrochemical energy storage is currently the most widely used power storage technology with the greatest potential for development. It has the advantages of being less affected by geographical conditions, short construction period, and economical. Advantage.

In terms of structural types, electrochemical energy storage mainly includes lithium-ion batteries, lead storage batteries, and sodium-sulfur batteries.

Lithium-ion energy storage batteries have the characteristics of long life, high energy density, and strong environmental adaptability. With the maturity of commercialization routes and the continuous reduction of costs, lithium-ion batteries are gradually replacing low-cost lead storage batteries, which are superior in performance. In the cumulative electrochemical energy storage installed capacity from 2000 to 2019, lithium-ion batteries accounted for 87%, which has become the mainstream technology route.

Lithium-ion batteries can be classified into consumption, power and energy storage batteries according to their application fields.

The mainstream battery types of energy storage batteries include lithium iron phosphate batteries and ternary lithium batteries. With the solution of the energy density problem of lithium iron phosphate batteries, the proportion of lithium iron phosphate batteries has increased year by year.

Lithium iron phosphate battery has strong thermal stability and high structural stability of the positive electrode material. Its safety and cycle life are better than ternary lithium batteries, and it does not contain precious metals. It has a comprehensive cost advantage and is more in line with the requirements of energy storage systems.

my country’s electrochemical energy storage is currently mainly based on lithium batteries, and its development is relatively mature. Its cumulative installed capacity accounts for more than half of the total installed capacity of my country’s chemical energy storage market.

According to GGII data, China’s energy storage battery market shipments in 2020 will be 16.2GWh, a year-on-year increase of 71%, of which electric energy storage is 6.6GWh, accounting for 41%, and communication energy storage is 7.4GWh, accounting for 46%. Others include urban rail transit. Lithium batteries for energy storage in transportation, industry and other fields.

GGII predicts that China’s energy storage battery shipments will reach 68GWh by 2025, and the CAGR will exceed 30% from 2020 to 2025.

Energy storage batteries focus on battery capacity, stability and life, and consider battery module consistency, battery material expansion rate and energy density, electrode material performance uniformity and other requirements to achieve a longer life and lower cost, and the number of cycles of energy storage batteries The life span is generally required to be greater than 3500 times.

From the perspective of application scenarios, energy storage batteries are mainly used for peak and frequency modulation power auxiliary services, grid connection of renewable energy, microgrid and other fields.

The 5G base station is the core basic equipment of the 5G network. Generally, macro base stations and micro base stations are used together. Since the energy consumption is several times that of the 4G period, a higher energy density lithium energy storage system is required. Among them, energy storage batteries can be used in the macro base station. Acting as an emergency power supply for base stations and undertaking the role of peak-shaving and valley-filling, power upgrades and lead-to-lithium replacement are the general trend.

For business models such as thermal power distribution and shared energy storage, system optimization and control strategies are also important factors that cause economic differences between projects. Energy storage is a cross-discipline, and overall solution vendors that understand energy storage, power grids, and transactions are expected to stand out in the subsequent competition.

Energy storage battery market pattern

There are two main types of participants in the energy storage system market: battery manufacturers and PCS (energy storage converter) manufacturers.

The battery manufacturers deploying energy storage batteries are represented by LG Chem, CATL, BYD, Paineng Technology, etc., based on the battery cell manufacturing base to expand downstream.

The battery business of CATL and other manufacturers is still dominated by power batteries, and they are more familiar with the electrochemical system. Currently, they mainly provide energy storage batteries and modules, which are in the upper reaches of the industrial chain; Paineng Technology focuses on the energy storage market and has a longer industrial chain , Able to provide customers with integrated solutions for energy storage systems that match the products.

From the perspective of market development, in the domestic market, CATL and BYD both enjoy leading shares; in the overseas market, BYD’s energy storage product shipments in 2020 rank among the top domestic companies.

PCS manufacturers, represented by Sungrow, have international channels for the inverter industry to accumulate mature standards for decades, and join hands with Samsung and other battery cell manufacturers to expand upstream.

Energy storage batteries and power battery production lines have the same technology. Therefore, the current power battery leaders can rely on their technology and scale advantages in the lithium battery field to enter the energy storage field and expand their business layout.

Looking at the corporate competition pattern of the global energy storage industry, because Tesla, LG Chem, Samsung SDI and other manufacturers started early in the overseas energy storage market, and the current market demand in the energy storage field mostly comes from foreign countries, domestic energy storage The demand is relatively small. In recent years, the demand for energy storage has been expanded with the explosion of the electric vehicle market.

Domestic companies currently deploying energy storage batteries also include Yiwei Lithium Energy, Guoxuan Hi-Tech, and Penghui Energy.

Head manufacturers are at a leading level in terms of product safety and certification. For example, the Ningde era home energy storage solution has passed five tests, including IEC62619 and UL 1973, and BYD BYDCube T28 has passed the German Rheinland TVUL9540A thermal runaway test. This is the industry after the standardization of the energy storage industry. Concentration is expected to increase further.

From the development of the domestic energy storage market, from the perspective of the development of the domestic energy storage market, the new domestic energy storage market with a scale of 100 billion yuan in the next five years and the high-quality products of enterprises such as Ningde Times and Yiwei Lithium Energy in the power battery field are able to make up for domestic enterprises. The brand channel disadvantages of China, while domestic companies share the industry’s growth rate, their market share in the global market is also expected to increase significantly.

Analysis of Energy Storage Battery Industry Chain

In the composition of the energy storage system, the battery is the most important part of the energy storage system. According to BNEF statistics, battery costs account for more than 50% of energy storage systems.

The cost of the energy storage battery system is composed of integrated costs such as batteries, structural parts, BMS, cabinets, auxiliary materials, and manufacturing costs. Batteries account for about 80% of the cost, and the cost of Pack (including structural parts, BMS, cabinet, auxiliary materials, manufacturing costs, etc.) accounts for about 20% of the cost of the entire battery pack.

As sub-industries with high technical complexity, batteries and BMS have relatively high technical barriers. The core barriers are battery cost control, safety, SOC (State of Charge) management, and balance control.

The production process of the energy storage battery system is divided into two sections. In the battery module production section, the cells that have passed the inspection are assembled into battery modules through tab cutting, cell insertion, tab shaping, laser welding, module packaging and other processes; in the system assembly section, they pass the inspection The battery modules and BMS circuit boards are assembled into the finished system, and then enter the finished product packaging link after primary inspection, high temperature aging and secondary inspection.

Energy storage battery industry chain:

Source: Ningde Times Prospectus
The value of energy storage is not only the economics of the project itself, but also comes from the benefits of system optimization. According to the “Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Development of New Energy Storage (Draft for Comment)”, the status of energy storage as an independent market entity is expected to be confirmed. After the economics of energy storage projects themselves are close to the investment threshold, energy storage system control and quotation strategies Significantly affect the income of ancillary services.

The current electrochemical energy storage system is still in the early stage of development, the product and construction standards are not yet complete, and the storage assessment policy has yet to be launched.

As costs continue to fall and commercial applications become more mature, the advantages of electrochemical energy storage technology have become more obvious and have gradually become the mainstream of new energy storage installations. In the future, as the scale effect of the lithium battery industry further manifests, there is still a large room for cost reduction and broad development prospects.