In the past, due to the small size of the energy storage industry and the fact that it has not yet entered a comprehensive economic point of view, the energy storage business of various companies accounted for a relatively low proportion and the business volume was 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 electric energy storage, thermal energy storage and hydrogen energy storage, among which electric energy storage is the main one. Electric energy storage is further divided into electrochemical energy storage and mechanical energy storage. Electrochemical energy storage is the electric energy storage technology with the widest application range and the greatest development potential at present. It has the advantages of being less affected by geographical conditions, short construction period, and economical. In terms of structural types, electrochemical energy storage mainly includes lithium-ion batteries, lead-acid 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 the commercialization route and the continuous reduction of costs, lithium-ion batteries have gradually replaced low-cost lead-acid batteries, and their performance is even better.
1. According to the classification of application fields, lithium-ion batteries can be divided into consumption, power and energy storage batteries
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 batteries have strong thermal stability and high structural stability of positive electrode materials. Their safety and cycle life are better than ternary lithium batteries, and they do not contain precious metals. They have comprehensive cost advantages and are more in line with the requirements of energy storage systems.
Energy storage batteries focus on battery capacity, stability and life, and consider the consistency of battery modules, battery material expansion rate and energy density, electrode material performance uniformity and other requirements to achieve longer life and lower cost, energy storage battery cycle times The life expectancy is generally required to be greater than 3500 times.
From the perspective of application scenarios, energy storage batteries are mainly used in peak-shaving and frequency-regulating power auxiliary services, renewable energy grid-connected, micro-grid and other fields. In the field of communications, 5G base stations are the core basic equipment of 5G networks. Generally, macro base stations and micro base stations are used together. Since the energy consumption is several times that of 4G, a lithium battery energy storage system with higher energy density is required. Among them, macro base stations can use Energy storage batteries act as emergency power sources for base stations and undertake the role of peak load shifting and valley filling. Therefore, power upgrades and lead-for-lithium replacement are the general trend. For business models such as thermal power distribution and storage and shared energy storage, system optimization and control strategies are also important factors that cause economic differences between projects. Energy storage is an interdisciplinary subject, and overall solution vendors who understand energy storage, power grids, and transactions are expected to stand out in the subsequent competition.
2. Energy storage battery market structure
Energy storage batteries and power battery production lines have the same technology. Therefore, the current leading power battery companies can rely on their technology and scale advantages in the lithium battery field to enter the energy storage field and broaden their business layout.
3. The production process of the energy storage battery system is divided into two sections
In the battery module production section, the batteries that have passed the inspection are assembled into battery modules through processes such as tab cutting, battery insertion, tab shaping, laser welding, and module packaging; The battery module and BMS circuit board are assembled into a finished system, and then enter the finished product packaging process after the first inspection, high temperature aging and second inspection.
With the continuous decline in cost and the increasingly mature commercial application, the advantages of electrochemical energy storage technology have become more and more obvious, and it has gradually become the mainstream of new installed capacity of energy storage. In the future, as the scale effect of the lithium battery industry further emerges, there is still a large room for cost reduction, and the development prospect is broad.