The final answer to the energy storage tuyere of all-vanadium flow battery?

On October 18, Huawei announced its participation in an energy storage project in the Red Sea New City of Saudi Arabia, which is by far the largest energy storage project in the world with a scale of 1300MW. With Huawei winning the world's largest energy storage project, the energy storage track has once again become a capital tuyere.

If the concept of energy storage is greater than the substance before, then the track is speeding up its landing recently.

In July this year, the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration issued the "guidance on accelerating the Development of New Energy Storage", which put forward the goal of persisting in the diversification of energy storage technology. In September, the National Energy Administration once again issued the "New Energy Storage Project Management Code (interim)", further emphasizing the safety of energy storage projects.

The diversity and safety of energy storage projects is the focus of the National Energy Administration.

From a technical point of view, although lithium energy storage is in the limelight at present, the disadvantage of insufficient safety may make this route impacted by more emerging energy storage routes.

Which route is most in line with the development of national energy storage? There is no doubt that safety is the primary consideration, and the all-vanadium flow battery without explosion and fire hazard is expected to become the preferred technology for large-scale energy storage.

/ 01 / Technology for energy storage

In 1974, with the support of American NASA, Thaller proposed a new type of electrochemical energy storage technology-liquid flow battery.

Liquid flow battery is a kind of high-performance battery which uses positive and negative electrolyte to separate and circulate respectively, which has the characteristics of high capacity, wide application field and long cycle life, so it is a kind of new energy product.

After years of development, liquid flow battery has derived a variety of routes, such as all-vanadium flow battery, zinc-bromine flow battery, iron-nickel flow battery and so on. At this stage, the all-vanadium route is the most mature, and it is the main route respected in our country, which has reached the initial stage of commercialization. European and American countries are restricted by the acquisition of vanadium, so they take the zinc-bromine route.

All-vanadium flow battery is a kind of battery with both distinct advantages and disadvantages. through detailed comparison, it is not difficult to find that all-vanadium flow battery is the most suitable energy storage device, and it is not too much to say that it is made for energy storage.

Specifically, the all-vanadium flow battery has a high number of cycles, up to 5000-1000, which means the battery life can be up to 20 years, non-combustible, safe and capable of Discharge 100% without damaging the battery.

At the same time, the all-vanadium flow battery has a modular function, the power of the energy storage system can be controlled by increasing or decreasing the number of batteries, and the energy storage capacity can be adjusted by the volume and concentration of the electrolyte, which can meet the personalized requirements of the energy storage end.

These advantages are not available in other battery routes.

Of course, the all-vanadium flow battery is not flawless, because the energy density is only 15-50 Whp / kg, coupled with the liquid flow system, the volume of the all-vanadium flow battery is much larger than that of other batteries, and it is often stored in containers or even buildings. it's not easy to move. At the same time, all-vanadium flow battery also needs a relatively mild temperature environment, and the working temperature of 5-40 °is not suitable for many scenarios.

These shortcomings affect the application of all-vanadium flow battery in electric vehicles, but it is consistent with the needs of energy storage stations, especially many large-scale energy storage stations need safe and stable energy storage equipment, no doubt stable, long-life all-vanadium flow battery will be the first choice.

In other batteries, lead-carbon battery is not environmentally friendly, lithium battery has safety risks, zinc-bromine flow battery has a strong self-discharge phenomenon, and the working temperature of sodium-sulfur battery is too high, which obviously does not match the requirements of energy storage station.

Only in terms of performance, all-vanadium flow battery is the best choice for energy storage scenario.

The factor restricting the development of all-vanadium flow battery is that the cost is too high, especially when the energy storage station can use second-hand electric vehicle power battery step by step, which magnifies the disadvantage of high cost of all-vanadium flow battery.

According to incomplete statistics, the current cost of all-vanadium flow battery is about 3-3.2yuan / Wh,. Compared with it, the average cost of lithium battery may be only 1.21.5 yuan / Wh, which is about 40% of that of all-vanadium flow battery.

Although the cost of all-vanadium flow battery is high at present, compared with the historical trend of the price of lithium battery, the cost of all-vanadium flow battery will drop sharply with the scale.

In 1991, when lithium battery was just commercialized, the cost of lithium battery was as high as 7523 US dollars / KW,. But with the continuous iteration and maturity of lithium battery technology, the price of lithium battery has been falling all the way.

At present, the all-vanadium flow battery is in the early stage of explosion, with an installed scale of 20MW in 2019 and 100MW in 2020, with a rapid growth rate but a very low absolute value.

In terms of market share, the market permeability of all-vanadium flow batteries is less than 1%. However, in the next few years, all-vanadium flow batteries are expected to burst, and the market is optimistic that the market permeability of all-vanadium flow batteries will reach 20% by 2025 and 30% by 2030.

Scale growth is bound to bring about a reduction in cost, and when cost is no longer a problem, then all-vanadium flow batteries may become one of the mainstream routes in the energy storage market.

/ 02 / Vanadium may become the next strategic resource.

If the all-vanadium flow battery finally wins, then it is very likely to enhance China's position in the global new energy industry.

The positive and negative electrodes of all-vanadium flow batteries use metal vanadium, so the output of vanadium is very important. Happily, the metal vanadium resources in our country are very abundant, and there is no situation controlled by people.

According to USGS data, the world's proven vanadium reserves totaled 22 million tons, and China's reserves reached 9.5 million tons, accounting for 43 percent of the total. Russia and South Africa ranked second and third, accounting for 23 percent and 16 percent of the world's vanadium reserves, respectively.

Because vanadium is a small metal, the application scenario is not rich. at present, nearly 62% of the world's vanadium is produced by China, 21% in Russia and 9% in South Africa.

It is not difficult to see that China and Russia are the main producers of vanadium metals in the world, which leads to restrictions on the acquisition of vanadium in Europe and the United States, so their flow batteries mainly promote zinc-bromine routes with ordinary effects. instead of giving up the all-vanadium route, which is more suitable for energy storage.

The price of vanadium is mainly impressed by two factors, one is the demand for steel, the other is the requirement of environmental protection.

In the past, vanadium was mainly used as an element added to steel to increase the strength of steel. As a result, for a long time, the price of vanadium is closely related to the demand for steel. For example, in 2018, China raised the new national standard for thread, which affected the price of vanadium to soar.

In addition, vanadium extraction is mainly divided into two kinds: extraction of vanadium from stone coal and extraction of vanadium from vanadium slag.

The main way of extracting vanadium from stone coal is direct combustion, which is simple and low cost, so it is the most important production mode of vanadium in the past. However, it is obvious that this method is extremely unenvironmentally friendly, and the vanadium obtained at the expense of the environment has been basically suspended in 2017, which once triggered a short-term rise in vanadium prices.

At this stage, the production of vanadium is mainly vanadium extraction from vanadium slag. Due to environmental protection, China banned the introduction of vanadium slag in 2018, which led to a further shortage of vanadium demand in the industry.

If the volume of all-vanadium flow battery is released in the future, it may lead to a further tightening of the demand for vanadium metal. In the case of limited production capacity, vanadium may become the next important strategic resource in the future.

/ 03 / who are the beneficiaries of the "all-Vanadium era"

All-vanadium flow battery will bring two major industrial opportunities: the demand of metal vanadium and the research and development of all-vanadium flow battery.

As mentioned earlier, China produces 62% of the world's metal vanadium, so once all-vanadium flow batteries are widely used, then a large amount of demand will essentially change the supply and demand structure of vanadium, of course, this change in supply and demand will be a long-term process.

Supply and demand affect prices, and when vanadium is in short supply, the price space for vanadium is bound to rise, just like silicon today. Therefore, for the upstream of metal vanadium extraction industry, it will be a direct beneficiary.

From the domestic market, vanadium mines are mainly distributed in Sichuan and Hebei provinces, accounting for 52% and 25% respectively. As the introduction of overseas vanadium slag and the extraction of vanadium from stone coal are prohibited, the current production of vanadium is bound to rely on Sichuan and Hebei provinces.

Further focus, vanadium and titanium of Panzhihua Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. is bound to become the biggest beneficiary of upstream. Relying on the world's largest vanadium-titanium magnetite, Panzhihua Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. has a production capacity of 42000 tons of vanadium products, ranking first in the world. At the same time, Panzhihua Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. also has a production capacity of 235000 tons of titanium dioxide.

Production capacity is only one aspect, more importantly, Panzhihua Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. is closely linked with the major shareholder Panzhihua Iron and Steel Group, buyout all its vanadium slag products, from the source to ensure the core competitiveness of the company. In 2020, the revenue of vanadium products is 4.24 billion yuan, accounting for 56% of the total revenue, which is the core profitable product of the company.

In addition to vanadium and titanium in Panzhihua Iron and Steel Co., Ltd., Hebei Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. is also one of the main beneficiaries, with an annual capacity of 22000 tons of vanadium products and external sales of vanadium slag products.

However, the revenue of vanadium products of Heshan Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. was only 1.306 billion yuan in 2020, accounting for only about 1% of the total revenue. It can be seen that Hegang shares are more vanadium as a part of the industrial chain layout, and do not expect to get too much income.

In terms of battery application, national network Yingda should be the absolute leader. Vanadium battery is operated by its subsidiary Wuhan Nanrui, and has complete battery design, material development and system integration capabilities. Vanadium battery stack and 250kW/500kWh energy storage system have been successfully developed. In addition to the national network Yingda, Shanghai Electric is also arranging vanadium batteries and has launched megawatt all-vanadium flow batteries.

In terms of unlisted companies, Beijing Puneng acquired the global vanadium battery ancestor VRB Power Systems, with its full set of patented technology and has begun to lay out energy storage projects all over the world, which is the best company done globally; Dalian Rongke is backed by Dahua Institute and is a domestic technology pioneer.

From a technical point of view, all-vanadium flow battery has the prospect of becoming the mainstream technology of energy storage, but when the singularity of cost and scale will appear is the key to restrict the final breakthrough of this route.