The growth rate of global shipments of energy storage batteries in 2021 is comparable to that of power batteries.

Under the background of the continuous fermentation of energy crisis, energy shortage and high prices, with the promotion of dual-carbon goal, the demand for transformation to renewable energy is becoming more and more urgent. However, due to the lack of stability and balance of renewable energy, the market demand for energy storage batteries is accelerating.

Trillions of energy storage market is surging.

In recent years, in many aspects, such as top-level planning, demonstration projects, award and subsidy rules, safe operation and so on, energy storage policies have been intensively landed, and policy mechanisms at the national and local levels have been continuously improved. Among them, the most concerned is the new energy storage policy issued in March this year. On March 21, the "implementation Plan for the Development of New Energy Storage in the 14th five-year Plan" jointly issued by the National Energy Administration proposed that by 2025, the new type of 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; by 2030, the new type of energy storage will develop in an all-round way.

Although the specific installation target is not specified in the new energy storage policy, the "Action Plan of carbon Dafeng before 2030" issued by the State Council in October 2021 and the guidance on accelerating the Development of New Energy Storage issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration in July 2021 all clearly point out that the installed capacity of the new energy storage will reach more than 30GW in 2025.

However, from the forecast data continuously raised by the relevant research institutions, the new energy storage installed capacity may far exceed the above planning target during the 14th five-year Plan.

In addition, on April 2, the National Energy Administration and the Ministry of Science and Technology issued the 14th five-year Plan for scientific and technological innovation in the field of energy, which proposed to lead the construction of a new power system with a gradually increasing share of new energy. Comprehensive breakthroughs have been made in key technologies and equipment, such as advanced renewable energy power generation and comprehensive utilization, new generation power grids friendly to large-scale and high-proportion renewable energy, new large-capacity energy storage, hydrogen energy and fuel cells, to further enhance the ability of the power system to optimize the allocation of resources and improve the supply and guarantee capacity of renewable energy.

Under the encouragement and guidance of a series of policies, such as promoting the deepening of institutional reform and innovation in the energy field, speeding up the construction of a clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient energy system, promoting high-quality energy development and comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development, the pilot demonstration project of "new energy + energy storage" has been promoted rapidly. On April 7, the Shandong Energy Bureau issued a public announcement on the 2022 energy storage demonstration project, including 25 lithium battery energy storage projects with a total demonstration scale of 2568MW.

In this context, energy storage is known as the next "trillion tuyere". At present, there are about 170 energy storage concept stocks in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets. Since June 2021, energy storage concept stocks have continued to be sought after by the market, and the cumulative increase has been significantly better than that of Shanghai and Shenzhen 300 in the same period.

Recently, research institutions EVTank, Ivy Economic Research Institute and China Battery Industry Research Institute jointly released the White Paper on the Development of China's Lithium Ion Battery Industry (2022). According to white paper data, global lithium-ion battery shipments 562.4GWh in 2021, a sharp increase of 91.0% compared with the same period last year. Of this total, global shipments of automotive power batteries (EV LIB) were 371.0GWh, up 134.7 per cent from the same period last year, while shipments of energy storage batteries (ESS LIB) were 66.3GWh, up 132.6 per cent from the same period last year.

It can be seen that thanks to the rapid decline in the cost of lithium-ion batteries driven by the large-scale production of power batteries for new energy vehicles, the market demand for energy storage batteries began to increase. In 2021, the growth rate of global energy storage battery shipments is basically the same as that of power batteries.

According to the data released by the Electronic Information Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on April 2, the total output of lithium electricity in China exceeded that of 82GWh from January to February, of which the output of energy storage batteries exceeded that of 9GWh, and the number of power batteries installed in new energy vehicles was about 30GWh.

With the gradual increase of the proportion of renewable energy, the rapid growth of photovoltaic and wind power installation will drive the large-scale development of energy storage power stations. Wu Hui, general manager of the research department of Yiwei Economic Research Institute and director of China Battery Industry Research Institute, predicts that the cumulative installed scale of global electrochemical energy storage power stations will reach 150GW in 2025 and 550GW by 2030.

Huachuang Securities estimates that during the 14th five-year Plan period, the global energy storage capacity will grow at an average annual compound growth rate of 40% and more than 50%, and the global energy storage market is expected to reach 5000-700 billion yuan by 2025.

Everbright Securities predicts that by 2025, the market space for energy storage investment in China will reach 450 billion yuan; by 2030, it will grow to about 1.3 trillion yuan; from 2020 to 2060, the cumulative market space for energy storage investment will reach 122 trillion yuan.

A collective influx of giants from all sides

Public data show that energy storage is mainly divided into three categories: mechanical energy storage, electrochemical energy storage and photothermal energy storage. Among them, pumped storage is the most mature energy storage technology at present, with high energy conversion efficiency, accounting for more than 90% of China's current energy storage market. In recent years, the development of new energy storage industry continues to accelerate. The new type of energy storage refers to the new electric energy storage technology in addition to pumped energy storage, including lithium battery, compressed air, liquid flow, flywheel, sodium battery, hydrogen storage, heat storage and so on. At present, in the new type of energy storage, whether global or domestic, lithium-ion battery energy storage system has occupied a dominant position in the commercial field.

According to the Battery Network, at present, the participants of energy storage batteries are becoming more and more diversified. Since the beginning of this year, the existing energy storage integrators, lithium power enterprises, traditional energy giants and other parties have made frequent layout actions:

On April 6th, BYD (002594) said in its latest record sheet of investor relations activities that the company has realized large-scale and commercial applications around the world from a few kilowatts of small household energy storage to 100 megawatts or even gigawatts of grid energy storage solutions. In addition, last year, BYD launched a new generation of grid-grade energy storage product platform BYDCube T28, which increases the energy density per unit area by 90% compared with the previous generation of air-cooled container products, indicating that the era of GWh energy storage has arrived.

On April 2, CNPC showed that PetroChina issued three bidding documents related to energy storage successively, namely, the development and application project of sodium ion battery and energy storage device, the development project of lithium iron phosphate battery technology and battery detection system, and the development of high power electrochemical energy storage battery management system and energy management system.

People's Government of Yanling County signed contracts with CRRC Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Research Institute Co., Ltd., and China Water Conservancy and Hydropower 12th Engineering Bureau Co., Ltd., respectively, to introduce 100MW wind power project and grid side energy storage project. Among them, the power grid side energy storage project invests 800 million yuan, and a total of 120 container battery cabins will be set up in three villages and towns of Longxi, Shuikou and Xiayang, respectively, to achieve flexible regulation and precise control of electric energy, and greatly improve the guarantee capacity of the regional power grid.

On the evening of March 30th, Tianneng (688819) announced that it intends to take Zhejiang New Energy, a wholly-owned subsidiary, as the main body of the project to invest in the construction of an annual 15GWh energy storage and power lithium battery project with an estimated total investment of about 5.17 billion yuan in Changxing District, Huzhou South Taihu Industrial agglomeration Zone.

On March 28th, Shanghai Electric Guoxuan New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. and Pacific Green Technology, an American listed company, signed an online contract for the REP1&2 energy storage project in the UK, announcing the official launch of the project. It is reported that the UK REP1&2 energy storage project is located in Ridgeborough Energy Park, Kent, UK, which is divided into two sites with a total capacity of 100MW/100MWH. As an energy storage integrator, Electric National Xuan provides a full set of energy storage system solutions for the project.

On the evening of March 25th, Kelu Electronics (002121) announced that the company recently signed a contract with a customer in America for the supply of battery energy storage system equipment, and the company will sell a total 485MWh of container battery energy storage system to this customer. It is reported that this project is currently the largest battery energy storage project in South America.

On March 22nd, the people's Government of Pengshan District, Meishan City, Sichuan Province, and China New Airlines held a contract signing ceremony for the Meishan base project of power battery and energy storage system in Chengdu, with a total planned investment of about 10 billion yuan.

On the evening of March 17th, Xinwanda (300207) announced that the company's subsidiary Xinwanda Electric vehicle plans to invest in the construction of the "Xinwanda Shifang Power Battery and Energy Storage Industry production Base Project (interim)" in Shifang City, with a total investment of 8 billion yuan to build a 20GWh power battery and energy storage battery production base. In February this year, Xinwanda invested 20 billion yuan to build a new base in Zaozhuang, Shandong Province, with a planned area of 1000 mu and a construction area of about 1 million square meters, mainly for the annual production of 30GWh power batteries, energy storage batteries and supporting production bases.

On the evening of March 10th, Yiwei Lithium Energy (300014) announced that the subsidiary Yiwei Power intends to invest in the construction of 20GWh square lithium iron phosphate battery production line and auxiliary facilities project and 48GWh power storage battery production line and auxiliary facilities project respectively in Jingmen High-tech Zone, with a total fixed asset investment of about 12.6 billion yuan.

On February 28th, Zhuhai Guanyu (688772) announced that it plans to build a new high-performance lithium-ion battery project in Chongqing, with a total investment of 4 billion yuan, and six new high-performance new lithium-ion battery intelligent production lines will be built, forming the annual production capacity of 15GWh high-performance new lithium-ion battery, mainly energy storage battery, which is scheduled to start construction in 2022 and put into production in 2025.

On February 17th, LG New Energy announced that the company formally acquired 100% shares of NEC Energy Solutions (NEC ES), the energy storage system manufacturer of Japan Electric Co., Ltd. (NEC) in the United States, and established a new legal person, LG New Energy Vertech, to enter the energy storage system integration market. LG New Energy revealed that with the continuous expansion of the global energy storage system market, more and more customers have proposed to battery manufacturers that they need energy storage system integration solutions. In the future, the company will independently build a large-scale energy storage system, no longer subject to battery supply problems, more timely response to customer needs.

On February 8, Lishen Battery held the opening ceremony of the Chuzhou base project in Quanjiao County, Chuzhou City, Anhui Province. Lishen Battery Chuzhou Base Project plans to produce 36GWh power battery and energy storage battery annually, with a total investment of about 15.2 billion yuan.

On February 8th, the signing ceremony of strategic cooperation between Gao'an Municipal people's Government and Sunshine New Energy, a subsidiary of Sunshine Power (300274), was held in Hefei, Anhui Province, to invest more than 10 billion yuan in Gao'an to build an annual energy storage system equipment manufacturing base for 10GWh, 2GW+200MW/400MWh 's scenery storage green application project and 500MW/500MWh energy storage application demonstration project.

February 6, China Huaneng Group Co., Ltd. e-commerce platform released Huaneng energy storage battery procurement results announced, Xiamen Haichen New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. successfully won the bid. Local media in Xiamen reported that Haichen New Energy won more than 1 billion yuan at the beginning of the spring. It is reported that the energy storage battery purchased by the project is Haichen new energy 280Ah energy storage cell, with a total capacity of 2GWh.

On the evening of January 20th, Desai Battery (000049) announced that the company intends to set up a holding subsidiary in Wangcheng Economic and technological Development Zone of Changsha City to build the "Desai Battery Energy Storage Battery Project". The project plans to invest 7.5 billion yuan in fixed assets and distribute the energy storage battery project headquarters, R & D center and production center with 20GWh production capacity in three phases.

On January 19th, Lufeng City and Beijing Baxter New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. officially signed a carbon neutralization energy storage industry base 5GWh lithium iron phosphate energy storage battery production project, with a total planned investment of 2.5 billion yuan.

Conclusion: driven by the goals and commitments of countries around the world to renewable energy and all kinds of electricity market opportunities, the energy storage industry is expected to usher in a new period of high growth and development. However, it is undeniable that behind the upsurge of policy, capital and investment, the energy storage industry still faces many problems, such as technological innovation, performance improvement, cost relief, optimization of standard system and certification procedures, market mechanism and business model construction.

For example, in addition to the hidden dangers of safety accidents such as fire and explosion, the energy storage industry is also plagued by production capacity difficulties and high raw material prices. A few days ago, because the full delivery was not completed before the red line time in accordance with the requirements of the performance assessment and there is a large gap in the delivery ratio, the China Railway Tower will link Tianyi and Yipeng Energy into the national "blacklist". Industry insiders speculated that the default on the delivery of the battery was mainly caused by the rise in the price of raw materials. As the prices of raw materials continue to rise, some listed companies in the field of energy storage batteries say they will raise prices across the board starting from 2022. This also reflects the pressure of energy storage battery enterprises to "reduce production costs and improve delivery efficiency".

All in all, the energy storage industry above the tuyere is expected to usher in the "best times", but high-quality development is "hindered and long".