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Future Focus, Vanadium Flow Battery Energy Storage Tide Rising! Under the wind of energy storage, China Energy Construction and China Power Construction's frenzy has come to an end
2023/4/20
Since 2022, energy storage vents have been hot. The new market breeds new changes.
In the past, the "Five Major and Six Small" were often regarded as the main force in China's energy transformation, driving the continuous increase in clean energy installations such as wind power in China. Nowadays, in the face of energy storage opportunities, many new enterprises are flocking to try to share the energy transformation. Among them, China Power Construction's bidding for full vanadium liquid flow energy storage * reaches up to 800MW, and China Power Construction's layout is rapid.
A new research report on "Future Focus, Vanadium Flow Battery Energy Storage Tide Rising".
*The report points out that vanadium flow battery, as another major new technology after wind and solar energy storage technology, has good application prospects in the field of large-scale energy storage. At the same time, as a large "urban power bank", it is applied in peak shaving power systems, wind power generation systems, large-scale photovoltaic power systems for energy storage, uninterrupted power supply or emergency power supply systems.
Industrial policy support to support the goal of "carbon neutrality"
In recent years, national policies have strongly supported the development of energy storage batteries. In 2017, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Development of Energy Storage Technology and Industry", which clearly planned to complete two steps in the next 10 years. By 2025, the energy storage battery industry will achieve large-scale development, form a relatively complete industrial system, and become a new economic growth point in the energy field.
In 2021, the Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Development of New Energy Storage Technologies issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration proposed to adhere to the diversification of energy storage technologies, promote the continuous cost reduction and commercial scale application of relatively mature new energy storage technologies such as lithium-ion batteries. Under favorable policies, it is expected that the rapid development of energy storage batteries will help China achieve its carbon neutrality goal.
'New Energy+Energy Storage' Achieves a 'Dual Carbon' Future
In the context of the "dual carbon" policy, long-term energy storage systems are one of the key factors in achieving the "dual carbon" goal. Long term energy storage plays an important role in enhancing energy storage capacity, ensuring peak shaving and stable operation of the power system, and supplementing power supply in the context of the strong development of renewable energy.
Based on research and engineering practices, as well as industry consensus gained, energy storage forms suitable for long-term and large-scale use mainly include the following three categories.
1. Pumped storage: As a mature and stable energy storage technology, it has been a key investment and construction form of energy storage in China in recent years, with numerous application cases at home and abroad. Even pumped storage has become a benchmark for large-scale energy storage, often comparing and evaluating the development of new energy storage technologies based on indicators such as energy conversion efficiency, initial investment, and full life cost.
The limitations of pumped storage mainly lie in its high requirements for construction site selection (such as dam construction conditions, environmental impact, and resettlement in flooded areas). In some areas, the resources available for building large pumped storage power stations have been nearly depleted (such as in Jiangsu Province), and the construction period is long (7-10 years).
2. Compressed air energy storage: Although traditional compressed air energy storage is a mature technology, the energy conversion efficiency of the system is low (only 20% to 50%) due to the need to supplement additional energy during operation (heat release energy loss during the compression process, and heat absorption during the expansion process needs to be supplemented by gas combustion), and it is also limited by resource conditions (requiring the use of large underground caves or mines as gas storage).
However, in recent years, research on traditional compressed air energy storage has made progress and developed into a new type of compressed air energy storage technology, mainly aimed at effectively storing and utilizing compressed heat, improving energy conversion efficiency.
3. Liquid flow battery: Liquid flow battery includes various forms, and all vanadium liquid flow battery is a type that is close to industrialization and large-scale application. All vanadium flow batteries are not limited by geographical or environmental conditions, and their energy storage capacity is lower than that of pumped storage. However, they belong to the technology of large-scale energy storage "race track", and their application should be positioned for large-scale and long-term energy storage.
The all vanadium flow battery energy storage system is safe, stable, and environmentally friendly throughout its entire life cycle. The electrolyte of all vanadium flow batteries is a dilute sulfuric acid aqueous solution of vanadium ions. As long as the charging and discharging cut-off voltage is well controlled and the storage space of the battery system is well ventilated, it is to some extent safe.
The output power and energy storage capacity of the all vanadium flow battery energy storage system are independent of each other, and the design and installation are flexible, suitable for large-scale, large capacity, and long-term energy storage. The output power of an all vanadium flow battery energy storage system is determined by the size and quantity of the stack, while the energy storage capacity is determined by the volume of the electrolyte. To increase the output power, simply increase the area of the stack and the number of stacks can be achieved; To increase the energy storage capacity, simply increase the volume of the electrolyte.
High energy conversion efficiency, fast startup speed, no phase changes, and fast response to charge and discharge state switching.
The all vanadium flow battery adopts a modular design, which is easy to integrate and scale up the system. The all vanadium flow battery stack is composed of multiple single cells stacked by a press filter. The rated output power of the current industrialized single cell stack is generally 30-80 kW, and the energy storage system is usually composed of multiple unit energy storage system modules. The rated output power of a unit energy storage system module is generally around 500 kW.
Has strong overload capacity and deep discharge capacity. During the operation of the energy storage system, the electrolyte is circulated within the stack through a circulating pump, and the diffusion of active substances in the electrolyte solution has a relatively small impact; Moreover, the electrical reaction has high activity and less activation.
Due to the constraints of high initial installation costs, the commercial development of all vanadium flow batteries has been relatively slow. But with the continuous cost reduction of vanadium batteries, coupled with their better safety and lower life cycle costs than lithium batteries, the number of investment projects for all vanadium flow batteries is gradually increasing.
Vanadium flow batteries use vanadium ion solutions of vanadium (V) V3+/V2+redox pairs as active substances, and store these active substances in a storage tank for use as negative ions. In fact, such an electrical system is a fluid flow battery (FB) system, which is rechargeable. In FB, energy is stored in electrically active substances. The electrically active substance dissolves in the liquid electrolyte in the tank, converts chemical energy into electrical energy through a battery, and then pumps the liquid out of the reaction chamber. Oxidation-reduction flow (RFB) and mixed flow (HFB) are specific implementations of FB. Therefore, corresponding to the negative * of vanadium, another storage tank is needed as the positive *, and usually+4 and+5 valence vanadium ions are selected as active substances. As shown in Figure 1, this is the working principle diagram of a vanadium battery.
Policies promote the entry of new energy storage into the fast lane of development. In the future, with the gradual improvement of the electricity market, the supporting energy storage supply chain, and the increasingly mature business model, new types of energy storage will enter the fast lane of development. According to CNESA's prediction, in a conservative scenario, the cumulative scale of new energy storage will reach 48.5GW in 2026, with a compound growth rate of approximately 53.3% from 2022 to 2026. In an ideal scenario, it will reach 79.5GW, with a compound annual growth rate of approximately 69.2%.
The energy storage permeability of liquid flow batteries rapidly increases. As a relatively mature long-term energy storage route, the penetration rate of liquid flow batteries is expected to rapidly increase. According to the National Energy Administration, in the cumulative installed capacity of new energy storage in China in 2022, lithium-ion batteries accounted for 94.5% of energy storage and liquid flow batteries accounted for 1.6%, an increase of 1% compared to the previous year.
Domestic substitution is expected to drive cost reduction
The all vanadium flow battery system consists of a stack, electrolyte solution storage and supply subsystem, battery management subsystem, etc., and the system is relatively complex. Electrolyte and stack are the core components of vanadium batteries. From the perspective of cost proportion, electrolyte accounts for about 41% and battery stack accounts for about 37%, both of which are the main sources of cost for vanadium batteries. One of the reasons for the high cost of vanadium batteries is the immaturity of the industrial chain, incomplete supply and supporting facilities, and dependence on imported products for key links such as ion exchange membranes. Domestic substitution is expected to drive cost reduction. From recent industry chain tracking, it can be seen that the construction of the domestic vanadium battery industry chain is accelerating, and the product performance is catching up with imported products. With the continuous expansion of installed capacity and strong policy support, domestic substitution in key links will further reduce the cost of vanadium batteries.
Dalian Rongke Energy Storage and the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences have collaborated in depth with industry, academia, and research institutes. After more than ten years of accumulation and innovation, they have achieved a significant breakthrough in the core technology of all vanadium flow batteries, established a complete independent intellectual property system, and are the leading setter of domestic and foreign standards in the field of liquid flow batteries. They have taken the lead in achieving the domestic production of key materials such as all vanadium flow battery electrolytes and double plates, And the large-scale production of battery stacks and battery systems.
Vanadium Titanium Co., Ltd.: With a deep foundation and long-term focus on leading industry hotspots
The company has vanadium series products represented by vanadium pentoxide, high vanadium iron, vanadium nitrogen alloy, vanadium aluminum alloy, and titanium series products represented by titanium dioxide, titanium slag, etc. It has a comprehensive production capacity of 1.5 million tons of titanium concentrate, 43000 tons of vanadium products (calculated as V2O5), and 235000 tons of titanium dioxide. It is a major supplier of vanadium products in the world, a major supplier of titanium raw materials in China, and an important titanium slag production enterprise in China, An important titanium dioxide production enterprise in China engaged in sulfuric acid and chloride processes.
Yicheng Xinneng: A Rising Star in the Vanadium Battery Industry
Kaifeng Times New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Yicheng Xinneng, is located in the Energy Storage New Materials Industrial Park in Shunhe Hui District, Kaifeng City. It was registered and established in May 2021 with a total investment of 130 million yuan.
The company mainly produces all vanadium flow battery energy storage systems and accessories required for the clean energy market. The annual production capacity of the first phase of the project is 300MW, and the annual production capacity after the completion of the third phase is 3GW. At present, the company's main business is the production of all vanadium flow battery energy storage system and its accessories. This project is jointly developed by the company and Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Since the beginning of this year, China Energy Construction Corporation has been making frequent statements and momentum around the energy storage industry. Firstly, during the two sessions, Chairman Song Hailiang proposed a proposal for the development of the energy storage industry; Various signals indicate that this energy and power construction "madman" is planning to do a big job in the energy storage field, moving from providing energy and power construction services to deeply participating in the central stage of energy transformation.
Looking back at the development of energy and electricity in China, China Energy Construction Corporation and China Power Construction Corporation have played key supporting roles. From thermal power, hydropower, nuclear power, to wind power and photovoltaic, the "Shuangxiong" of power construction almost undertakes the basic work of power station planning, survey, design, and construction.
According to statistical data, China Energy Construction Corporation has participated in the design and construction of new energy installations exceeding 170 and 110 million kilowatts, accounting for 32% and 21% of the country's new energy installations, respectively. The grid connected capacity of offshore wind farms surveyed and designed by China Electric Power Construction Corporation's East China Institute is approximately 16 gigawatts, accounting for more than 63% of the country's offshore wind power grid connected capacity.
With the continuous promotion of energy transformation, both have stepped onto the stage of energy development. However, the pace of China Energy Construction has been sluggish, and even compared to China Power Construction, the scale of clean energy development is far behind, let alone the "five major and six small".
Now, facing the opportunity of the imminent outbreak of large-scale energy storage, China can build its own momentum and look forward to building its own voice.
In fact, facing the opportunity to build a new type of power system, China Power Construction Corporation is also accelerating its layout in the field of energy storage. Thanks to its deep accumulation in the field of hydropower construction, it has invested more energy in the development of pumped storage energy. According to the financial report, in the first half of 2022, China Power Construction Corporation carried out 22 pumped storage projects for preliminary work.
However, it cannot be ignored that more and more enterprises, including Guangdong Hydropower, South Grid Energy Storage, State Grid, and local enterprises, are participating in the development of energy storage power stations, and the competition is becoming more intense.
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