Under the surge of energy storage boom, industrial capital is frequently overweight.

On May 11, energy storage leader paineng Technology (688063. SH) announced that it plans to spend 5 billion yuan to build a 10gwh lithium battery R & D and manufacturing base project in Feixi County, Hefei, which is expected to be completed and put into operation in 2024.

Benefiting from the “double carbon” target construction, as the “stabilizer” of the new power system that China is trying to build, the energy storage industry has received unprecedented attention. Especially with the high demand for wind and solar power generation, energy storage has become a solution to deal with the fluctuation of power generation efficiency and the mismatch of power supply and demand, and plays an important role in balancing the power grid and cutting peaks and filling valleys.

In July 2021, the national development and Reform Commission and the national energy administration set the tone for the development of new energy storage. The guidance on accelerating the development of new energy storage jointly issued by the two departments (hereinafter referred to as the guidance) points out that the installed capacity of new energy storage will reach more than 30 million KW by 2025 and the comprehensive market-oriented development of new energy storage will be realized by 2030.

At the same time, recently, several provinces have successively announced the new energy storage installation target, allocation and storage proportion and allocation duration requirements during the 14th Five Year Plan period, with a total scale of more than 38gw.

However, under the huge market development opportunities, the energy storage market is still facing the shadow of the sun. From safety to technology to cost, the new energy storage represented by electrochemical energy storage needs to “bite down” many hard bones.

The total investment in the first quarter exceeded 100 billion yuan

According to the 2022 energy storage industry application research report published by the energy storage application branch of China chemical and physical power industry association, the installed capacity of new energy storage in China will be about 5.11gw in 2021. This means that under the guidance of the guiding opinions, China’s new energy storage will usher in several times of growth during the 14th Five Year Plan period.

In March this year, the national development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration issued the implementation plan for the development of new energy storage in the 14th five year plan. Although the previous quantitative objectives have been weakened, the scheme has further refined the implementation orientation and marked an important time node - by 2025, the new 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, new energy storage will be fully market-oriented.

Under the overall goal, many provinces in China have recently issued guiding documents for energy storage development during the 14th five year plan. According to the incomplete statistics of the 21st Century Business Herald reporter, as of May 11, 11 provinces have announced the new energy storage installation target, allocation and storage proportion and configuration duration requirements during the 14th Five Year Plan period, with a total scale of 38.2gw. Among them, Qinghai Province and Gansu Province have the highest installed capacity target scale, both of which are 6Gw.

Industry insiders generally believe that with diversified application scenarios, new energy storage will become the biggest driving force for the large-scale development of China’s energy storage industry in the future. From the actual wind direction of the industrial chain, the new energy storage represented by electrochemical energy storage has been recognized as the most potential energy storage scheme. Compared with mechanical energy storage and electromagnetic energy storage, electrochemical energy storage has advantages in natural environment, response speed and long-term economy.

The footnotes of the policy affect the investment outlet. Since this year, the “sweet cake” of new energy storage has become more and more popular. Especially in the first quarter of this year, more than 10 enterprises announced plans to expand production, with a total investment of 100 billion yuan.

Among them, China Innovation Airlines has made frequent moves. In January, it invested 20 billion yuan in Guangzhou and Jiangmen respectively to plan the energy storage base project, and signed a 10 billion yuan power battery and energy storage system Meishan base project in March; Ningxia Baofeng group’s 200gwh super large lithium ion energy storage whole industry chain project was officially started in March this year, with a total investment of 69.2 billion yuan.

From the perspective of industrial chain division, electrochemical energy storage is mainly divided into three links - upstream equipment supplier, midstream integrator and downstream application terminal.

The main downstream application scenarios are mainly divided into three categories: power generation side, power grid side and user side, and subdivided fields such as auxiliary services and portable energy storage.

In recent years, many listed companies and their related subsidiaries have stepped up their layout in this field.

“Hard bone” under large-scale development

With the continuous promotion of low-carbon transformation of energy structure, the installed scale of green power represented by photovoltaic and wind power ushered in high growth certainty during the 14th Five Year Plan period. Affected by this, energy storage ushered in a demand inflection point. According to the statistical analysis of the 2022 energy storage industry application research report issued by the energy storage application branch of China chemical and physical power industry association, it is expected that the installed capacity of new energy storage in China will exceed 50 million KW by 2025. However, considering the safety of new energy storage, the lag of energy storage price mechanism and the shortage of new energy storage raw materials, there will be a certain lag in the probability of installed scale of electrochemical energy storage power station.

Since the 13th five year plan, China’s new energy storage has achieved the transition from R & D demonstration to the initial stage of commercialization, and made substantial progress. However, in the 14th five year plan, with the increasing demand for the regulation capacity of the power system and the increasing consumption scale of new energy development, it is imperative to accelerate the large-scale application of advanced energy storage technology. However, there is a certain gap between China’s new energy storage and large-scale commercial market application, and the road to large-scale development is not smooth.

“The 14th Five Year Plan period is a key window period for achieving carbon peak and an important opportunity period for the development of China’s energy storage technology from the initial stage of commercialization to large-scale development.” In an interview with the 21st Century Business Herald, Liu Yong, Secretary General of the energy storage application branch of China chemical and physical power industry association, believed that the main tasks facing the large-scale commercial application of new energy storage technologies are: first, the technical progressiveness and maturity of energy storage safety, scale, cost and life can not fully meet the requirements of different application scenarios. AI algorithms, artificial intelligence Carbon footprint assessment and other technologies promote the iterative upgrading of energy storage system integration technology, and accelerate the R & D and investment of new material systems and intelligent equipment for energy storage; Second, gradually establish and improve the whole life cycle standard system of energy storage power stations, such as energy storage equipment, planning and design, construction and installation, safe operation and maintenance, grid connected dispatching, decommissioning and recycling; Third, we should speed up the training mechanism of energy storage talents at different levels and international exchanges and cooperation; Fourth, establish and improve the grid connection and scheduling mechanism of energy storage projects under different application scenarios; Fifth, the problem of cost dredging of energy storage system is still prominent and still needs to be solved