Is there a good market prospect for cascade utilization energy storage

The first wave of decommissioning of power batteries is coming. In the industry, the life span of power batteries in new energy vehicles is generally around 3-5 years, when the battery capacity is reduced to about 75%, it will be phased out. Therefore, the first batch of new energy vehicle power batteries put into the market are basically at the critical point of elimination. Forecasts from the China automotive technology research center show that China's accumulative scrapped power batteries will reach 120,000 to 200,000 tons in 2018-2020, and the number will soar to 350,000 tons by 2025.

Decommissioned power batteries still have high energy value, and their cascade utilization has both environmental and economic value. "The cascade utilization of energy storage battery realizes the comprehensive application of the battery's whole life and maximizes its use value and economic benefits." A number of industry insiders told reporters.

Businesses are finding their way

According to China north vehicle research institute, director of the national testing center of 863 power battery zi-dong wang, for pilot use of lithium ion battery systems, its use cost about $1000 per kilowatt-hour, if the cycle life of more than 1000 times, price is more than lead-acid batteries, "actually cycle life will be more than 3000 times, so the arrangement in utilization of power battery has great competitiveness."

Faced with the huge space for echelon utilization, enterprises have realized where the business opportunities are and are actively exploring the road. For example, Shanghai xuda new energy has implemented power battery cascade energy storage projects in Shanghai, jiangsu, guangdong and zhejiang.

"Now the cost of lithium battery cascade utilization energy storage system has entered a new era of 1 yuan /Wh, and the application of user-side energy storage has commercial promotion value. "In comparison, the energy storage cost of new batteries, such as the lead-carbon battery system, is 1.3-1.4 yuan per Wh, and the lithium battery system is 2 yuan per Wh," li jianduo, general manager of Shanghai xuda new energy, told reporters. Thus, the cost advantage of cascade energy storage is obvious.

The feasible business model of cascade energy storage has aroused enterprises' enthusiasm to enter this field. In the interview, the reporter understands, current many enterprises already sight is aimed at this.

"Fierce lion technology is planning to apply retired power batteries from electric vehicles to energy storage." Fierce lion technology shenzhen clean power general manager wang yus revealed.

"We are exploring and stockpiling cascade utilization energy storage projects. At present, there are a lot of cascade energy storage at the user's side in China, so there is a good profit space through peak and valley difference arbitrage. There will also be great application space for adding cascade energy storage to the new energy consumption. Wang yyus told reporters.

"We are also exploring cascade energy storage to make some technical reserves." Ganzhou city hao peng science and technology general manager told reporters, "the cascade utilization market is a process of gradual cultivation, with the same type of battery scrap is increasing, I believe that 1-2 years later, the cascade energy storage economy will be better reflected.

Given that the number of decommissioned batteries will increase exponentially in the future, li said, "the cost of cascade energy storage will be reduced to 0.8 yuan /Wh this year and 0.7 yuan /Wh in 2019, and the project's return on investment will also be greatly improved. We are also well ahead of schedule, with new energy vehicle manufacturers, power battery manufacturers to carry out cooperation.

Solve technical problems

The retired power battery of new energy vehicle is not a simple parallel transplantation, but also needs to solve the battery consistency and safety problems, as well as further technological breakthroughs.

According to wang yus, the most important problem of cascade energy utilization is the detection link. Only when the retired cell or module is correctly judged, can the matching cascade utilization be performed. To this end, tianjin mengshi new energy has developed and established a set of comprehensive evaluation system with cascade utilization information system as the core to test retired batteries. "The system integrates three important links, including database, model and evaluation method, and material management, and can fully support the residual value, information traceability, and cascade utilization plan of retired batteries."

According to li jianduo, cluster distribution is the core of cascade utilization energy storage. "Connect the batteries of a car in series together with an energy storage converter, firmly do series not parallel, and add monitoring units to form an energy storage system, which can maximize the consistency of the battery.

Wang zidong pointed out that the power battery can be recycled for cascade utilization in theory, but the problem lies in the product structure and production process design of the power battery. In order to improve the reliability of the battery pack, many enterprises use laser welding process to connect the battery in series or bolt fastening method. This kind of connection structure makes it difficult to use the power battery cascade, and the cost for users to reassemble the battery pack with the old battery is too large, which hinders the cascade use of the power battery. "Therefore, we should make bold innovations in the structure design and production process of power battery products, facilitate the disassembly and maintenance of battery packs, and shorten the time of battery assembly through automatic assembly equipment." "He suggested.

Safety concerns remain

There are different opinions in the industry about cascade utilization and energy storage. Opponents believe that because cascade utilization is directly related to electricity, it should be safe and efficient and there should not be any potential safety hazards.

"As for the cascade utilization, we are also studying it, but it is more complex and not as simple as we imagined. Retired batteries are of different quality, and many problems such as safety, consistency, technology and economy need to be solved." Sun power light storage business vice President wu jiamang said.

In the wu and point of view, storage battery and power battery focus on technical performance, energy storage system and power system faces complicated degree is different, especially after long-term use, the battery consistency a non-linear drop, make arrangement in use more similar artificial, and a large number of screening for consistency of different batteries work, also let enterprise from the aspects of economy.

"There is value in using the echelon, but there are also bottlenecks. "There are many scenarios for cascade utilization, and it is not necessary to focus on power storage or large-scale energy storage, because these require high safety and reliability. Chen bo, President of nandu power, said in an interview, "our cascade utilization is mainly applied to the communication base station, UPS and low-speed car power industry, which will be easier."

"There are a lot of uncertainties in decommissioned battery echelon utilization for large-scale storage systems, and I would be very conservative about that. But it's more realistic to use it in smaller systems. If you combine cascade utilization with household energy storage, you have a big market. Beijing shuangdeng huifeng junneng technology co., LTD. General manager tang xisheng told reporters.

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