Sodium-ion batteries have opened up a new track for energy storage, and the flywheel energy storage technology that was once used in satellites has come to life, and there are also new technologies in energy storage segments such as battery sealing and safety protection...... From April 10th to 13th, more than 500 new energy storage companies from all over the country gathered in Shougang Park to participate in the 12th Energy Storage International Summit and Exhibition. Among them, a number of enterprises in the city brought emerging energy storage technologies to the exhibition.
With the acceleration of global energy transition and carbon emission reduction, the energy storage industry has ushered in unprecedented development opportunities. Chen Haisheng, director of the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and chairman of the Zhongguancun Energy Storage Industry Technology Alliance, said that it is expected that this year, the mainland's new energy storage industry will usher in a historic moment, and the cumulative installed capacity of new energy storage may exceed pumped storage, accounting for more than 50%.
The reporter noticed that most of the city's science and technology enterprises in the field of energy storage participated in the exhibition have technical support from the R&D teams of universities and research institutes in Beijing. In emerging technologies such as sodium-ion batteries, flywheel energy storage, and compressed air energy storage, Beijing enterprises are emerging.
The mainland relies heavily on imports for lithium resources, while raw materials for sodium-ion batteries are more readily available. Based on more than ten years of research and development accumulation of sodium-ion batteries by the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zhongke Haina is a well-deserved leader in this field, and the R&D team has the underlying core patented technology of sodium-ion batteries.
"Sodium-ion batteries are naturally born for energy storage, and are more suitable in scenarios that require low energy density, but high requirements for safety and circularity. According to the staff of Zhongke Haina, the sodium-ion battery can still be discharged in an environment of minus 40 degrees Celsius, and the energy density is slightly lower than that of lithium iron phosphate but can achieve fast charging. From short-range electric vehicles to the demonstration application of megawatt-hour large-scale energy storage power stations, to the power system of A00-class vehicles (mini-vehicles), sodium-ion batteries are getting closer and closer to our lives.
Sodium-ion battery products are moving towards life, and flywheel energy storage technology, which was once mainly used in the aerospace field, has also moved towards life application scenarios. The metal rotor rotates at high speed at tens of thousands of revolutions per minute in a vacuum environment, converting the input electrical energy into kinetic energy storage. When the outside world stops supplying power, the rotor can release electrical energy in the process of deceleration, which is the principle of flywheel energy storage.
"It is impossible to achieve complete equivalence between the power generated by thermal power plants and the power used by users, and energy storage equipment is required to regulate the frequency. In this high-power, frequent charging and discharging scenario, the response speed of flywheel energy storage can reach milliseconds. According to the staff of Beijing Honghui Energy, the traditional battery releases high power in a short period of time, and its life may only be a few hundred times, while flywheel energy storage is a physical energy storage method, which can achieve millions of charging and discharging cycles, and can still work normally in harsh environments such as high temperature and severe cold. "We have more than 20 years of research and development foundation, and now the demonstration application of the product is very mature, and the market space is very large. ”
The staff is explaining that in addition to the research and development of core battery cells, there are also enterprises in the "niche" subdivision of the energy storage industry. The seemingly inconspicuous glue can also play a big role in battery safety protection. Sealants used in the field of energy storage must not only be flame retardant, but also have excellent thermal conductivity to help the battery cell dissipate excess heat as soon as possible. In the Economic Development Zone, the cost of energy storage gel products independently developed by Beijing Kaibo Company can be reduced to half of that of imported materials under the same performance conditions.
The staff explained the sealant used in the field of energy storage, "Beijing has rich scientific and technological innovation resources, and is the source of new energy storage technology innovation in the mainland, with significant technological leading advantages. Mao Dongjun, deputy director of the Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology, said at the opening ceremony of the conference that the city will accelerate the breakthrough of cutting-edge technologies for new energy storage, focus on advantageous areas, further improve the industrial ecology, improve the level of industrial agglomeration, and promote the linkage and large-scale development of the new energy storage industry in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei.
Source: Beijing Daily