Actively responding to global climate change and promoting green energy transformation have become a global consensus and an inevitable trend. Ember, a global energy think tank, released a new report saying that in 2023, with the growth of global solar and wind energy, renewable energy will drive the proportion of renewable energy generation to a record 30% of global electricity generation. This means that 2023 could be a key turning point, marking the peak of emissions in the global power sector. According to the report, global solar power generation increased by 23.2% year-on-year last year, with more than half of the new growth coming from China. China is the main contributor to new renewables in 2023, accounting for 51% of the global solar energy increase.
To achieve the COP28 target, global energy storage will be expanded by another sixfold by 2030
At present, the global energy structure is accelerating adjustment, and the rapid development of new energy has put forward urgent requirements for the accelerated development of the energy storage industry. The development of new energy storage plays an important supporting role in absorbing new energy, shaving peak valley filling, enhancing the stability of the power grid, and improving the regulation capacity, comprehensive efficiency and safety guarantee capacity of the energy and power system.
In this context, energy storage has become the hottest track in the field of new energy in the past two years. According to the incomplete statistics of the global energy storage database of the Zhongguancun Energy Storage Industry Technology Alliance (CNESA), by the end of 2023, the cumulative installed capacity of electric energy storage projects in operation worldwide will be 289.2GW, with an annual growth rate of 21.9%. Among them, the cumulative installed capacity of new energy storage reached 91.3GW, nearly double that of the same period in 2022. Lithium-ion batteries continue to grow at a rapid pace, with an annual growth rate of more than 100%. China is the world's largest energy storage application market, accounting for nearly 50% of the new energy storage capacity last year, and 88% of the global market together with Europe and the United States.
With the acceleration of global energy transition and carbon emission reduction, the energy storage industry is in an unprecedented period of development. The IEA has released a special report on the World Energy Outlook, "Batteries and a Safe Energy Transition". According to the report, 200 countries around the world pledged at COP28 to triple the total global renewable energy capacity by 2030. To achieve this goal, the world's total energy storage capacity will increase sixfold between now and 2030 to meet renewable energy demand. Electrochemical energy storage will account for 90% of the increase, and the remaining 10% will be mostly pumped hydro.
China's new energy storage ushers in a "golden age" of development
In recent years, with the continuous and rapid growth of new energy power generation in mainland China, new energy storage has entered a period of large-scale development. Since the "14th Five-Year Plan", the new installed capacity of new energy storage has directly promoted economic investment of more than 100 billion yuan, strongly supporting the development of energy and power, and becoming a new driving force for China's economic development.
According to data from the National Energy Administration, by the end of 2023, the cumulative installed capacity of new energy storage projects that have been completed and put into operation across the country will reach 31.39 million kW/66.87 million kWh, with an average energy storage duration of 2.1 hours. Among them, the new installed capacity in 2023 will be about 22.6 million kW/48.7 million kWh, an increase of more than 260% from the end of 2022 and nearly ten times larger than the installed capacity during the "13th Five-Year Plan" period.
In order to accelerate the construction of a new energy system, the mainland has issued a series of relevant policies to promote and encourage the development and construction of energy storage projects. In 2024, "developing new energy storage" will be written into the government work report for the first time. Now, various new energy storage technologies have been applied in various places.
As a major clean energy province in mainland China, Sichuan is accelerating the construction of a new power system, laying out and building new energy storage facilities according to local conditions, promoting the diversified development of new energy storage and multi-scenario applications, and laying out energy storage power stations and shared energy storage demonstration projects on the power supply side, grid side and user side. By 2025, the scale of new energy storage in Sichuan will reach more than 2 million kilowatts. It is worth mentioning that in terms of lithium-ion energy storage batteries, Sichuan has become one of the regions with the most complete global power battery industry ecosystem and the strongest supporting cooperation capabilities. At the same time, in order to expand the field of new energy storage, Sichuan has recently innovated and introduced the country's first special policy for the vanadium battery industry, and is committed to building a leading vanadium battery energy storage industry base in China.
As the mainland accelerates the construction of a new power system with new energy as the main body, the diversified development and iteration of new energy storage technologies continue to expand, and the application scenarios continue to expand, new energy storage has shifted from pilot demonstration to large-scale commercialization, ushering in a golden period of rapid development. According to the Zhongguancun Energy Storage Industry Technology Alliance, under the conservative scenario, the cumulative installed capacity of new energy storage in mainland China will reach 168.7GW in 2028, 221.2GW in 2030, and 26.6GW in 2024-2030, 220.9GW in 2028, 313.9GW in 2030, and 39.9GW in 2024-2030.
In order to promote the linkage development of the photovoltaic and energy storage industry, deepen the cooperation and exchanges of the global energy industry, and build an international trade and investment platform, this year, the China International Photovoltaic Industry Conference will be upgraded to the 7th China International Photovoltaic and Energy Storage Industry Conference 2024, which will further gather the government, industry, enterprises and other social forces, and make positive contributions to the construction of Sichuan into a clean energy base with important global influence, the high-quality development of China's photovoltaic and energy storage industry, and the acceleration of global energy transformation.
"A New Era of Photovoltaic Storage, a New Journey of Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality". The 7th China International Photovoltaic and Energy Storage Industry Conference 2024 will be held in Chengdu in November, and a series of rich activities will stimulate the high morale of all photovoltaic storage people, lead the industry to go hand in hand, and jointly write a new future for China's photovoltaic storage, let us look forward to it together!
(Zhong Jihui)