Carbon Neutral Science Popularization—Introduction to Energy Storage and Photovoltaics

Behind the tight global power supply, it actually reflects that the current energy storage technology is not developed enough, which means that there is no inventory of electricity as a buffer. As the global energy structure shifts from traditional energy to new energy, this problem will become more and more prominent.

According to the current global electricity consumption, only 40,000 square kilometers of solar panels are enough to supply global electricity. The reason why human beings cannot rely entirely on solar energy for electricity consumption is mainly because energy storage technology cannot keep up.

Whether my country can achieve carbon neutrality by 2060 depends on energy storage technology. In the context of new energy and carbon neutrality, energy storage technology is an area that must be focused on.

In July 2022, China’s National Development and Reform Commission issued the “Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Development of New Energy Storage”, which clearly stated that by 2025, the installed capacity of new energy storage should reach more than 30 million kilowatts, which is nearly 10% of the current installed capacity. times. 4 years to grow 9 times.

The future energy storage technology may be dominated by electrochemical energy storage.

There are four main directions of energy storage technology: pumped hydro storage, compressed air energy storage, flywheel energy storage and electrochemical energy storage.

Pumped hydro storage is to pump water to a high place, and then generate hydroelectric power when needed. This energy storage method has a large capacity and a high number of cycles, but it has extremely high requirements on the terrain and its application scenarios are limited.

Compressed air energy storage and flywheel energy storage have relatively small energy and power, and have not yet entered commercial applications.

Electrochemical energy storage is a variety of battery technologies represented by lithium batteries. It has a wide range of application scenarios and is considered to be the mainstream of future energy storage technology, accounting for more than 90% of all energy storage.

And there may be a shared energy storage model in the future. According to the regulations of the National Development and Reform Commission, new energy power generation projects must be equipped with no less than 10% of the energy storage capacity to ensure the stability of on-grid power. However, if each new energy station has to build 10% of its installed energy storage capacity, it will be troublesome. Therefore, there may be a business model in the future, which is to build and share energy storage power stations, and each new energy station in this area will pay for it, and use its electric energy for peak regulation and frequency regulation.

In the field of energy storage, whether it is battery manufacturing or integration capabilities, China will soon come to the forefront of the world. The energy storage power station can be used as an urban backup power supply, and as an emergency power supply when the power grid fails, for hospitals, emergency departments, communication facilities, and rescue facilities.