Recently, the 2024 New Energy Storage Development Analysis Report Press Conference, hosted by the State Grid Energy Research Institute, was held in Beijing. At the conference, the New Energy Research Institute of State Grid released the "New Energy Storage Development Analysis Report 2024".

The report shows that in 2024, China's new energy storage industry continued the rapid development trend of the previous year, with the installed capacity steadily growing. By the end of June 2024, the cumulative installed capacity of new energy storage projects completed and put into operation nationwide reached 44.44 million kilowatts/99.06 million kilowatt-hours, an increase of 40% compared to the end of 2023. Among them, projects with an installed capacity of 100,000 kilowatts and above accounted for more than 50%, indicating that new energy storage power stations are beginning to show a trend towards centralization and large-scale development.

After summarizing the development situation of new energy storage in China in 2023 and the first half of 2024, taking into account the construction scale and progress of new energy storage projects, and considering that the progress of some projects is synchronized with the grid connection progress of new energy projects, a comprehensive judgment is made. By the end of 2024, the installed capacity of new energy storage in the State Grid operational area is expected to reach about 60 million to 64 million kW, and a rough estimate suggests that the national scale will reach about 72 million to 75 million kW.

The report indicates that during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, 29 provinces and cities across the country have planned the installation capacity targets for new energy storage, with a total scale exceeding 90 million kilowatts. By September 2024, 24 provinces and regions have adjusted their electricity pricing policies, and through the adjustment of time-of-use electricity prices, the economic viability of user-side energy storage has improved in various regions. Shandong, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, and Hebei have initiated explorations into new energy storage capacity compensation mechanisms. Among these, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Hebei have set specific compensation standards for new energy storage power stations, while Shandong and Gansu provide capacity compensation for new energy storage power stations through the power market. Additionally, 26 provincial areas have clarified the requirements for pairing energy storage with new energy sources, with most requirements being no less than 10% to 20% of the installed capacity of photovoltaic and wind power, with a storage duration of 2 hours or 4 hours.

The report also mentioned that with continuous breakthroughs in technological innovation, pilot demonstrations of new types of energy storage have achieved initial success and are showing a trend of diversified development. Lithium-ion battery energy storage cells are mainly 280Ah and are advancing towards larger capacities of 300Ah+ and 500Ah+, with longer lifespans and higher safety, and the system integration scale has broken through the gigawatt-hour level. Vanadium flow battery energy storage is at the stage of hundred-megawatt pilot demonstrations, with self-controlled stacks and core key raw materials, and breakthroughs have been achieved in the battery diaphragm challenge. New compressed air energy storage is transitioning from demonstration construction to marketization, focusing on optimizing key link technologies such as compression and expansion, launching the first 300-megawatt advanced compressed air energy storage expander, reducing system costs by 20% to 30%, and improving efficiency by 3% to 5%. Flywheel energy storage has achieved breakthroughs in array integrated design, and a single-site 30-megawatt demonstration project for grid-side frequency modulation application has been officially put into operation. Sodium-ion battery energy storage is at the experimental pilot stage, and for the first time through independent innovation, sodium-ion battery technology has been applied to hundred-megawatt large-capacity energy storage power stations.

State Grid Energy Research Institute's New Energy Research Institute's Distributed Energy System Research Office Director Hu Jing introduced in the report release that the development of new types of energy storage has shown three major trends recently: First, the expansion of new energy storage production capacity has slowed down, industry competition has been upgraded, and innovation has become the key to breaking the deadlock; Second, the focus of new energy storage has shifted from "emphasis on configuration" to "emphasis on application", with the configuration method gradually shifting from policy-driven to market demand-driven; Third, grid-forming energy storage technology has attracted attention, and the layout of long-term energy storage technology has been put on the agenda for the medium and long term. Considering the continuation of the existing requirements for new energy storage ratios in various regions, it is estimated that the scale of new energy storage configuration in the State Grid operating area will reach 190 million kilowatts by 2030; if the goal is to consume new energy, with the balance of electricity and electricity as the constraint, it is estimated that the demand for new energy storage scale will be between 120 million and 160 million kilowatts by 2030.