Not long ago, there was a topic that suddenly became very popular: why is China building high-speed rail on a large scale? There is a tricky way to solve the problem: China doesn't need money to cut off electricity, and we got the bet right.
Not only high-speed rail, but also artificial intelligence, unmanned driving, etc., many of the strategic emerging industries we have developed are "electric tigers", which require strong computing power, and more importantly, stable and cheap electricity to support.
Today's photovoltaic power generation cost has dropped to 4% 25 years ago, the life span is at least 20 years, and the Qinghai photovoltaic feed-in tariff is 0227 yuan, which is far lower than the benchmark electricity price for coal.
Gao Jifan, chairman of Trina Solar, has publicly proposed that the photovoltaic industry aims to achieve 0 power generation costs in the western region by 20301 degree. This is a big challenge for new energy, but it is an opportunity for energy storage.
First of all, we need photovoltaic and storage synergy", Gao Jifan pointed out, "energy storage can largely solve the problem of space-time mismatch of new energy and break through the market ceiling." ”
Refuse low-price involution and break through from energy storage cost reduction
The frenzied pursuit of the capital market, the support of top-level policy planning and local government, all kinds of signs confirm the necessity of developing energy storage. But for many energy storage practitioners, the mood in the past 2023 is like a roller coaster, from excitement to exhaustion and finally even difficult to move forward.
From the beginning of the year 16 Wh to the end of the year below 07 yuan Wh, the decline in the cost of energy storage systems has not made the market easier, but has made the competition between enterprises more involuted, and the phenomenon of low-price bidding still exists. Before the realization of marketization and commercial operation of energy storage, cost is still the first element that owners are concerned about. On the other hand, in the bidding of energy storage system integrators, the "core" family has gradually grasped a more favorable market position.
The heart of energy storage equipment, the battery cell, not only accounts for the highest proportion of cost, but also affects the energy storage operation performance and project profitability. However, because of the spanning of electrochemistry and electric power disciplines, battery cells are also the most difficult part of the company's technical layout and industrialization. However, Trina Energy Storage cracked the 975 code of battery cycle attenuation in a short period of time, and created 12,000 ultra-long-life battery cells with the technology of "3 minus, 1 supplement and 1 intelligent manufacturing". In 2023, it will lead the market and take the lead in the industry to launch high-temperature battery cells, and at the same time, the reverse derivation design of an air-conditioned energy storage system not only saves equipment costs, but also reduces energy consumption, further improves the "output capacity" of energy storage, extends the life of the energy storage system to more than 10,000 times, and promotes the reduction of the LCOE of energy storage. At the same time, in order to find the optimal solution for high energy density and low energy storage cost of energy storage system, Trina Energy Storage's self-developed 314Ah battery cell, a new generation of flexible liquid-cooled battery compartment ElementA2 and industrial and commercial storage all-in-one Potentia Blue Ocean have also been widely introduced to the market.
Sun Wei, President of Trina Energy Storage, once pointed out during the exchange: "The iteration of energy storage products is very fast, as little as one and a half years, and at most two years. "Without continuous R&D investment and strong technical team to support, cross-border is unsustainable. As early as a few years ago, Trina Energy Storage established platforms such as the Energy Storage Battery Research Institute and the Energy Storage Engineering Technology Center, and carried out related technical research from cell materials to battery production and energy storage system integration, and finally realized full-stack self-research from core to cabin.
On October 31, 2023, Trina Energy Storage's Advanced Energy Storage Products Research Institute and Witness Laboratory was successfully unveiled at its headquarters in Changzhou, and has successively obtained the certification qualifications of CNAS, UL, CQC and TÜV SÜD, which will further provide a platform for Trina Energy Storage to provide a platform for the development and verification, production quality, and process improvement of battery cells and system products, and support the efficient and reliable operation of the whole life cycle of energy storage.
In addition, intelligent manufacturing has also become one of the cards in the competition of battery energy storage companies. In Trina Energy Storage's Chuzhou Gigafactory, the energy storage cell production line has achieved 100+ fully automated production processes, and can achieve 100% product quality traceability and 100% closed-loop control. The speed and quality of Trinacore is another important factor supporting the cost reduction of its energy storage products.
The strong ability to reduce costs has been transformed into the company's performance. According to Trina Solar's third-quarter performance forecast, its revenue increased by 89% year-on-year94%~132.15%, of which energy storage is one of the main reasons for the performance growth. Benefiting from the roll-off of its own battery cells and the improvement of yield, as well as the continuous decline in the comprehensive cost of energy storage products, Trina's energy storage shipments have achieved significant growth.
Reject ineffective investment and strive to be a valuable product
Looking back on 2023, another major anxiety in the energy storage industry comes from the intensifying "overcapacity". In the eyes of more outstanding practitioners, "excess" is only a period of self-healing adjustment of the industry. What the owner or investor really needs is "valuable" products, and backward technical products and production capacity will eventually be eliminated.
Recently, it has been reported that the power generation group has tightened the approval of energy storage project development, and the crux of it is still the economics of energy storage. The low frequency of energy storage power station calls, the operating life of the energy storage system, and the charging and discharging efficiency of the energy storage system do not meet expectations, which makes it difficult for many power stations to operate according to the expected design goals, and it is even more difficult to achieve profitability. Especially in the industrial and commercial energy storage scenario, the commodity value attribute of energy storage is more obvious, and product reliability is the basic guarantee for the financing ability and sustainable operation of energy storage projects.
Previously, in the BNEF "2022 Energy Storage Products and System Integrator Bankability" rating, Trina Energy Storage ranked among the top in the world when it debuted.
10. The top four in China, and in the recently announced 2023 annual rating, Trina Energy Storage broke into the top 5 in the world, and its energy storage system products have been further improved in bank financing and the recognition of developers, and this result is based on Trina Energy Storage's excellent technological innovation capabilities and full-stack self-developed energy storage products.
For the new energy and grid side, Trina Energy Storage's next-generation flexible liquid-cooled battery compartment elementa 2 uses self-developed and self-produced 314ah battery cells, realizing a 20-foot standard container with a height of 5.The system energy of 015MWh not only simplifies the structure but also prolongs the cycle life, and is equipped with pack-level active fire-fighting and submerged cabinet-level fire-fighting guard energy storage safety, and is more compatible with a variety of PCS technologies such as string, centralized and distributed type, so as to adapt to various customer application needs with "flexible" solutions.
Starting from the three major pain points of safety, revenue, and operation and maintenance, Trina's industrial and commercial energy storage system POTENTIA adopts RTE's 95% A-level excellent + ultra-high conversion efficiency cells, superimposes the one-stop safety protection design of the cell-pack-energy storage system, and realizes more intelligent operation and maintenance with the Trina smart cloud platform, ensuring the benefits of industrial and commercial storage customers.
Looking forward to the new year, relevant institutions estimate that the global energy storage market demand will be more than 150GWh in 2024, and the growth trend of the battery energy storage market will continue. The market demand is still strong, and for the energy storage system manufacturers, only continuing to provide higher quality products is the best decision to protect the market share and protect the development of the industry.
It is understood that up to now, Trina Energy Storage has more than 100 global customers, with a global project reserve of more than 10GWh and a global project delivery of more than 4GWh. Recently, Trina Energy Storage previously said that its energy storage battery, DC battery compartment and AC and DC product portfolio production capacity reached 12GWh, and is expected to reach 25GWh by the end of the second quarter of 2024. Such a scale of capacity planning and high-performance products is the best answer for Trina Energy Storage to the market and customers.
From the first self-developed core to the present in just two years, Trina Energy Storage, a transfer student, has jumped directly from the top student to the top student, and everything is traceable.
First of all, the parent company Trina Solar has laid a solid photovoltaic foundation, which is the biggest advantage. In terms of market layout, Trina Solar has given Trina Energy Storage mature global PV channel resources, product development and market development strategies, enabling Trina to exert 1+1 2 combat effectiveness on the track of two-wheel drive of PV energy storage. At the end of December 2023, Trina Solar announced that Trina Solar's market valuation reached 1.8 billion yuan, and Trina Solar will also join forces with multiple parties to increase the capital of Trina Energy Storage to support the continuous growth of its energy storage business.
Some say that the energy storage industry is about to usher in a more difficult year. However, Trina's tenacity and innovation still show infinite vitality, and the past will be a vast sky!