Distributed and connected storage provides greener energy prospects

Combining distributed renewable energy with energy storage plays a key role in helping China achieve its two-carbon goals of balancing energy supply and demand while increasing energy efficiency, company executives and industry experts say.

The industrial energy storage sector has huge market potential, said Gao Jifan, president and CEO of Trina Solar Co. More and more industrial users are recognizing the importance of energy storage and are eager to install storage systems.

“Industrial energy storage systems can effectively improve power reliability by connecting solar power plants to the public grid,” Gao said at the 15th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum’s New Champions, also known as the Davos Summer Forum, in Dalian, Liaoning province.

Trina Solar has developed a comprehensive energy storage solution. For example, its Yancheng Delong project in Jiangsu, which stores electricity during off-peak hours and discharges it during peak hours, is able to leverage price differences to reduce energy costs.

It also provides backup power during grid outages or maintenance, increasing reliability and minimizing disruption. Additionally, the energy storage solution enables the owner and operator of the storage to participate in grid ancillary services, increasing grid stability and generating additional revenue.

This system supports better integration of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power, promoting a cleaner and more sustainable energy mix, he added.

To better integrate renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power into the grid, many photovoltaic companies are increasing their efforts to invest in energy storage as well as smart grids to further increase the competitiveness of new energy solutions.

Solar panel maker GCL Technology Holdings Ltd said it is taking part in a number of high-quality, user-side energy storage projects in more developed regions of the country – such as the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta – leveraging the company’s advantage in photovoltaic industry chain resources and a range of energy supply services.

Chinese steelmaker HBIS Group also pledged to optimize its energy structure, develop energy storage technologies and promote “new energy + storage” projects, paving the way for the green transformation of the steel industry.

HBIS is currently the steel sector leader in green energy trading, ranking in the top 10 in China. It aims to achieve 350 megawatts of renewable energy capacity by 2025. To boost the use of renewable energy, HBIS is accelerating the development and application of energy storage technology, said Yu Yong, president of the company.

Taking advantage of the abundant photovoltaic resources, HBIS is developing a 150MW integrated source, grid, load and storage project in the vanadium-titanium materials industrial park in Chengde, Hebei Province to provide a stable power supply.

The steel industry’s high carbon dioxide emissions are due to the energy structure, so HBIS will continue to step up efforts to reduce emissions by adopting hydrogen, green electricity and energy storage methods. This strategy increases the use of renewable energy and builds a diversified and clean energy system, making a significant contribution to global climate change mitigation and environmental protection, he said.

Chen Haisheng, president of the China Energy Storage Alliance, said the country’s initial subsidies not only help the industry develop, but also bring benefits by broadening the tax base and increasing local fiscal revenue.

Early policy guidance is key to the rapid and high-quality development of regional industrial energy storage. This strategy not only creates win-win outcomes for enterprises and local governments, but also promotes a virtuous cycle of growth for the industrial ecosystem, Chen said.

He added that well-designed political incentives and effective macroeconomic regulations can support growth for both energy consumers and the local economy.

China had 52.5 gigawatts of pumped-storage capacity and 35.3 GW of new storage capacity at the end of the first quarter, consulting firm Rystad Energy said, with a number of projects under construction or planned to support capacity growth in the near future.