China’s energy storage industry growing

Energy storage finds wide application in electric power system, involving all aspects of power generation, transmission, distribution and end user. A new report by ReportBuyer shows the growth of China’s energy storage industry.

In the past five years, the global installed capacity of energy storage for grid system (excluding pumped storage, compressed air storage and thermal storage) has maintained the growth rate of around 20%, hitting 840MW in 2014. By technology, sodium-sulfur batteries and lithium-ion batteries occupy 75% of the global installed capacity together as the mainstream.

In 2014, China’s installed capacity of energy storage for grid system (excluding pumped storage, compressed air storage and thermal storage) accounted for about 10% of the world, up over 50% from 2013; meanwhile , China’s development pace was far higher than the global growth rate. Unlike foreign counterparts, China emphasizes lithium-ion batteries which share 71% of China’s total installed capacity, followed by the lead-acid batteries with about 14%.

To create a clean, sustainable future, the Chinese government is shifting its focus in policy to clean energy technology. As of the end of 2014, China’s wind power generation installed capacity had reached 114.6GW, becoming the third power source in China following thermal power and hydropower. Meanwhile, China had seen the photovoltaic (PV) power generation installed capacity of 28.1GW, overtaking the United States as the world’s largest PV market. In 2014, the demand of Chinese grid-connected wind power and PV for energy storage equaled to 5.7GW and 3.5GW respectively.