The coordinated development of energy storage and renewable energy has helped accelerate China's green and low-carbon energy transformation

In recent years, in the context of carbon peak and carbon neutrality, China's energy transformation has been "green" forward, wind power, solar power and other renewable energy installed scale and power generation continue to grow, and the proportion of non-fossil energy consumption continues to increase. At the same time, the scale of new energy storage installed capacity continues to grow rapidly, and a variety of technology projects such as lithium batteries, compressed air, and flow batteries are growing rapidly.

The National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration recently jointly issued the Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the stability of the Power System under the New Situation, pointing out that scientific planning and configuration of energy storage on demand. According to the needs of the power system, we will coordinate the construction of various regulation resources, promote the scientific allocation of various types of energy storage according to local conditions, form power regulation and stability control capabilities of multi-time scales and multi-application scenarios, improve the output characteristics of new energy, optimize the load curve, and support a high proportion of new energy delivery.

Experts say that with the rapid growth of renewable energy, the power system will need greater flexibility to ensure that variable renewable energy can be reliably and efficiently integrated into the power system, and energy storage is seen as one of the solutions to drive the effective integration of renewable energy. It is necessary to promote the coordinated development of energy storage and renewable energy to help China's energy green and low carbon transformation.

The construction of wind power photovoltaic base is progressing steadily

According to the latest data released by the National Energy Administration, as of the end of September 2023, the installed capacity of renewable energy in the country was about 1.384 billion kilowatts, an increase of 20%, accounting for about 49.6% of the total installed capacity in China, which has exceeded the installed capacity of thermal power. Among them, the installed capacity of wind power is 400 million kW, and the installed capacity of photovoltaic power is 521 million kW. In the first three quarters of 2023, wind power photovoltaic power generation reached 1.07 trillion KWH, an increase of 22.3%, exceeding the domestic electricity consumption of urban and rural residents in the same period.

Among them, "Shage wilderness" (deserts, Gobi and desert areas) has become a new blue ocean in the energy field due to the abundance of solar and wind energy resources. In 2022, the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration issued the Plan for the layout of large-scale wind power photovoltaic bases focusing on desert, Gobi and desert areas, making it clear that by 2030, China will plan to build a total installed capacity of about 455 million kilowatts of wind power photovoltaic bases, including Kubuqi, Ulan Buhe, Tengger and Badain Jaran Desert bases with planned installed capacity of 284 million kilowatts.

Recently, China's largest "sand desert" wind power photovoltaic base project - National Energy Group Ningxia Tengger desert wind power photovoltaic base, phase II 2 million kilowatt photovoltaic project has begun construction. After the second phase of the project is completed and connected to the grid, it is expected to provide 3.96 billion KWH of clean electricity per year, save 1.207 million tons of standard coal, and meet the annual electricity consumption of 3.3 million households.

As one of the first large-scale wind power photovoltaic base projects to start construction in China during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the Mengxi Base Kubuqi 2 million kW photovoltaic sand control project has completed all photovoltaic module installation work, and has full capacity grid-connected power generation conditions by the end of this year. After the completion of the project, the average annual power generation is about 4.1 billion KWH, equivalent to saving about 1.25 million tons of standard coal and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 3.94 million tons.

"At present, the first batch of large-scale wind power photovoltaic bases have all started, the second batch of base projects have started successively, and the third batch of base project lists have been officially issued and implemented." Dong Wancheng, deputy director of the Development Planning Department of the National Energy Administration, said at the fourth quarter news conference of the National Energy Administration in 2023.

All kinds of energy storage projects were accelerated

Wind power, photovoltaic power generation is random, intermittent, volatility characteristics, in order to ensure the safety of the grid and power supply reliability, the development of various types of energy storage is crucial. As a technology that can store and release energy, energy storage is like a huge "charging treasure", which plays an important role in promoting the consumption of new energy, promoting the green and low-carbon transformation of energy, and ensuring the safe and stable operation of the power system.

In terms of pumped storage, in Liaoning, as the first mega kilowatt-level EPC pilot project involving the design, construction and procurement of the complete industrial chain of pumped storage construction, Qingyuan pumped storage power station has a total installed capacity of 1.8 million kilowatts, and the first unit will be put into operation soon. In Xinjiang, as a key implementation project in the "Medium and Long-term Pumped Storage Development Plan (2021-2035)" and the first approved pumped storage power plant project in Xinjiang during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, Xinjiang Burjin pumped storage power plant is under orderly construction. The plant has a total installed capacity of 1.4 million kilowatts and a designed annual generating capacity of 1.75 billion kilowatt-hours.

"Pumped storage power station is a power station that uses the height difference of water and gravitational potential energy for energy conversion, can quickly respond to changes in power demand, and can undertake tasks such as peak loading, valley filling, energy storage and phase regulation of regional power grid, further improve the power supply quality of the grid, and support the safe and stable operation of the grid." The relevant person in charge of Xinhua Power generation of China Nuclear Group said that the construction of Burjin pumped storage power station project will effectively support the large-scale development and high proportion of new energy such as wind and light in Altay region, and help the construction of the Burjin River basin water landscape storage integration project.

At the same time, since the beginning of this year, the scale of new energy storage installations has continued to grow rapidly, and a variety of technology projects such as lithium batteries, compressed air, and flow batteries have grown rapidly. For example, the largest electrochemical energy storage power station in China - Shach 1 million kilowatt light storage integrated power station has been fully put into commercial operation, and its energy storage scale has reached 200,000 kilowatts / 800,000 kilowatt-hours, which can effectively regulate the stable supply of regional new energy power.

The "New Energy Storage Industry Development Report (2023)" released recently shows that as of the end of September 2023, the cumulative installed capacity of new energy storage projects has reached 21.23 million kilowatts. New energy side and grid side energy storage is the focus of new energy storage construction, and the cumulative installed capacity accounts for about 92%.

"To promote the construction of a new energy system, it is necessary to expand the scale of renewable energy, improve the efficiency and reliability of renewable energy, and form an effective alternative to fossil energy." At the same time, we will strengthen the construction and transformation of new infrastructure such as large-scale energy storage, and enhance the capacity of regional interconnection of new energy systems." Said Sun Chuanwang, a professor at the China Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University.