The era of large-scale energy storage has arrived! 300Ah+ energy storage battery cells are ushering in large-scale applications.

Recently, at RE+, North America's largest new energy exhibition, RuiPu LanJun successfully secured two energy storage orders for its Wendding 320Ah battery. They signed an 8.4GWh procurement agreement with POWIN, a leading US energy storage system integrator, and a 10GWh framework procurement agreement with SUNPIN SOLAR, a leading US photovoltaic power plant system integrator and solar power plant developer. It is understood that RuiPu LanJun's Wendding 320Ah energy storage cells will be mass-produced and put into use in October.

In August, CATL's 5MWh EnerD series liquid-cooled energy storage prefabricated cabin system achieved mass production and delivery. This series uses CATL's 314Ah new generation energy storage dedicated battery cells. This indicates that the "curtain" for the large-scale application of energy storage large cells has been opened.

—Energy storage cell capacity upgrades usher in the "era of large-scale energy storage"

Data from the China Chemical and Physical Power Supply Industry Association shows that by the end of 2022, China's cumulative installed capacity of new energy storage reached 11.5GW. In 2023, the market size of new energy storage in China is expected to reach 15GW-20GW. CICC predicts that global energy storage demand will reach 189GWh this year, a year-on-year increase of over 60%.

With the rapid development of the energy storage industry, the market has placed higher demands on the performance, cost, and safety of the new generation of battery cells. One of the mainstream solutions is to increase the cell capacity, iterating on the current mainstream 280Ah basis. According to incomplete statistics from Battery China, more than 20 battery companies have already deployed R&D or have released 300Ah+ large-capacity energy storage dedicated battery cells.

Nantou Power, Trina Storage, Ganfeng Lithium, Puhui Energy, and Honeycomb Energy have all released cells with a capacity of over 300Ah. EVE Energy and Xiongtao Co., Ltd. have developed ultra-large capacity cells of 560Ah and 580Ah respectively. EVE Energy's announcement shows that its 560Ah large cells have a cycle life of over 12,000 times, can reduce system integration costs by 10%, reduce components by 47%, and increase production efficiency by 30%.

In addition, Battery China recently learned in its research that the large-capacity ultra-low-cost energy storage container recently released by Chuneng New Energy uses the company's latest generation of 314Ah energy storage battery cells, which can increase the capacity of a 20-foot standard container from 3.35MWh (280Ah) to 5MWh, reducing costs by 12% and land use by 32% for 100MWh.

The new generation of 314Ah large-capacity battery cells launched by Tianyi Energy has an energy density of up to 180Wh/kg and a cycle life of over 10,000 times.

Hunan Desay Battery has also deployed new generation lithium iron phosphate energy storage battery cell products such as 306Ah and 314Ah.

In fact, the reason why various companies are competing to develop large-capacity battery cells is primarily to reduce costs. Industry insiders analyze that with the same input of manpower and energy consumption, and a slight increase in raw materials, the output of ampere-hours increases; in addition, with the fixed costs such as factory equipment depreciation remaining unchanged, the unit cost of the product can be reduced, thus bringing strong price competitiveness.

It is worth noting that most battery cell players achieve cell expansion by improving the volumetric energy density of their products. While this reduces costs and accelerates market development, it also brings corresponding technical problems and safety hazards that need to be addressed. Experts point out that "as the cell capacity increases, the risks in thermal management, comprehensive efficiency, and other aspects are also increasing."

—The "optimal solution" for cell capacity remains to be explored

The industry generally believes that the specifications of energy storage battery cells are deeply coupled with product design, and that increasing cell capacity is a development trend, but the size will gradually become fixed. In addition, from the perspective of integrators, there will be a gradual requirement for cell specifications to be unified. At present, the "optimal solution" for cell capacity and specifications remains inconclusive.

However, judging from market performance, 320Ah may have a higher probability of becoming the new top trend for large-capacity energy storage battery cells in the future. Taking RuiPu LanJun, a leader in the "large-scale energy storage era," as an example, the Wendding 320Ah energy storage battery cell has been the first to pass the UL1973, UL9540A, and IEC62619 international authoritative certifications issued by TÜV Rheinland, and has successively signed large overseas orders. In addition to the two energy storage orders at the RE+ exhibition mentioned above, in August, it also reached an exclusive supply agreement for an 8GWh Wendding 320Ah energy storage battery cell large-scale energy storage project with VENA ENERGY, a renewable energy company, in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. This shows that the Wendding 320Ah energy storage battery cell has gained market recognition and trust.

However, there are also points of contention within the industry regarding large-capacity energy storage battery cells. Firstly, we generally believe that lithium iron phosphate batteries are safer than ternary batteries, but with excessively large capacities, safety needs further verification. Secondly, the large-scale application of large-capacity battery cells also poses challenges to other links in the industry chain. In the production and manufacturing process, the difficulty of balancing the size, process, cycle life, and lifespan of energy storage lithium batteries is upgraded; in terms of system adaptation, the battery compartment, battery rack, and system architecture design are all core to the battery cells, and when the energy storage power station replaces battery cells, battery cell iteration will bring problems such as matching the existing system.

At present, on the one hand, the number of developers of 300Ah+ large energy storage battery cells is continuously increasing, and leading players are accelerating the large-scale application of large-capacity battery cells; on the other hand, there is no truly universal battery cell model on the market, and the industry has not yet fully formed a standardization of energy storage battery cell models. In the future, whether large-capacity energy storage battery cells can fully demonstrate their advantages, and what constitutes the "optimal solution" for battery cell capacity, remains to be answered by the market.

(Source: Battery China Network)