China’s CATL Expands Energy Storage Business
Major Chinese battery manufacturer Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) is increasing its energy storage presence by establishing partnerships.
CATL on 22 October signed a strategic cooperation agreement with state-controlled power generation company China Huadian to jointly develop energy storage, new energy, and integrated smart energy projects.
Before the deal, the two firms had agreed to build a centralised electrochemical lithium-ion energy storage project in Tengzhou in east China’s Shandong province, with 100/200MWh capacity. More details including the construction schedules and launch dates were undisclosed.
CATL on 20 October also signed an agreement with China Energy Investment Corporation (China Energy) to further strengthen communication of new energy storage technology system and application scenarios between the two companies.
CATL’s revenues from energy storage systems surged by 727pc from a year earlier to 469mn yuan ($73.4mn) in the first half of this year.
With decreasing manufacturing costs for lithium batteries and their longer cycle life, demand for energy storage has continued to grow with the acceleration of clean power, and the energy storage market is developing rapidly, according to CATL. Its combined output for power and storage batteries stood at 60.34GWh during January-June.
China’s top planning body the NDRC in September announced guidelines on accelerating development of the energy storage industry, targeting an advancement to large-scale development from initial stage of commercialisation by 2025.
China is expected to install around 30-60GWh of new energy storage capacity by 2030, according to market participants. This is forecast to bolster demand for metal feedstocks such as lithium, cobalt and vanadium.
The country’s aim to accelerate a transition to lower energy consumption and to stimulate demand for energy storage products during its 14th five-year economic plan for 2021-25 has also prompted many companies, including China’s largest titanium and vanadium producer Pangang Group and the world’s largest producer of high-purity vanadium products and vanadium electrolyte Dalian Borong New Materials, to develop new vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) projects.
China’s vanadium demand from the VRFB industry is expected to rise to at least 9,100t of vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) equivalent in 2022 from this year’s 3,640t. VRFBs have a much larger energy storage capacity than lithium batteries. It is more effective for China’s plans to achieve its target of peak carbon emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060, according to market participants.
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