At the beginning of 2023, the multi-dimensional release of the "new development trend of the energy storage industry chain" signal.
Whether in terms of policies, the pace of production expansion, or orders for the beginning of the year, energy storage has shown a strong explosive force. With the changes in the relationship between supply and demand of raw materials, the participation of energy storage in the power market mechanism entering the deep water area, and the emergence of a new racing relationship for energy storage, there will be at least four major "development trends" in the energy storage industry chain in 2023.
Trend 1: The gross profit margin of energy storage is going up
In 2022, the concern about the gross profit margin of energy storage will run through the whole year, and "increasing revenue without increasing profits" will become the norm.
Public data shows that in the past two years from the beginning of 2021 to the end of 2022, battery-grade lithium carbonate has increased by more than 10 times. The price of upstream core raw materials has soared, and the price of energy storage systems has increased by 30% to 50%.
However, since the end of 2022, the cost pressure of raw materials such as lithium carbonate has been eased. From December 2022 to February 2023, lithium carbonate has maintained a three-month losing streak, and the average price of battery-grade lithium carbonate has fallen below 450,000 yuan/ton, a drop of more than 150,000 yuan/ton from the highest point in early November last year. tons, and the current price is still falling further.
In addition, since 2022, the production capacity layout of energy storage batteries has accelerated, especially the production capacity of 280Ah batteries will be released more intensively in Q1 of 2023. In 2023, with the obvious decline in the cost of lithium carbonate and the four main materials and the accelerated release of energy storage battery capacity, the gross profit margin of energy storage will show an obvious upward trend.
Trend 2: Technology goes deep
Yin Xiaoqiang, head of BYD's global energy storage, once predicted to Gaogong Energy Storage that the market competitiveness of energy storage cultivated in China's current environment will be stronger than that of overseas. In 2023, energy storage should explode soon.
In addition to this outbreak, the competition on the technical side is becoming more and more obvious. From the battery point of view, in 2023, there will be a significant trend in energy storage technology, and batteries with industry competitiveness, such as BYD blade batteries and 300Ah and above large-capacity batteries, will accelerate their penetration into energy storage.
BYD Blade Battery is the industry's first square aluminum shell laminated power battery, which has passed all car-grade battery tests including acupuncture tests. In 2023, BYD's blade battery energy storage system will be launched. BYD said that this is a system product specially designed for energy storage, which can solve the pain points faced by the energy storage industry such as safety, cost, lifespan, and efficiency.
In addition, large-capacity energy storage cells have become one of the important points of interest in energy storage batteries. Since 2022, Haichen Energy Storage, Ruipu Lanjun, Yiwei Lithium Energy, Trina Energy Storage, Envision Power, Haiji New Energy, etc. have successively released large-capacity energy storage cells. From the perspective of the production capacity, technology, and product layout of various battery factories, the competition based on capacity, cycle times, etc. will be further sublimated in 2023.
From the perspective of the system, the competition for safer and more efficient energy storage systems is further evolving. In 2022, HyperStrong will develop a new generation of HyperSafe series intrinsically safe solid-state battery energy storage system products for different application scenarios such as households, energy storage power stations, and industrial and commercial power stations; Sungrow will release "three-power integration" for large-scale ground, industrial and commercial power station application scenarios PowerTitan, PowerStack, a full range of liquid-cooled energy storage solutions; Trina Energy released the 10,000-cycle liquid-cooled system TrinaStorage Elementa; Xinguang released high-voltage cascaded energy storage grid-connected products......
String, centralized, distributed, high-voltage cascaded, modular energy storage systems and other systems for various application scenarios accelerate the race. In 2023, with the accelerated outbreak of various energy storage application scenarios, the trend of "contending among a hundred schools of thought" in this technology will further intensify.
Trend 3: The overall acceleration of production expansion
Judging from the expansion of production in 2023, energy storage batteries and energy storage systems are the main ones, and from the perspective of energy storage battery technology categories, lithium-ion batteries are still the majority. The industrialization of new energy storage technologies such as energy storage is also gradually advancing.
From the perspective of production expansion, the scale of production expansion since 2023 is at the GWh level. Zhuoyang Energy, Cooper Energy and others are speeding up the competition on the energy storage track, among which Shenghong Group and EVE Lithium Energy are relatively large-scale.
Shenghong Group, as a cross-border listed company, plans to invest 30.6 billion in Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu to build a 60GWh energy storage battery super factory and a new energy battery research institute.
Starting with the expansion of production of EVE Lithium Energy, Shenghong, Juwan Technology Research, Lanjun New Energy, Zhuoyang Energy, etc., the year-round competition has begun to take shape. Among them, the expansion of Shenghong Group, Zhuoyang Energy, etc. represents the accelerated crossover of related companies; while the expansion of Yiwei Lithium Energy, Juwan Technology Research, Vision Technology, Ganfeng Lithium, etc. means that power track companies Accelerate the extension to the field of energy storage. In 2023, the field of energy storage will not only further compete in production capacity, but also mean that the competition on the energy storage track will be further upgraded.
Trend 4: Orders and holding hands are more frequent
In 2022, the large-scale development of energy storage has begun to take shape, and this growth momentum is continuing in 2023.
Judging from the orders at the beginning of the year, the signal of energy storage "hurricane" is obvious. Taking Haichen Energy Storage as an example, its new year orders have landed one after another. Since the beginning of the year, Haichen Energy Storage has signed and won more than 10 billion orders, involving a total of more than 20GWh. During the Spring Festival holiday, Haichen energy storage production tasks increased by more than 5 times compared with the same period.
Similarly, many companies are also gaining a lot from "going overseas" in the beginning of the year. At the beginning of 2023, BYD Energy Storage's 543MWh Cube Pro liquid-cooled energy storage system will be deployed in the Las Vegas area. The project will start construction in the second quarter of 2023 and is expected to be in commercial operation by the end of the year. Trina Energy Storage has once again won over 100MWh of energy storage orders in overseas markets, and will apply the liquid cooling system TrinaStorage Elementa in the UK.
It is foreseeable that with the surge in the energy storage market, companies in the energy storage industry chain will further accelerate breakthroughs in orders and business cooperation.