“The global storage market is growing at an unprecedented rate. “Falling battery costs and the growing penetration of renewable energy sources make energy storage an excitingly flexible source in many energy systems,” said Yiyi Zhou, a clean energy expert at Bloomberg BNEF. “Energy storage projects are increasing in scale, increasing mission duration and being increasingly combined with renewable energy sources.” The dizzying increase in storage capacity is largely due to China and the United States, which are currently embroiled in a simmering energy storage war. Each of these countries added gigawatts of energy storage capacity in 2020. Together, China and the United States account for more than half of the global energy storage forecast for 2030. China is currently winning the race, having more than double energy storage capacity capacity by 2020. In addition, in July last year, Beijing announced plans to install 10 times more capacity than its 2020 levels by 2025. Now, a new plan released this year shows that China aims to achieve this dizzying pace of adding energy storage by reducing the cost of electrochemical energy storage systems by 30% by 2025. The 5-year plan published by the National Development Commission and Reforms and the National Energy Administration also describe the full commercialization of energy-saving systems without hydroelectric power by 2030. in key areas, “said Bloomberg. “It will conduct pilot projects using different technologies to meet different storage duration requirements, lasting from minutes to months.” The strengthening of the non-hydroelectric power storage facility will be carried out in parallel with the expansion of the development of wind and solar capacity, which is to be built on a large scale in the desert areas of China. This will help China achieve its goal of weaning off foreign energy imports and supporting Beijing’s energy security and energy independence. Long-term energy storage will allow energy produced in China’s sparsely populated deserts to be channeled into the country’s vast energy-hungry urban areas. “The country will also explore energy storage technologies generated by offshore wind farms to reduce capacity needs and improve the rate of use of electricity generated,” says Bloomberg. As simple and promising as these plans are, Beijing’s ambitious plans for clean energy development and increased investment in energy storage come at a time when China’s economy is in trouble. The current Covid lockdowns in Shanghai’s rich financial hub cost the country a staggering $ 4.6 billion a month, or about 3% of the country’s GDP. The country’s “zero Covid” approach is ridiculed as a “fiasco” as 62 million people in the Shanghai area (a group larger than the population of Italy) are locked in their homes and excluded from the economy. If President Xi Jinping continues to try to overcome the new coronavirus instead of adapting to mediate and coexist with Covid, many of China’s most ambitious plans may prove inaccessible. By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com More top readings from Oilprice.com:
