0.5 Yuan Era, Energy Storage Industry Chain Step by Step "camp"?

"The energy storage system market has officially entered the 0.5/Wh era."

01.  Overview

Currently, all enterprises in the energy storage industry chain are facing the harsh reality of low prices, high inventories and increased competition. This situation is considered to be the "dilemma" of the energy storage industry, and some believe that the most difficult time for the industry is yet to come.

At the beginning of this year, the winning bid price of energy storage systems hovered around 0.8 yuan per watt-hour, and by March, the price had dropped to around 0.6 yuan per watt-hour.

And recent data show that the winning bid price for energy storage systems has once again dropped to about $0.5 per watt-hour. This indicates that the price of energy storage systems has fallen by more than 30% so far this year.

02.  "Big" homogenization

Whether it is the battery cell or the system, the increase in capacity has become one of the most important factors in the competition among enterprises. At present, 300Ah+ cells are gradually replacing 280Ah cells as the mainstream trend, and 5MWh+ energy storage systems are just beginning to gain popularity.

However, some head battery companies have released 500Ah+ and even 600Ah+ cells, as well as 6MWh+ and 7MWh+ energy storage systems. The homogenization of energy storage products is unavoidable, and if enterprises can't find a breakthrough quickly, more enterprises will be squeezed out of the competition track.

Under such a severe situation, enterprises continue to launch new technologies, products and programs; new scenarios and applications such as industrial and commercial energy storage, optical storage integration and mobile energy storage vehicles are constantly being explored; and more and more enterprises are choosing overseas markets for expansion.

03. Commercial and industrial energy storage "cooling"

This year, the domestic industrial and commercial energy storage market is highly anticipated, is widely viewed by the industry as an important area of recovery. However, although the track is not yet fully open, but already crowded with competitors.

Commercial and industrial energy storage projects are most concerned about the return on investment, which makes cost reduction a key to competition. Taking price as an example, the price of industrial and commercial energy storage has dropped from close to $1 per watt-hour at the beginning of the year to around $0.7 per watt-hour currently offered by companies such as Mingmei New Energy, a drop of 30%. Lower prices remain a common competitive strategy.

With the price downward pressure, the application of 314Ah batteries in industrial and commercial energy storage systems is also accelerating, driving the rapid development of product capacity from 215kWh and 372kWh to 250kWh+ and 400kWh+.

In addition to price reductions, technology and product strength remain the main means. For example, the power god battery for industrial and commercial energy storage market for large capacity, high voltage access to improve the demand, launched based on independent research and development of energy storage core industrial and commercial one cabinet, single system power up to 417kWh, can realize multi-level parallel connection, according to the load change flexible increase or decrease. This is just one of the new actions of energy storage battery companies in the field of industrial and commercial energy storage.

Not only Lixin, but also Ningde Times, BYD, Haichen Energy Storage, Far East Battery, Penghui Energy, Asite, CV Zhuzhou Institute, Nandu Power Supply, Kunyu Battery, and many other companies have launched industrial and commercial energy storage integrated cabinet products based on 300Ah+ energy storage batteries.

Enterprises in the product and technology innovation and upgrading is to promote the healthy development of the industry, one of the core driving force, but for the current industrial and commercial energy storage market has not yet been developed on a large scale in depth, it may be difficult to digest such a variety of products and large-scale production capacity in a short period of time.

04. Piling up overseas "gold rush"

Compared with the domestic competitive industrial and commercial energy storage market, more and more battery manufacturers began to turn their attention to overseas markets, and accelerated the pace of overseas layout.

On the energy storage battery companies to go overseas is a lot of discussion. On the one hand, some people believe that the domestic market competition is fierce, and go overseas can find broader development opportunities;

On the other hand, some people think that Europe and the United States and other major global energy storage markets have trade barriers, it is not easy to go to sea, and the domestic battery companies to go to sea is just a different battlefield, the competition is still very fierce.

However, it is undeniable that the current overseas market has relatively high profit returns. Data show that the gross profit rate of domestic energy storage integration projects is generally no more than 8%, while the gross profit rate in overseas markets is close to 20%.

Such lucrative returns are bound to attract a large number of Chinese battery companies to regard overseas markets as a key area for the next round of competition.

The latest statistics also affirm the achievements of Chinese energy storage battery companies in the overseas market.

So far this year, more than 20 energy storage battery companies, including YWL, Vision Power, Sunny Power, BYD Energy Storage, Ruipu Lanjun, Far East Battery, Lixin Battery, Haichen Energy Storage, Trina Energy Storage and others, have already announced new orders and new projects overseas.