Energy storage technology is a new way to develop wind and solar complementarity

By 2020, my country plans that non-fossil energy will account for 15% of total energy consumption. Renewable energy such as wind and solar energy will be widely used, and the development of renewable energy is unstoppable. The biggest characteristics of renewable energy are intermittency, discontinuity and instability, which brings many headaches to the power grid. The power grid is to balance power supply and load. For the power grid, both ends are random and uncontrollable, so a technology must be developed to solve this problem. And this technology is another hot topic brought about by the unlimited "wind and light" in recent years - battery energy storage.

As a commodity, electricity has always had a shortcoming, which is storage. The system facing electricity is to generate and release it immediately. The reason why the system operates stably and safely is that the power supply end is reliable, adjustable, and the load is random. Some technical means can be used to balance the load. However, after renewable energy is connected to the power grid, this approach has undergone a fundamental change. It is no longer based on demand, but on resources.

Udo Niehage, CEO of Transmission and Distribution Group of Siemens Energy Business Area, once said that the future development trend of power grid is "the traditional way of 'electricity load determines power generation' to 'electricity consumption will depend on power generation'." With the increase in the use of renewable energy, this trend will become more and more obvious.

The essence of energy storage is to store electrical energy and release it when needed. The emergence of this technology has completely changed the mode in which the production, transmission and use of power systems must be carried out simultaneously. Energy storage is an indispensable link in the popularization and application of renewable energy to the power grid. For all aspects of the power system, such as generation, transmission and distribution, the support of energy storage technology is needed. The access of renewable energy to the power grid is not just based on

Energy storage is used to solve all problems. This is actually a huge system that needs to be solved comprehensively. The method that has been seen internationally is to use demand-side management, such as electric vehicles, heat and power linkage, energy-saving facilities and other comprehensive applications to solve the problems of the post-renewable energy era.

These measures are still in the research and development stage, and their effectiveness is still unclear. In fact, energy storage is now recognized as a relatively effective means. It can play a role in accommodating renewable energy. From the perspective of scientific research development, the rapid rise of energy storage technology in recent years has given the industry a glimmer of hope.

According to the planning of wind and solar power generation in my country, the installed capacity of wind power generation will reach 150 GW in 2015. At the same time, we also see that according to the "Regulatory Report on Wind Power and Photovoltaic Power Generation" of the State Electricity Regulatory Commission, as of the first half of 2010, the amount of wind power abandoned due to the inability of wind power to connect to the grid in my country reached 2.776 billion kWh. The phenomenon of wind power abandonment is also quite serious, and how to truly effectively utilize renewable energy for power generation has become the focus of market concern.

Large-scale and efficient energy storage technology is the most effective core technology for achieving the popularization and application of renewable energy such as wind energy and solar energy. It is also a key technology for improving the peak-shaving capacity of the power grid and the compatibility of renewable energy grid connection, and for building a strong smart grid.

The development of energy storage technology is actually exploring new ways to develop the power system. Lai Xiaokang, director of the Superconducting Power Research Institute of the China Electric Power Research Institute, said at the 2011 Energy Storage System Industry Development Forum, "If the trend of increasing capacity according to peak load continues, the current resources can no longer support our development. The actual significance of peak load reduction is to change the transformation method of the power grid, and transform the power grid from power transmission to electricity transmission through energy storage technology.

Energy storage technology is complex and involves multiple disciplines. It is also a strategic cutting-edge technology that is constantly being updated. We now see that energy storage technology is not a mature technology and is still some distance away from large-scale commercial operation, but it is definitely a technology with great development potential.”