Zhu Yufeng of GCL Group: Strong new energy storage means strong new power system

Taiyuan, September 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- On September 6, the 2023 Taiyuan Energy Low-Carbon Development Forum with the theme of "Smart Energy Green Win-Win" was held in Taiyuan, Shanxi. As one of the summit forums of this Taiyuan Forum, the "2023 New Energy Storage Industry High-Quality Development Forum and the 13th Global New Energy Enterprise Top 500 Summit" invited government departments, academicians, experts and scholars, and well-known entrepreneurs to gather together to discuss the path of technological innovation and industrial development around new energy storage and digital energy, and promote the high-quality development of the industrial ecology. Zhu Yufeng, Vice Chairman of the China Electricity Council, President of GCL Group and Chairman of GCL Energy (002015.SZ), was invited to attend the forum and delivered a speech on the theme of "High-Quality Development of New Energy Storage Industry under New Power System".

Zhu Yufeng said that to achieve carbon peak and carbon neutrality, building a new power system is the key, and building a new power system, energy storage is the key. As an energy "porter" and a new energy "stabilizer", energy storage can transmit electricity to the power system across time and space, perfectly making up for the shortcomings of new energy such as intermittency, randomness, and volatility, and solving the related problems of high proportion and large-scale access of non-fossil energy to the new power system, achieving a balance between power supply and demand and a dynamic balance of the power grid. Practice has shown that the prosperity of energy storage will lead to the prosperity of new energy, and the strength of new energy storage will lead to a strong new power system. New energy storage has emerged as a new track and has become a new growth pole for the high-quality development of the new energy industry.

In this context, with the dual enhancement of energy storage technology and the importance of energy storage in the power system, new energy storage has entered a new channel of high-speed development and has become the only way to achieve the "dual carbon" goal. According to data released by the National Energy Administration, as of the end of June this year, new energy storage projects have been completed and put into operation across the country, with a cumulative installed capacity of more than 17.33GW. The overall scale of new operations in the first half of the year was about 8.63GW, equivalent to the total cumulative installed capacity in previous years. It is estimated that in 2023, the newly installed capacity will reach 15-20GW. In addition, the "Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Development of New Energy Storage" issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration stated that by 2025, my country's new energy storage installed capacity will reach more than 30 million kilowatts.

From last year to now, although the industry has been saying that energy storage has entered the first year of large-scale explosion, in fact, the energy storage industry is still some distance away from large-scale development and there are many restrictive factors.

Zhu Yufeng believes that technological leadership, safety and stability, and economic applicability are the three core factors driving the high-quality development of the new energy storage industry, and that technology vertically runs through the three major links of materials, manufacturing, and applications, driving the iterative upgrading of the entire energy storage industry chain.

Taking the practice of GCL Group in the field of lithium energy storage as an example, relying on the accumulation of 33 years in the comprehensive energy field dominated by new energy, GCL has built an integrated industrial chain from upstream lithium mineral resources, positive and negative electrode materials, midstream battery cell manufacturing, battery clusters, PACK, BMS/PCS systems, to downstream energy storage power stations for multiple scenarios.

"I personally believe that the path that the new energy storage industry is currently taking is exactly the path that China's photovoltaic industry has taken in the past few years. Although popularity is a good thing, rationality is more important. The energy storage industry is now focusing on its efforts, downplaying concepts, abandoning impetuousness, focusing on research and development, and concentrating on strengthening technology. Only in this way can the energy storage industry move forward steadily in high-quality development." Zhu Yufeng said.

In the new power system, the requirements of "source, grid and load" for "storage" are different. The source side needs energy storage to solve the problem of wide access to a high proportion of new energy, the grid side needs energy storage to achieve safe, efficient and flexible resource allocation, and the load side needs energy storage to ensure that the needs of multiple loads are fully met. Demands correspond to scenarios, and scenarios derive models.

Zhu Yufeng said that the scene is the battlefield, the scene is the stage, and the "scene revolution" of new energy storage has given birth to a new future of energy storage. Driven by digital energy, the coupling of new energy storage with electricity and computing power is a major leap in energy storage empowering new power systems. With the help of energy AI big models and smart energy management systems, virtual power plants are connected to charge during low-cost electricity and non-peak hours, and electricity is sold back to the power grid during peak hours, achieving the most inclusive economic value and freedom of electricity use.

On August 27 this year, the first energy AI center in China built by GCL Group was officially launched in Suzhou, promoting the construction of a new power system with a trinity model of power + energy storage + computing power. In terms of mobile energy infrastructure, GCL integrates its own perovskite, high-efficiency energy storage, "one second one kilometer" super fast charging, computing power and other technologies, and is launching an integrated energy station of photovoltaic storage, charging and computing. Against the background of the rapid development of mobile energy storage, GCL is also deeply exploring the energy storage properties of electric vehicles, and through energy storage IP, V2G and orderly charging technology, it makes electric vehicles a controllable distributed energy storage carrier.

Zhu Yufeng believes that under the guidance of the "dual carbon" goals, the new power system has opened up broad development space for new energy storage. New energy storage will also move towards every scenario such as green China, rural revitalization, smart transportation, zero-carbon industry, and reshape the power system's "multi-terminal interaction and super-integration" physical form. In the next thirty years, the energy storage industry will have great potential.