In 2023, the completed investment in solar energy and energy storage exceeded 670 billion yuan and 100 billion yuan respectively, driving further expansion of the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain and becoming a ‘new driving force’ for China’s economic development. However, while developing rapidly, issues such as grid consumption and the asymmetry between new energy and electricity loads in time and space have become increasingly prominent. Energy storage, as a green energy storage solution, can play an important role in solving these challenges. In order to accelerate the construction of a new power system and ensure the achievement of the ‘dual carbon’ goal, it is urgent to accelerate the integration and high-quality development of the photovoltaic storage industry The CEO of VoltCoffer stated in an interview with China Energy Media.
Firstly, the bottleneck of grid connected consumption poses significant risks to the long-term sustainable development of solar energy. With the large-scale development of solar and wind power in China, the problem of new energy consumption and grid connection is constantly increasing, which poses constraints on the high proportion, large-scale, and sustainable development of new energy. In terms of centralized solar energy, due to the limitations of ultra-high voltage transmission, there is a problem of insufficient development space in the future. In terms of distributed solar energy, multiple provinces have successively issued consumption risk warnings, greatly reducing the expectations and enthusiasm for the development of the distributed solar energy market.
Secondly, the immaturity of the electricity marketization mechanism has led to a decrease in the revenue of solar energy storage power stations. Electricity marketization is conducive to energy supply side adjustment, guiding consumption side energy consumption behavior, and thus promoting the consumption of new energy. However, the marketization of electricity and the combination of time of use electricity pricing policies and the intermittency and uncertainty of new energy generation have led to a downward trend in power station revenue. In addition, the operating costs of the power system, such as auxiliary service fees, borne by new energy power stations are also increasing, which has a wider impact on the investment return rate of new energy power stations. Although some provinces have requirements for supporting new energy storage, the phenomenon of “matching but not using” has become increasingly severe due to factors such as immature market mechanisms for energy storage participation in electricity and auxiliary services. The low utilization rate has led to the inability to fully realize the value of energy storage, bringing greater economic pressure to development enterprises.
The CEO of VoltCoffer stated that the current cost of solar and electrochemical energy storage is rapidly decreasing, and the basic conditions for collaborative development are already in place. We are promoting the construction of a new energy installation model that combines solar and energy storage, solving the pressure of power grid consumption and breaking through the bottleneck of solar energy installation, thereby opening up the market’s ceiling and becoming the key to the next stage of new energy development.
Based on in-depth research on the solar energy industry, the CEO of VoltCoffer has put forward relevant suggestions to encourage centralized and distributed solar energy configuration for energy storage, as well as independent energy storage construction, further improve the power grid scheduling mechanism, and fully leverage the energy storage role of the source grid load side.
In addition, he suggests further improving the trading mechanism for new energy and energy storage in the electricity market, and ensuring the cost diversion and corresponding benefits of new energy distribution and independent energy storage through capacity pricing mechanisms, spot prices, and auxiliary services.
Fully leverage the decisive role of the market in resource allocation, accelerate the improvement of the operating mechanism for new energy and energy storage participating in the electricity market, and prioritize clearing while meeting the safe operating conditions of the power grid. New energy and construction energy storage can be jointly settled as a single entity, while allowing power side energy storage to be converted into independent energy storage. It is recommended that relevant departments introduce specific rules to promote the development of new formats and application methods such as shared energy storage, and effectively improve the utilization rate of energy storage devices.
Enriching the trading varieties and cost sharing mechanisms for new energy storage participation, drawing on the electricity pricing mechanisms for coal-fired and pumped storage capacity, researching and introducing new energy storage capacity pricing mechanisms, in order to further tap into the value of energy storage capacity, promote the coordinated and integrated development of the energy storage industry and the solar energy industry, and ensure the stable and increasing development of new energy in China.