At the Beijing Energy Storage Exhibition from April 11th to April 13th 2024, the trend of solar energy cells getting “larger” is prominent. Battery manufacturers are engaging in close combat, shifting from grabbing resources and scale to competing in products and services. The capacity of energy storage cells that can be mass-produced and delivered has increased from 280Ah to over 300Ah.
Let’s start with solar energy companies. Tianhe Solar Energy (688599.SH) is equipped with a new generation of flexible energy storage batteries, Elementa 2, with a self-produced 314Ah energy storage cell, expected to officially ship in the second quarter of this year. JinkoSolar (688223.SH) unveiled its self-developed 314Ah energy storage cell at this exhibition for the first time, with plans to achieve initial production capacity of 5GWh of energy storage cells in the third quarter of 2024, ready for mass production.
First Financial News reporters combined their exhibition visits and statistics to find that nearly 30 types of energy storage cells with capacities of 300Ah or more are already in mass production and delivery from companies like Ruipu Lanjun, Yuanjing Power, Xinwanda, Tianhe Energy Storage, Haichen Energy Storage, Penghui Energy, Zhongchuang Innovation Aviation, CATL, Nandu Power, Ganfeng Lithium, EVE Energy, Guoxuan High-tech, Shenghong Dynamic Energy, Haipeng Technology, Haiji New Energy, and Lishen Battery.
Moreover, there are even “larger” cells with capacities of 500Ah+. Honeycomb Energy released a 730Ah high-capacity energy storage “short knife” cell, claiming to have doubled the size of the cell and doubled the capacity based on a 350Ah energy storage cell.
Nandu Power globally debuted a 690Ah super-large capacity energy storage battery, claiming to have achieved “zero” attenuation in system performance over five years.
However, is bigger really better for energy storage cells? Just like eating a meal one bite at a time and taking one step at a time on the road, Wu Dianfeng, General Manager of the Product Center of JinkoSolar, told First Financial News that the 314Ah cell products have the same size as the mature 280Ah cell products before. This means that the production lines for modules and Packs can be compatible.
If it were other sizes or even larger capacities, it would mean that the existing Packs in the entire energy storage industry would not be compatible, which would be wasteful for the industry.
“It is expected that the 314Ah cell products will become the mainstream in the market in the second half of the year and replace the 280Ah cell products in the next few years.”
Who bears the brunt of homogenized competition? Homogenized competition is not only happening in the aforementioned cell segment but also in various parts of the energy storage supply chain. The appearance of “internal competition” in the entire energy storage industry chain is sometimes a “helpless move”.
“Every company wants to ‘survive’ in the market, and no one wants to ‘lag behind’,” many salespersons at the exhibition booths and industry insiders told reporters during the exhibition. They mentioned that participating in exhibitions every few months or iterating new products is due to the intense competition in the entire industry.
According to the “Energy Storage Industry Research White Paper (2024)”, by the end of 2023, more than 100,000 energy storage companies had entered the market, with tens of thousands newly established within a year.
The dividends of technological progress in the photovoltaic industry began to show in 2023, and favorable policies and documents collectively promoted the rapid development of energy storage.
The inevitable result of an “overheated” industry is elimination and reshuffling.
“In 2024, the top ten energy storage system integrators will divide more than 80% of the market share,” stated the Gao Gong Industry Research Institute. The overall supply of China’s new energy storage market will exceed demand, and the competition in energy storage system integration will be more brutal than in the cell segment.
More than 50% of energy storage system companies (including large-scale storage systems, commercial storage systems, household storage systems, etc.) will be eliminated，this phase of the industry’s development has exceeded the expectations of industry players.