Battery storage – the missing piece of the energy transition puzzle
Today, we are seeing a record number of renewable energy installations making headlines across Asia, not only in developed markets like China and India, but also in emerging markets like Vietnam and Turkey. In 2019 alone, Vietnam added up to 4.5 gigawatts (GW) of solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity driven by subsidy programs;1 while Turkey’s cumulative installed solar PV and wind capacity is 14 GW, currently accounting for its total 15% of the installed capacity portfolio.
In these countries, however, investment in supportive grid infrastructure has not developed at the same pace as the rapid expansion of renewables. Since the sun is not always shining and the wind is not always available and constant in strength, the grid is being put under increasing pressure to increase its flexibility and resiliency to accommodate the changing nature of solar and wind energy.
Before the arrival of other new technologies, such as green hydrogen, battery storage was seen as a key enabler for greater use of renewable energy. They can store renewable electricity when it's not needed and release it when demand is high. They can also act as "relief valves" to compensate for disturbances caused by variable supplies, providing a source of flexibility and resiliency.
Although batteries have been widely used in consumer electronics such as cell phones and digital cameras since the 1990s, it is only recently that battery storage applications in the power sector have begun to gain traction due to the increasing commercial viability of lithium-ion batteries. According to Bloomberg New Energy According to BNEF, a total of 7 gigawatts/14 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of energy storage capacity was deployed in 2018 and 2019, six times more than all commissioned capacity at the end of 2017 combined. Of the 2018 deployments, 93% were lithium-ion based. 3 This is largely due to the dramatic drop in the cost of lithium-ion batteries of around 60 to 70 percent over the past decade, 4 thanks to economies of scale achieved through the mass production of electric vehicles.
The Asia-Pacific region is currently the largest regional market for energy storage. Thanks to its world-leading battery supply chain, the region accounted for around 52% (in megawatts) of cumulative global capacity in 2019. 5 To date, however, deployments have largely been concentrated in the Republic of Korea, China, Australia and Japan. Outside of these markets, only India, the Philippines and Thailand have launched the first pilot projects to integrate batteries into the grid. There is huge demand and potential in Asia to expand the adoption of battery storage. BNEF estimates that the market size in the region will exceed 400 GW/1100 GWh by 2040, which will require more than $260 billion in investment.
Compared with European and American countries in economically developed regions, Asia, as a rising star in the energy storage industry, now has many Asian companies leading the way. BQC is an EMS specialist (Electronic Manufacturing Services) with 20 years of experience in PCBA field. We have our own factory, 10,000 square meters and 550 employees; we have 16 SMT production lines and 2 DIP production lines, and have ISO13485, ISO9001 and other certifications. We have very advantageous prices and higher quality than our peers, which stems from our strong purchasing team and R&D team. There is no doubt about our strength in providing long-term supply services for the world's leading system integrators.
