In recent years, the price of raw materials for energy storage batteries has continued to soar, leading to a further increase in the price of energy storage batteries. "Since the second half of last year, energy storage battery manufacturers have raised their prices. Compared with the beginning of the year, the prices have generally risen by about 30%. The effective period of manufacturers' quotations has been shortened, and the prices are likely to rise at any time." said Chu Pan, director of the Energy Storage Technology Center of China Energy Engineering Group Guangdong Electric Power Design and Research Institute Co., Ltd.
Battery is the equipment with the highest proportion of energy storage power station investment, and its price rise will inevitably lead to a decline in gross profit margin of energy storage battery manufacturers. The financial report of Yiwei Lithium Energy in the third quarter of 2021 shows that the company's non net profit deduction in the third quarter increased by 22% year on year, and fell by about 13% month on month compared with the second quarter. The relevant person in charge of Yiwei Lithium Energy said that the gross profit margin of power battery in the third quarter of 2021 fell by nearly 2% on a month on month basis due to the impact of the price fluctuation of energy storage raw materials.
"As a manufacturer of energy storage batteries, we have a weak voice, and we need to bear the double pressure of rising raw material prices in the upstream and declining sales in the downstream," said Li Luhui, marketing director of Shanghai Electric Guoxuan New Energy Technology Co., Ltd.
Rising system costs
"The cost of energy storage photovoltaic battery accounts for more than 50% of the cost of the whole energy storage system. The increase of the cost has led to the system cost rising from about 1500 yuan/kWh in 2020 to nearly 1800 yuan/kWh, and the price rising trend is still continuing," Chupan said.
Pei Shanpeng, Chief Design Engineer of Smart Energy Business Department of Shandong Electric Power Engineering Consulting and Research Institute, gave a specific example: "Take the cost of a large capacity independent energy storage power station as an example. At present, the total cost of building a large capacity independent energy storage power station of 100000 kilowatts is about 460 million yuan, but last year only 400 million yuan was needed."
In this regard, Sun Jia, the research manager of Zhongguancun Energy Storage Industry Technology Alliance, said that the average price of the energy storage system has risen to 1.8 yuan/watt hour, up 20% compared with 1.5 yuan/watt hour in 2021.
"The rise in the cost of the solar energy system has led to an increase in the bid winning price of the energy storage project," Chupan said. The reporter learned that Yingli Wisdom (Baoding) New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. recently released the results of supporting energy storage project bid winning, which showed that compared with similar bidding projects, the highest unit price of this bid winning was 1.77 yuan/watt hour, while the overall average bid winning price of typical projects in 2021 was 1.476 yuan/watt hour.
"Due to the rising cost of the 10 kw energy storage system, the initial investment of the energy storage project has increased correspondingly, and the investment income has declined. Many projects do not have commercial feasibility, leading to the postponement of the implementation of many energy storage projects that have been tendered at present," Chupan said.
Promote diversified development of technology
"What we are most concerned about is whether the price of raw materials will continue to rise?" Li Luhui expressed her concern. In this regard, Chupan said that the rising trend of the cost of the energy storage system caused by the rising price of solar energy storage raw materials may continue to the third quarter of 2022. It is estimated that after October this year, with the easing of the contradiction between supply and demand of raw materials, the cost of the energy storage system may enter the channel of price reduction.
"In the case of mandatory allocation of energy storage policies, investors should focus on the comprehensive cost of 'new energy+energy storage'," said Sun Jiawei.
In recent years, the State has encouraged the development of diversified technologies, carried out research on key core technologies, equipment and integrated optimization design, such as sodium ion batteries, new lithium ion batteries and lead carbon batteries, and concentrated on tackling key problems in energy storage technologies such as superconductivity and super capacitors. Chupan said: "In the future, energy storage enterprises can focus on exploring technological routes such as sodium ion batteries, liquid flow batteries and solid state batteries. The parallel development of diversified battery technologies can disperse technological risks, ease the pressure of rising battery prices and promote the long-term development of energy storage technologies."