First, the diversification of energy storage battery technology application scenarios; second, the diversification of battery types; third, the diversification of technical connotations; fourth, the diversification of development goals. Let’s first look at the general industrial development background. First of all, 2017 was the year of consensus on the development of energy storage in China. Before this, there was a lot of controversy about whether to develop energy storage. The issuance of the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Development of Energy Storage Technology and Industry" in 2017 is a sign that the spring of energy storage in China is coming. In 2018, global and Chinese energy storage projects developed rapidly. Secondly, the core of developing energy storage is to promote the consumption of renewable energy. In the past five years, the cost of photovoltaic and wind power generation has dropped rapidly, and the cost of power batteries has dropped due to new energy vehicles. Energy storage has begun to be used in some previously uncompetitive fields. With competitiveness, the multiple values of energy storage are gradually reflected. Third, the spring of energy storage has arrived. Spring is the season of budding and flowering, but the summer of vigorous development of energy storage has not yet arrived. Nowadays, various types of energy storage technologies, including physical energy storage, electrochemical energy storage, chemical energy storage, and thermal and cold storage, have been demonstrated and commercially applied. The advantages of energy storage have been demonstrated in the applications, but many problems have also been discovered. Especially electrochemical energy storage technology, it should be said that there is still a considerable gap from the overall goal of "low cost, long life, high safety, and easy recycling", and technological innovation and breakthroughs are needed. Energy storage has six major application scenarios, renewable energy grid connection, grid auxiliary services, grid transmission and distribution, distributed and microgrid, user side, and a very special user side: the energy supply system of electric vehicle VEG mode. There are many energy storage application scenarios, and the three major functions of energy storage can be roughly classified: first, to smooth intermittent power supply power fluctuations, such a scenario requires power-based energy storage technology; second, to reduce peak-valley differences, improve power system efficiency and Equipment utilization, most of this scenario requires capacity-based energy storage technology; third, to increase backup capacity and improve grid security, stability and power supply quality, this requires UPS backup-type energy storage technology. Of course, there is also a fourth type of composite application, especially grid-side applications that participate in peak regulation, frequency regulation and emergency backup. We call it composite or energy-based energy storage technology. Therefore, the application scenarios of energy storage are diverse. Therefore, we can infer from the application requirements that the types of energy storage batteries can also be divided into four major categories: capacity energy storage batteries, power energy storage batteries, energy energy storage batteries, and backup energy storage batteries. Making a distinction based on the power capacity ratio used by the battery will help us develop different types of energy storage battery technologies. Especially backup energy storage batteries. At present, it seems that the cascade utilization of power batteries from large to small is completely possible, but it still faces great difficulty from small to large. Its consistency, safety issues, and cost face very big challenges. However, it is still possible to use power battery cascades in some backup energy storage scenarios. The so-called backup energy storage may be charged and discharged only a few times a year, instead of charging and discharging every day. We often talk about energy storage technology, especially energy storage battery technology. So, what exactly is energy storage battery technology and what is its technical connotation? I summarized that energy storage battery technology should include six major connotations. The first is material technology, which is the foundation. But for energy storage batteries, I particularly want to emphasize the material properties, especially the material properties studied in the laboratory. There is still a very big difference between the actual performance of batteries that will be made into large batteries and used for energy storage applications in the future, so you must not The performance of laboratory materials is equated with the performance of energy storage batteries, let alone the performance of energy storage battery systems. The second is structural technology. Compared with small consumer batteries, energy storage scenarios require high power and large capacity. Therefore, the research and development of future energy storage batteries must fully consider the integrated design of the internal structure and external structure of the battery, and reduce the cost and safety pressure faced by the external system through the innovative development of some internal structures. This is the research on future energy storage battery structure technology. important direction. We hope that our energy storage batteries can change from "petite and rich" to strong and durable "silly, big and chunky" to meet the actual scene needs of the power system. Third, manufacturing technology. Especially for lithium-ion batteries, its manufacturing technology is derived from the previous magnetic tape technology, using an adhesive film electrolytic structure, which requires high-precision, very complex, and hundreds of manufacturing processes. If you want to reduce manufacturing costs in the future, you need to combine structural technology innovations in batteries to make the entire manufacturing process simple and not complicated. The fourth application technology. Energy storage battery application technology is battery energy storage technology in a narrow sense that is often mentioned in power systems, including system integration technology, BMS, PCS and EMS. Application technology is very important. It is necessary to develop corresponding application technology for different application scenarios, accumulate application data, discover application problems, and evaluate application economics. In the future, there should be independent energy storage battery system application service providers with application technology development as the core. They will be responsible for the design and planning, leasing, operation and maintenance, and scrap recycling of the energy storage system. They will also cooperate with insurance companies and promise to be responsible for the service life and operation of the system. Safety. Fifth regeneration technology. Our consumer batteries only have a lifespan of three to five years, because our mobile phones have to be replaced in three to five years, so it doesn’t make much sense no matter how long the battery life is. However, the power system requires a life span of ten or even more than twenty years for battery energy storage systems, and ten years is almost a ceiling for our batteries with existing technology. Therefore, during the operation of energy storage systems in the future, new battery regeneration technologies may need to be developed to extend the service life of energy storage batteries. After the battery has been used for a period of time, the battery performance can be re-activated through in-situ repair of the SEI film on the surface of the positive and negative electrode materials, and the replenishment and replacement of the electrolyte to extend the actual calendar service life of the energy storage lithium battery. For example, the slurry-thick electrode morphology of lithium slurry batteries gives them the possibility of online regeneration during their lifetime. The last one, recycling technology, is very important. Including waste battery replacement technology, safe transportation technology, recycling technology and resource reuse technology. The recycling process and technology of lithium batteries are not yet mature. It needs to be combined with material technology and structural technology to develop new energy storage battery technology that is convenient for recycling and regeneration. Innovative improvements should be made in product design and battery recycling and processing should be considered in advance from the production end. , in order to realize the sustainable development of resources in the energy storage lithium battery industry, which is of important strategic significance. In the past two days, the association is taking experts from the World Bank to inspect the existing battery recycling situation. Including replacement processing, safe transportation, end-of-life recycling and resource reuse. We know that scrapped batteries are more dangerous than new batteries. How will the batteries be transported back to the base after they are scrapped? Is it possible to develop innovative technologies? Safely handle the batteries before they are scrapped so that they are absolutely impossible to burn and explode. This is storage New issues facing energy batteries. Therefore, the technical connotation of energy storage batteries is very rich. These six technical connotations require us to make breakthroughs from all aspects, not just breakthroughs in material technology. Industry pain points. There are four major comprehensive problems with energy storage batteries: high cost, short life, poor safety, and difficult recycling. For lithium-ion batteries, it is a core design idea of a bonded-coated thin-film electrode structure and the parallel connection of internal pole pieces followed by the tabs, which brings fundamental problems to the consistent design of battery cells and battery systems. Yesterday we went to Kehua. Mr. Chen from Kehua said that the application of nanoparticle materials in batteries requires nanoscale mechanical control and power control. This makes sense. This requires the existing battery manufacturing control accuracy to be very high. Why? Because its electrode layer is only a very thin thickness of more than 100 microns and contains nano-micron particles, it requires high-precision control, which makes it very difficult to reduce battery manufacturing costs. Therefore, innovative technologies are needed, such as the development of capacity-type ultra-thick electrode technology, to reduce the absolute requirements for manufacturing precision and reduce the manufacturing cost of energy storage batteries. Therefore, we say that the development of energy storage batteries has gradually changed from the original primary requirement of high energy density of consumer batteries to the core requirement of low cost. The use of batteries in mobile phones is a necessity. Mobile phones are inseparable from batteries. Therefore, whether batteries are cheap or expensive, batteries must be used. However, if energy storage batteries are too expensive, the power system can be used without them, and non-energy storage methods can even be used to solve some of the problems faced by energy storage. Therefore, "low cost" has become our primary goal in the development of energy storage batteries. Let me briefly explain the development goals. The cost of energy storage batteries in a narrow sense only includes primary (purchase) costs, while the cost of energy storage batteries in a broad sense also includes secondary (operation and maintenance) costs and tertiary (recycling) costs. Among them, the primary cost includes the material cost and manufacturing cost of the battery. In the case of limited room for material cost reduction, simplifying the battery production process and reducing manufacturing costs and labor costs through subversive design of battery structure technology will be an important cost reduction direction for new energy storage batteries. Secondary costs are closely related to battery life. It is necessary to combine material technology and structural technology to develop new repair and regeneration technology to extend the service life of batteries and reduce the cost per kilowatt-hour of capacity batteries and the frequency cost of power batteries. The third cost mainly refers to the recycling cost of the battery. At present, if the recycling and regeneration process of energy storage batteries is to fully comply with the requirements of environmental protection standards, the cost is still very high. Innovative battery design ideas and recycling ideas are needed to reduce the tertiary costs of batteries. At present, the cost of energy storage batteries is relatively high, so it can be applied in some complementary scenarios first. In the future, as the cost drops, it can gradually be applied in competitive scenarios. The second long life, battery cycle life is the basis of calendar service life, but it is not equivalent to the actual calendar service life of the battery. Currently, there is a lack of suitable accelerated aging experimental standards that can correspond to the actual calendar decay changes of batteries. In the future, in addition to establishing relevant testing standards, it is also necessary to develop innovative online repair and regeneration technology to increase the calendar service life of energy storage batteries and meet actual energy storage working conditions. If the battery cycle life tested in the laboratory is 3650 times, even if it is charged and discharged once a day, 365 times in 365 days a year, which is exactly 3650 times in ten years, we cannot say that the battery has a calendar life of ten years. Because the battery is a highly non-equilibrium chemical system, even if it is not charged or discharged, its performance will be attenuated when placed somewhere, which is very important. Therefore, regeneration technology must be developed in the future, and here are the reasons. Moreover, the direction of application development will change from passive operation and maintenance now to active operation and maintenance in the future. We need active operation and maintenance. The annual operation and maintenance cost of our pumped storage power station is about 70 million to 80 million yuan. Why does the electrochemical energy storage system not require operation and maintenance? it's out of the question. The third goal is high security. The safety of energy storage batteries is very important. Relatively speaking, aqueous batteries such as flow batteries and lead-acid batteries are safer and can meet the safety requirements of energy storage power stations. However, the charging cut-off voltage of the battery also needs to be strictly controlled to prevent the aqueous solution from overvoltage electrolysis. Hydrogen evolution and explosion; the safety issues of organic lithium-ion batteries are more prominent. Currently, they are generally at a safety passing line of around 60 points, waiting for technological breakthroughs; solid-state batteries do not contain flammable electrolytes, so they have the highest safety. After mass production is achieved in the future, it may first be applied to certain special scenarios with high safety requirements. However, if solid-state batteries are to be applied to power energy storage on a large scale, there are still considerable difficulties that need to be overcome in terms of cost reduction, longevity and system consistency. In addition, the recycling and processing of solid-state batteries is also a big problem. Safety prevention technology to avoid battery (internal or external) short circuit and emergency maintenance technology after battery short circuit occurs are important directions for the development of energy storage battery safety technology. It is not enough to simply protect the safety of lithium energy storage batteries through external fire extinguishing devices. In the future, disruptive battery structure technology and safety maintenance technology must be developed to completely solve battery safety issues from within the battery and ensure the safety of energy storage batteries. Safe operation of transportation and energy storage power stations. The fourth goal is easy recycling. The recycling and utilization of resources will be the biggest challenge facing the future large-scale application of energy storage batteries. There are three basic requirements for energy storage batteries to achieve the goal of being easy to recycle: 1. The battery recycling process meets safety and environmental standards; 2. Near 100% recycling of rare precious metal elements; 3. The battery has a certain residual value. The current demonstration application of energy storage lithium battery systems basically does not take into account the recycling and processing links after the batteries are scrapped in the future. What's more serious is that there is currently a widespread misconception in the battery industry that scrapped lithium batteries are rich in various valuable precious metals, so there is no need to worry about recycling. The actual situation is that there are serious conflicts and contradictions between the "value" and "environmental protection" of scrapped batteries. The material system selection and battery structure design of existing energy storage lithium batteries enable valuable recycling that fully meets environmental protection requirements. The work is very difficult. The development of renewable energy requires the support of renewable energy storage. If energy storage battery material resources cannot be recycled well, for example, only more than 70% of the lithium element in current batteries can be recycled. At present, if we want to achieve a recovery rate of more than 90%, it is technically possible, but the cost is simply unacceptable. Now only the profitable elements are extracted, and the other elements that are difficult to dispose of are scrapped and landfilled. If we want to strive for more than 90% material recycling in the future, we must develop new energy storage battery structure technologies and recycling technologies that are easy to recycle. Our existing demonstration and commercial application industries are of course based on existing relatively mature technology products, such as lithium iron phosphate batteries, which have now been gradually used in the construction of energy storage power stations on the grid side and on the user side. However, based on the gap in the above development goals, we still need to develop new energy storage battery technologies in the future. We need to completely break away from the structural design ideas of small batteries and develop disruptive large energy storage battery technologies, such as plasma for capacity-type energy storage. Material battery technology, high-voltage battery technology suitable for power energy storage, and other technical directions. A hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend. Let me briefly introduce our work below. Lithium slurry battery, all or part of the electrodes of the battery are composed of lithium storage active material, conductive agent and electrolyte in slurry state. The technical name of Lithium Slurry Battery was first formally proposed by our team in the invention patent in 2015, but the initial research and development work began 8 years ago. Different from the fixed bonded electrodes of traditional lithium-ion batteries, lithium slurry batteries have two significant technical features: ultra-thick slurry electrodes and maintainability and regeneration. Ultra-thick slurry electrode: The thickness of the electrode in the slurry state can reach the millimeter level, which is more than 10 times the thickness of the coated and bonded electrodes of ordinary lithium-ion batteries. It is easier to control absolute precision, and the cost of battery manufacturing is reduced. A single electrode sheet The capacity has been greatly increased, making it more suitable for providing large-capacity energy storage power output; the non-bonded electrode does not have the problem of loosening and falling off, and has a long dynamic service life. Maintainable regeneration: When the battery performance declines after being used for a period of time, the internal interface of the battery can be repaired through fluid replacement and regeneration technology to re-improve the battery vitality.Extend the service life of the calendar; after the battery is scrapped, the non-bonded electrode is easy to recycle, achieving low-cost recycling of more than 90% of the materials. Currently, lithium slurry batteries have been used in demonstration applications in photovoltaic energy storage systems and low-speed electric vehicles. This is a third-party safety test, and this is a patent. We have applied for more than 90 invention patents and have an independent technical roadmap internationally. This is our pilot base, with a total area of 1,400 square meters. We have developed the first generation of pilot products and are currently developing the second generation. It is expected that the construction of the expanded production line will begin in the second half of the year. The application scenarios of energy storage are diverse. Therefore, no single technology can solve all energy storage problems. Lithium slurry batteries are typical capacity batteries and are not suitable for use at high rates. Therefore, high-power energy storage scenarios require the development and application of some other new technologies, such as high-voltage batteries. To summarize, first, it is demand-oriented and appropriate energy storage technology should be developed according to the actual needs of different application fields. Low cost, long life, high safety, and easy recycling are the overall goals for the development of energy storage battery technology. Second, innovation is needed in the future, and not just material innovation, but also innovation in structural technology, manufacturing technology, repair technology, recycling technology, and application technology. There is a lot of research and development work to be done. Third, despite the emergence of various new technologies in the laboratory, in actual applications, in the past five years, specialized large-capacity and high-power energy storage lithium batteries with innovative structural designs for different energy storage application scenarios will the most widely used. Energy storage has a long way to go from promoting the consumption of renewable energy to reducing the cost of using renewable energy.

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