Powering up energy storage in China

Energy Observer has rounded up China’s 2017 energy storage breakthroughs. By the end of the year China had 28.9 gigawatts of storage in operation, almost 99% of which was pumped hydroelectric. However, battery storage saw significant growth, with 389.8 megawatts installed – up 45% from the year before.

Major policy changes on storage were also announced in 2017. In October, the first national-level policy instruction on energy storage was passed by the National Energy Administration, laying out a vision to progress from research and development through to commercialisation and full-scale production in the next 10 years. Qinghai issued the first provincial-level document to incorporate storage goals, requiring wind projects to build the equivalent of 10% of their capacity in accompanying storage. And Jiangsu province released the first management guidelines on integrating demand-side storage with the grid. 

On the industry side, the price of lithium batteries dropped 20% in 2017, but source materials are getting more expensive. Six pumped hydro projects, totalling 86 megawatts, broke ground in 2017 and are expected to be completed by 2026.