A recent unconfirmed photo of “low-price sales in the battery market in the third and fourth quarters” caused an uproar in the industry. Photos show that major battery cell manufacturers are conducting large-scale sales at low prices, with battery cell prices as low as 0.25 yuan/Wh.
Although industry insiders say that this photo is full of doubts, no matter what, various price cuts in the energy storage industry chain are real. From the beginning of the year to now, the price of energy storage cells has dropped by nearly 50% in less than three quarters. According to market data, the lowest domestic quotation for energy storage cells (LFP lithium iron phosphate) has reached 0.45 yuan/Wh, and some manufacturers even quoted prices as high as 0.42 yuan/Wh.
As early as 3 months ago, Chuneng New Energy publicly stated that by the end of 2023, 280Ah energy storage lithium batteries will be sold at a price of no more than 0.5 yuan/Wh (excluding tax).
Marked by the official announcement by battery cell companies that they have entered the 0.5 yuan/Wh era, the continued price reduction of battery cells has directly stimulated the continued decline in the unit price of EPC for energy storage systems and energy storage projects. Energy storage system integrators have also become the main driver of industry price involution.
“There is no minimum, only lower” has become the most true portrayal of the energy storage industry.
The outcome of this situation is: On a small scale, many energy storage manufacturers will have difficulty making money and will eventually be eliminated; on a larger scale, the energy storage industry itself has very high safety requirements. If a price war is blindly carried out with malicious intent, Competition will lead to worrying product quality and unimaginable consequences.
Many cross-border energy storage integrators do not have rich technology and experience in the power field. They think that they can just buy battery cells from the east side and battery management systems from the west side, and then get a converter.
This natural shortcoming in business knowledge makes its security risks more prominent when prices are involuted. Therefore, in the chaotic fast-track development period of energy storage, who will be responsible for safety?”
Many people believe that energy storage is very safe, and there have been no explosion accidents in the past two years. In fact, from a global perspective, the incidence rate of energy storage fire accidents is still in a relatively high range.
According to public reports, there are currently more than 5,000 energy storage power stations in the world (excluding household storage), and more than 70 fire accidents have occurred. The probability of fire in an energy storage power station is approximately 1.52%.
Since 2023, there have been 6 fire incidents in energy storage power stations in the United States, 1 in France, and 1 in Taiwan.
Many of these energy storage systems that have caught fire are from leading energy storage companies such as Tesla, Powin Energy, and LG.
For example, in September this year, a fire broke out in a Tesla energy storage project in Australia worth US$38 million just two months after it was put into operation. The project has an installed capacity of 50MW/100MWh and is composed of 40 Tesla Megapack 2.0 units. It is the first independent large-scale battery energy storage system in Queensland.
In fact, two years ago, a large fire occurred in the Tesla energy storage project in Australia.
In addition to fires in large power stations, household energy storage accidents also occur frequently. According to incomplete statistics, in the second half of September this year alone, there were five fire accidents caused by household energy storage around the world.
Compared with foreign countries, there seem to be almost no energy storage accidents in China in the past two years. In addition to the BYD Energy Storage explosion news a few months ago, there was a lot of rumors, but in the end it was a false alarm. BYD Energy Storage officials personally issued a document to refute the rumors: there was no such thing.
