On May 21, the "Flow Battery Technology Breakthrough and Application Scenario Demand" New Energy Storage Innovation Salon, hosted by the National New Energy Storage Innovation Center and organized by Guangdong Provincial International Engineering Consulting Co., Ltd. and the Guangdong Provincial New Energy Storage Industry Technology Innovation Alliance, concluded successfully in Guangzhou. Xie Wei, founder and chief scientist of ZH Energy , was invited to the event. Together with government agencies, scientific research institutions, and power grid companies, he engaged in in-depth discussions on core issues such as technological breakthroughs in flow battery technology, market positioning, and policy support, jointly devising strategies to accelerate the large-scale application of liquid flow energy storage technology.

Li Yitao, Co-President of the National New Energy Storage Innovation Center, attended the seminar and stated in his speech that this flow energy storage special salon is one of the special activities organized by the National Innovation Center to implement the requirements of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and to promote high-quality development of the manufacturing industry. The National Innovation Center expects to gather expert wisdom through this seminar to deeply explore the deep-seated problems faced by the development of flow energy storage and systematically sort out the technological development trends and application scenarios of various technical routes such as all-vanadium, iron-chromium, sulfur-iron, zinc-bromine, and aqueous organic, as well as each link of the industrial chain.

Flow Battery Positioning: Differentiated Competition, Focusing on Long-Duration Energy Storage and High-Safety Scenarios

Experts generally agreed that flow batteries need to avoid head-on competition with lithium batteries and focus on long-duration energy storage, grid frequency regulation, and high-safety scenarios. An expert from a university pointed out that flow batteries are irreplaceable in industrial and commercial energy storage and emergency power supply scenarios, with their inherent safety (no fire risk) being the core competitiveness. A representative from Guizhou Power Grid Research Institute revealed that the locality is exploring the feasibility of using flow batteries as long-duration emergency power supplies for coal mines to address the challenges of safe power supply brought about by the sharp increase in the proportion of new energy.

Technical Bottlenecks and Cost Reduction Pathways: Electrolyte Costs and Large-Scale Production are Key

Although the technological maturity of vanadium flow batteries has entered the early stage of commercialization, high costs remain the biggest constraint. A university scholar frankly stated that the maturity of the flow battery industry chain still lags behind that of lithium batteries and is unlikely to shake its dominant market position in the short term. An enterprise representative indicated that the cost of vanadium flow batteries needs to approach that of pumped storage, and attempts should be made to break through from multiple dimensions such as materials and cell stack design, for example, increasing the utilization rate of electrolyte to over 80%.

Regarding cost reduction, experts proposed that electrolyte costs account for as much as 60%, and exploring an "electrolyte leasing" model may be a breakthrough direction. Another enterprise representative admitted that the current non-scheduled downtime rate of flow batteries is relatively high, and the availability needs to be significantly improved to meet customer needs. Insufficient large-scale production has led to a dilemma of "difficult cost reduction - difficult market expansion" that urgently needs to be broken.

Policy Calls: Differentiated Subsidies and Scenario Innovation are Focuses

Policy support has become a hot topic of discussion. Shen Yi, director of the Low-Carbon Energy Center of Guangdong Provincial International Engineering Consulting Co., Ltd., stated that affected by national policy changes, the new energy storage market will gradually shift from a "policy-driven market" under policy orientation to a "demand-driven market" led by actual needs. For the entire industry, this will usher in a healthier and more orderly development stage. However, frequent policy changes can also bring certain fluctuations to the industry, leading to market confusion and a period of hesitation.

Many experts called for avoiding a "one-size-fits-all" policy and releasing technological diversity through means such as capacity-based electricity price tiered subsidies and scenario-specific support. A power grid company representative pointed out that the cost of flow batteries is about 3-4 times that of lithium batteries and needs to improve economic efficiency through models such as user-side shared energy storage. Policy consulting agencies suggested that large-scale flow battery projects could strive for national special support, but they need to be vigilant about the homogenization competition in the declaration of electrochemical projects.

Emerging Technical Routes and Market Breakthroughs: Sulfur-Iron Batteries and Frequency Regulation Scenarios Gain Attention

In addition to vanadium batteries, new routes such as sulfur-iron flow batteries are emerging. Dr. Xie Wei, chief scientist of Zhonghe Energy Storage, introduced at the meeting that the electrolyte cost of their sulfur-iron flow battery is 85% lower than that of the all-vanadium system and has entered the engineering demonstration stage (standardized module mass production will be realized in 2026). In April of this year, the world's first 1MWh sulfur-iron flow battery system was successfully launched, filling the industrialization gap of the sulfur-iron technical route in the flow battery field. Another enterprise suggested strengthening the promotion of flow batteries in scenarios such as the low-altitude economy and emergency power supply to open up incremental markets.

Facing the over 99% market share of lithium batteries in the energy storage market, enterprises are seeking differentiated competition. Industry analysis pointed out that the response time of flow batteries is as short as tens of milliseconds, which can meet the high-frequency regulation needs of the power grid and may become a key support for stabilizing the new power system in the future.

Industry Consensus: Breakthroughs through the Synergy of Technology, Policy, and Industrial Chain

The meeting ultimately reached four major consensuses: 1) Flow batteries need to compete in a differentiated manner with safety and long life as core advantages; 2) Policies need to provide differentiated support tools; 3) Cost reduction depends on material innovation and supply chain collaboration; 4) Frequency regulation, chemical industry, and emergency power supply scenarios are short-term breakthrough points, while long-duration energy storage is the ultimate goal.

With the release of policy dividends and accelerated technological iteration, ZH Energy will continue to focus on the flow battery field, concentrate on the innovation of key materials and the upgrade of equipment research and manufacturing, and collaborate with upstream and downstream partners in the industrial chain to promote the large-scale application of flow batteries in long-duration energy storage and assist in the transformation and upgrading of the energy structure.

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