The project is expected to help diversify and accelerate the development of next-generation energy storage in China.
Source: Science and Technology Daily
China has officially commissioned its first large-scale lithium-sodium hybrid energy storage facility in Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, according to China Southern Power Grid Energy Storage Co., Ltd. Known as the Baoci Energy Storage Station, the facility is part of a national pilot program for new energy storage technologies and features the world’s first grid-forming sodium-ion battery system. The project is expected to help diversify and accelerate the development of next-generation energy storage in China.
To date, lithium-ion batteries have dominated the country’s energy storage landscape. Sodium-ion batteries, however, offer several advantages: they have a long cycle life, operate reliably across a wide temperature range (up to 45°C), and are made from abundant, low-cost raw materials.
“By combining lithium and sodium battery technologies, we can enhance the grid’s flexibility in responding to load fluctuations—without significantly increasing the cost of building the storage station,” said Chen Man, Deputy Director at the Energy Storage Research Institute of China Southern Power Grid.
The Baoci station covers roughly 50 mu (about five football fields) and has a total storage capacity of 400 megawatt-hours. Based on two full charge-discharge cycles per day, the facility can regulate up to 580 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually—enough to power around 270,000 households for a year.
“This is the first time a large-scale facility has been used to compare the performance of lithium-ion and sodium-ion batteries,” said Lin Qihua, project manager at the station. “We’ve also applied five distinct technical approaches, which will help move emerging storage technologies from pilot stage to commercial deployment.” Looking ahead, Lin noted that grid-forming storage systems could play a key role in regions with high penetration of renewable energy—such as Tibet, Xinjiang, and Ningxia—by enabling the stable transmission of electricity from major renewable energy bases in China’s desert and arid regions.
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