Lead-carbon batteries are a new energy storage technology and market penetration is expected to increase rapidly

Lead-carbon battery is a capacitive lead-acid battery that combines supercapacitor and lead-acid battery technologies. It is upgraded on the basis of traditional lead-acid batteries by adding carbon materials to the negative electrode. The product combines supercapacitor and lead-acid batteries. Advantages: It is a new energy storage technology and has development potential in the fields of power batteries and energy storage.

According to data released by the China Chemical and Physical Power Supply Industry Association, in 2021, China’s energy storage market has a cumulative installed power of 43.4GW, ranking first in the world; among them, electrochemical energy storage installed power is 5117.1MW, accounting for 11.8%; in Among electrochemical energy storage, lithium-ion batteries have the largest installed capacity, accounting for 91.0%, while lead-acid batteries account for a smaller share.

Traditional lead-acid batteries have the advantages of mature technology, low cost, high specific energy, and good low-temperature performance. They use sulfuric acid aqueous solution as the electrolyte and are highly safe. However, they have the disadvantage of short cycle life, so their applications are limited. Lead-carbon batteries inherit the advantages of traditional lead-acid batteries, and add carbon materials to the negative electrode, which can effectively suppress sulfation and extend its service life. The lead-carbon battery incorporates supercapacitor technology, which can instantly charge a large capacity, improve battery charging and discharging performance, and shorten charging time.

In my country, electrochemical energy storage mainly has three development directions: lithium-ion batteries, flow batteries, and lead-carbon batteries. Lithium-ion batteries are currently the mainstream product in the market, but they have safety issues and are prone to explosion accidents. The price of lithium metal continues to rise, and product production costs continue to increase. Flow battery technology is not yet fully mature at this stage, and production costs are high. From this point of view, lead-carbon batteries have huge room for development.

According to the “China Lead-Carbon Battery Industry Market In-depth Research and Development Prospects Forecast Report 2022-2027” released by the Industrial Research Center, Lead-carbon batteries can be used as power batteries in electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles, electric bicycles and other fields; they can be used as energy storage batteries in photovoltaic power generation, wind power generation and other fields. Globally, many countries, including the United States, Australia, Japan, India, China, etc., have carried out research on lead-carbon battery technology, and the scale of product production and application is gradually expanding. In 2021, the global lead-carbon battery market size will be approximately 4.4 billion yuan. It is expected to continue to grow at a compound annual growth rate of approximately 21.3% from 2022 to 2027, and the market size will exceed 14 billion yuan by 2027.

In my country, the representative lead-carbon battery manufacturers mainly include Shuangdeng Group, Sacred Sun, Narada Power, Kunming Technology, Tianneng Group, State Power Investment Corporation, etc. In May 2022, Ji Electric Power Guji, a subsidiary of the State Power Investment Corporation, started construction of a 20GW lead-carbon battery production line with an annual output in Baicheng, Jilin; in September, Kungong Technology issued an announcement that it plans to invest in the construction of a 10GW lead-carbon battery with an annual output in Qujing, Yunnan. project. In the future, the scale of my country’s lead-carbon battery industry will continue to expand.

Industry analysts said that currently, although lithium-ion batteries occupy an absolute dominant position in my country’s electrochemical energy storage market, various New energy storage technologies are constantly emerging, and the market is showing a diversified development trend. Due to the insufficient safety of lithium-ion batteries, new electrochemical energy storage technologies have huge potential for future development if they have clear competitive advantages. Lead-carbon batteries have the advantages of lead-acid batteries and supercapacitors, with fast charging speed, long cycle life, high cost performance, and high safety. The market penetration rate is expected to increase rapidly in the future.