Frost & Sullivan officially releases the '2024 White Paper on the Development of Fully Modular Energy Storage Systems | The Infinite Market Potential of Fully Modular Energy Storage'

The '2024 All-in-One Modular Energy Storage Industry Development White Paper' starts with energy storage, specifically comparing the characteristics of different current energy storage technologies. It analyzes the current development status and trends of the electrochemical energy storage industry, and further explores the innovative technical advantages and commercial implementation scenarios of all-in-one modular energy storage as a new generation of electrochemical energy storage system solutions. This highlights its broad development prospects.

Renewable energy refers to energy sources that are naturally replenished and almost inexhaustible. The main sources of renewable energy include solar energy, wind energy, and hydropower. Against the backdrop that addressing climate change has become a global common goal, countries around the world are implementing policies and measures to prioritize the development of renewable energy in order to promote the achievement of carbon neutrality targets. In 2019, the cumulative installed capacity of renewable energy globally accounted for 35.0% of all power generation methods. This proportion rose to 43.8% in 2023 and is expected to reach 63.6% by 2029. In addition, in 2019, renewable energy generation globally accounted for 25.2% of total global electricity generation. This proportion rose to 29.1% in 2023 and is expected to reach 45.0% by 2029. All these factors indicate that the importance of renewable energy in the global power system is increasing day by day.

With the advancement of clean energy transformation, the cumulative installed capacity of renewable energy globally is expected to increase from 4,552 GW in 2024 to 9,091 GW in 2029, with a compound annual growth rate of 14.8%. In addition, the growth rate of solar power generation capacity is faster than that of other major renewable energy sources. From 2019 to 2023, solar power generation installed capacity increased from 586 GW to 1,467 GW, with a compound annual growth rate of 25.8%, and is expected to reach 5,365 GW by 2029.

Data sources: IEA, IRENA, Frost & Sullivan research

According to application scenarios, electrochemical energy storage systems can be divided into centralized and distributed energy storage systems. Centralized energy storage systems are widely used in the power generation field and can achieve peak shaving, renewable energy grid integration, and power reserve functions. In addition, in the transmission and distribution sectors, they can support system frequency regulation, alleviate grid congestion, and delay the upgrade of large-scale transmission and distribution equipment. Distributed energy storage systems include commercial and household applications that manage electricity from a time perspective through peak shaving and valley filling, as well as arbitrage between peak and valley prices. They can smooth electricity demand and help end-users save on electricity costs.

Source: Frost & Sullivan research

The photovoltaic energy storage industry mainly includes four development stages. In the early stages of industrial development, solar photovoltaics developed rapidly as a renewable energy source. As the scale of solar photovoltaic power generation expanded, to address the instability of solar power generation, it became a trend to combine solar photovoltaic power generation with energy storage systems. Currently, due to the high investment costs, difficulty in installation and maintenance, and limited application scenarios of standalone solar photovoltaic power generation and energy storage systems, the market for integrated photovoltaic and energy storage solutions is growing rapidly. In the future, with the rapid development of the new energy vehicle market and artificial intelligence technology, integrated photovoltaic and energy storage solutions equipped with artificial intelligence and charging modules will become one of the main trends.

Source: Frost & Sullivan research

From 2019 to 2023, the global annual shipments of energy storage systems increased from 8.9 GWh to 149.1 GWh, with an annual compound growth rate of 102.2%. With the continuous growth in global demand for renewable energy, the installed capacity of solar photovoltaic and wind power generation is also rapidly increasing, driving the application of energy storage systems in a wider range of scenarios. It is estimated that by 2029, the global annual shipments of energy storage systems will reach 793.0 GWh, with a compound annual growth rate of 31.1% from 2024 to 2029.With the continuous expansion of large-scale renewable energy power generation projects globally, the annual shipments of global centralized energy storage systems are expected to increase from 125.5 GWh in 2024 to 461.3 GWh in 2029, with a compound annual growth rate of 29.7%. In addition, in order to improve the power efficiency of commercial and residential scenarios, as well as enhance the stability and sustainability of urban electricity use, the annual shipments of distributed energy storage systems are expected to reach 331.7 GWh in 2029, with a compound annual growth rate of 33.2% from 2024 to 2029.

Source: Frost & Sullivan research

Establishing a cloud platform system is one of the keys to combining energy storage systems with artificial intelligence technology. Cloud-native architecture features high concurrency, high reliability, large capacity, and low latency, enabling it to connect with a large number of distributed photovoltaic power generation devices, process massive data from energy scenarios such as photovoltaics, energy storage batteries, and charging and discharging, and lay a solid foundation for applications such as energy security and planning, intelligent customer services, and power trading.

Artificial intelligence can improve the security and stability of systems through real-time monitoring, fault early warning, intelligent diagnosis, and other means. It can also provide intelligent optimization suggestions based on user behavior, reducing costs and increasing efficiency from multiple dimensions, thereby empowering the development of the energy storage industry.

Source: Frost & Sullivan research

The fully modular energy storage system is an upgraded energy storage solution based on the modular design concept. In the early days, most large-scale source-grid-side energy storage stations used non-modular systems, typically grouping all battery packs together and controlling them uniformly by centralized inverters. The overall structure was relatively fixed and difficult to quickly adjust the energy storage capacity according to needs, which had certain limitations. With the development of energy storage technology and distributed energy storage, modular energy storage solutions have split the energy storage system into multiple independent modules. Due to their flexibility, scalability, and safety, they have become the mainstream choice for industrial and commercial energy storage. The fully modular energy storage system further optimizes on this basis, improving control accuracy through battery pack-level optimization management and stackable design, reducing fault range, and lowering operational and maintenance difficulties.

Source: Frost & Sullivan research

The fully modular energy storage system adopts battery pack-level management. The fully modular energy storage system solution is an upgrade from traditional modular solutions, shifting from cluster-level management to adding optimizers to each battery pack, achieving battery pack-level management and safety protection, and realizing more precise control over battery clusters. At the same time, the battery pack and optimizer are integrated into a single unit, adopting a stackable battery pack design that requires no additional wiring.

Source: Frost & Sullivan research

●Ease of installation and space optimization:

The fully modular design facilitates the high integration of energy storage inverters, batteries, and management systems into compact, independent units with complete functions. These units occupy less space and are suitable for application scenarios with limited space. The stackable design reduces the complexity of wiring between devices, making them lighter and simplifying the transportation and installation process, thereby reducing construction difficulty and time costs.

●Security Assurance:

Reduced connection points between devices, thereby lowering the risk of failure. Battery pack-level optimization management supports multiple protections, such as overcharging, over-discharging, overcurrent, over-temperature, and short circuit.

●Extensibility and flexibility:

The highly flexible design allows for a low initial capacity and supports gradual scale-out based on actual power consumption needs, avoiding the pressure of high one-time investments at the beginning. The modular stackable design makes it simple and quick to replace or upgrade battery modules. Battery pack-level optimization is more conducive to the mixed use of new and old batteries.

●Reliability:

If a battery pack parallel architecture is adopted, it is possible to individually cut off faulty modules. A single battery pack failure does not affect the normal operation of other battery packs, reducing the scope of fault impact. Under a stacked design, failed modules can be directly and quickly replaced, shortening maintenance time.

●Efficiency:

Fine-grained management at the battery pack level can reduce series mismatch issues caused by battery pack differences, greatly improving the utilization rate of energy storage system capacity. In lighting scenarios, a DC coupling architecture is commonly used to minimize energy loss.

Source: Frost & Sullivan research

In industrial and commercial energy storage application scenarios, energy storage systems are typically deployed in the form of integrated cabinets, with battery packs fixedly mounted on battery racks and unable to be stacked. They usually adopt a design where battery packs within a cluster are connected in series and those between clusters are connected in parallel. Although this traditional solution is mature and reliable, it has certain limitations in terms of flexibility and scalability. With the rapid growth in energy storage demand from small and medium-sized industrial and commercial users, more flexible and scalable full-module energy storage system solutions are gradually entering the market.

It is estimated that the global shipments of fully modular energy storage systems for industrial and commercial use will be around 8.0 GWh in 2025. With the continuous improvement of market awareness and technological optimization, by 2029, the global shipments of fully modular energy storage systems for industrial and commercial use are expected to reach 36.8 GWh, demonstrating tremendous market potential.

Source: Frost & Sullivan research

Sieg New Energy (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (referred to as Sieg New Energy) is a technology innovation company focusing on the field of new energy storage. Relying on world-leading digital intelligent technology and differentiated innovative talent strength, it deeply cultivates in the areas of photovoltaic power generation, smart energy storage, and efficient EV charging, committed to providing photovoltaic storage and charging products and distributed energy solutions that are 'extremely simple to deploy, extremely safe, and offer an excellent experience'. Sieg actively serves and supports the national 'dual carbon' strategic goal, integrating artificial intelligence with energy storage technology to drive the green transformation of the global economy and society with new productive forces.

Sigen New Energy's product range includes the five-in-one photovoltaic-storage-charging integrated machine SigenStor, industrial and commercial modular energy storage systems SigenStack, industrial and commercial inverters, energy backup cabinets, and Sigen Cloud. Sigen New Energy products adopt advanced modular design, making the product range simple and efficient. Through flexible modular configurations, a single product can easily adapt to a variety of application scenarios. In residential and industrial/commercial settings, Sigen's products can quickly adjust configurations with their modular features to meet the needs of different customers, achieving efficient and intelligent energy solutions.

Data source: official website of Sigmund Sachs New Energy, Frost & Sullivan research

Data source: official website of Sigmund Sachs New Energy, Frost & Sullivan research