Heze ups role in new energy industry

Heze in Shandong province is accelerating its transition into a new energy equipment cluster supported by the coordinated development of wind and solar bases, long-duration energy storage equipment manufacturing and upstream material recycling, including battery-material recycling.

At Hithium Energy Storage industrial park in Luxi New Area, rows of giant prefabricated storage cabins stand like oversized power banks. They can store electricity for four to eight hours by retaining abundant photovoltaic power generated during the daytime.

"When the sun sets and photovoltaic output drops, it coincides with peak electricity demand as residents return home from work. Short-duration storage cannot fill that gap of several hours," said Zhao Yunfeng, director of northern public affairs at Hithium Energy Storage, a power storage system manufacturer.

"Meanwhile, the rise of new loads such as artificial intelligence computing and electric vehicles has raised higher requirements for continuity of power supply," he said.

Driven by expanding wind and photovoltaic installations nationwide, demand for energy storage has shifted from short-term peak shaving toward longer duration, larger scale and safer energy storage solutions.

The Heze base of Hithium has built an integrated industrial layout covering materials, battery cells, modules and systems manufacturing as well as global delivery, aiming to build full-chain coordination for long-duration storage.

"For storage cells, the larger the capacity, the higher the requirements for the material system, electrochemical reaction uniformity, thermal management, structural stability and manufacturing consistency," said Zhao.

Supported by its intelligent manufacturing system, the base can trace the entire production process of every cell, quickly identify problems and carry out targeted improvements, achieving refined control across the production chain.

Order books of long-duration energy storage equipment from the Heze base stretch into 2027.

Last month, 106 prefabricated energy storage cabins were exported. The equipment carries 1,175-ampere-hour dedicated long-duration storage batteries, achieving a single-cabin capacity of 6.25 megawatt-hours in a 20-foot standard container.

"The project in Heze ties closely to our local resource endowments," said Wang Feng, director of the economic development bureau of Luxi New Area.

Heze boasts rich wind and solar resources. By the end of June, new energy installed capacity accounted for over 60 percent of the city's total power capacity, according to statistics from the city government.

"Large-scale new energy development will inevitably generate large-scale storage demand, especially long-duration storage, which is directly related to the consumption capacity of new energy power and the stable operation of the grid," said Wang.

To date, Heze is home to 66 new energy-related companies.

While storage equipment manufacturing accelerates its going-global pace, a lithium centrifugal extraction facility in Heze's Juye county is using a carbon dioxide continuous stripping process to extract valuable metals such as lithium, cobalt and nickel from industrial hazardous waste, supplying upstream materials for new energy battery manufacturing.

Products such as cobalt sulfate and nickel sulfate are directly supplied to leading domestic power battery companies including CATL and BYD.

zhaoruixue@chinadaily.com.cn