A joint venture between the State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC) and BYD has seen the completion of a 36 megawatt hour battery based energy storage facility. In addition to the massive energy storage plant, the site incorporates a combines 140 megawatt wind and solar power farm. The batteries used at the facility located in Zhangbei, Hebei Province are from BYD’s Iron Phosphate line. Aside from having a reported serviceable life of 20 years, the materials used in the cells are cheaper and more easily recycled than those used in other battery technologies. While heat is a major enemy of batteries, BYD says its Iron Phosphate technology works normally at temperatures of up to 60 degrees Celsius and offers a energy transfer efficiency of more than 95%. The Zhangbei 100MW wind, 40MW solar power and 36MWh battery storage project cost an estimated $500M USD and is part of China’s Golden Sun initiative, a scheme supporting the construction of hundreds of solar power-based electricity generation facilities. This isn’t BYD’s first major battery energy storage project. In October last year, work was completed on the 12 MWh Shenzhen Baoqing Battery Energy Storage Station in the Longgang District of Shenzhen City. BYD Company Limited is the largest supplier of rechargeable batteries in the world and is a leader in the development of electric vehicles and associated technologies. In 2008 BYD Auto released its first mass-produced, full hybrid vehicle, the BYD F3DM State Grid Corporation of Chinais the largest electric power transmission and distribution company in the world. Owned by the Chinese Government, SGCC has over 1.5 million employees and provides electricity to over 128 million customers. While current figures are hard to come by, in 2005 SGCC sold 1,464.6 Terrwatt hours (TWh) of electricity. At that point in time, SGCC owned 195,899 km of 220kV and above transmission lines with a transforming capacity up to 616.64 GVA.
by Energy Matters
