The first International Symposium on Value, Benefits, and Carbon Emission Assessment of Large-Scale Energy Storage, a National Key R&D Program Strategic Scientific and Technological Innovation Cooperation Project, was held in Beijing on April 11, 2025. Experts from industry, academia, and research institutes engaged in in-depth discussions on core pain points of the energy storage industry, technical pathways, carbon footprint management, and international cooperation.
Yu Zhenhua, Executive Vice Chairman of the China Energy Storage Alliance, pointed out at the symposium that the energy storage industry currently faces three core challenges: difficulty in cost assessment (diverse technical routes make cost evolution paths unclear), difficulty in comprehensive value assessment (multi-scenario revenue is hard to quantify), and difficulty in international mutual recognition of carbon emission standards (significant differences between domestic and foreign accounting systems). These issues have resulted in numerous obstacles for energy storage in supporting the realization of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. The symposium revolved around these three challenges, and experts delved into the bottlenecks and pain points, presenting valuable insights. CNESA has compiled the experts’ key perspectives to share.
1. Global Perspective: The Demand and Positioning of Energy Storage in the Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality Pathway
Global
Feng Jinlei, Policy Officer of the International Renewable Energy Agency, proposed that according to IRENA’s 1.5℃ temperature control scenario, the world needs to deploy 4000 GW of energy storage before 2050, of which long-duration energy storage accounts for more than 40%, with energy storage directly contributing 15% of carbon reduction.
Europe
Patrick Clerens, Secretary General of the European Association for Storage of Energy, emphasized that the EU is addressing consumption bottlenecks through market design and grid upgrades (500 billion euros of investment before 2030). This will reduce 310 TWh of renewable energy curtailment annually (worth 23 billion euros) and promote the integration of heat storage with industrial decarbonization. He also noted that the low-carbon advantage of China’s lithium battery industry chain can achieve value output through standard mutual recognition.
Regarding long-duration energy storage technology in supporting Europe’s net-zero target, Dr. Karin Arnold from the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy pointed out that hydrogen shows potential in industrial heating and long-duration energy storage, but current costs are significantly driven by electrolyzer utilization (<3000 hours/year) and electricity prices. Under Germany’s 2045 carbon neutrality target, hydrogen-power coupling systems will need to undertake 15%-20% of peak shaving tasks, with green hydrogen costs expected to fall from 5 euros/kg in 2030 to 2 euros/kg in 2050. He emphasized that cross-regional hydrogen supply chain construction must simultaneously resolve storage and transport losses as well as infrastructure investment issues.
China
Ma Yuan from Tsinghua University stressed the urgency of China’s energy system transformation—with only 30 years from carbon peaking to carbon neutrality, much shorter than in Europe and the US. By building an optimized energy system model covering the entire industrial chain, by 2060, the share of fossil energy in China’s primary energy structure will drop to 13%, while renewable energy will account for 87% (solar 31%, wind 29%); total power generation capacity will reach 3.2 times the 2021 level, with wind and solar exceeding 80% of installed capacity. As a key regulatory tool, energy storage must be included in carbon peaking and carbon neutrality pathway models to enhance system robustness, particularly in raising end-use electrification rates and promoting renewable energy integration.
Regarding energy storage configuration and peak shaving in the new power system, Qin Xiaohui, Chief Engineer of Power-Carbon Coordination at China Electric Power Research Institute, analyzed that as the proportion of renewable energy increases, the role of energy storage in peak shaving will extend from “intra-day balancing” to “cross-cycle regulation.” For example, in a 2030 grid planning study of a major region, configuring 16 million kW/6-hour storage reduced curtailment rates by 3 percentage points and enabled over 40 billion kWh of additional renewable energy consumption. He emphasized that technology selection for energy storage must match application scenarios: large-capacity, long-duration storage can be configured at grid hub nodes to undertake energy transfer tasks while ensuring grid security constraints, whereas distributed storage focuses on power and energy self-balancing at the microgrid level.
2. How to Build an Energy Storage Carbon Emission Assessment System and Carbon Footprint Management System?
With the entry into force of the EU Battery Regulation (EU) 2023/1542, the EU has entered a stricter and more comprehensive era of lifecycle management for batteries, exerting profound and mandatory influence on Chinese companies exporting products containing batteries to the EU.
Qiu Lin, Chief Scientist of Zero Carbon Products at Envision Digital, noted in relation to the EU Battery Regulation that carbon footprint accounting for energy storage products must cover the full lifecycle “from mine to grave.” He suggested that companies can reduce emissions at the production end through zero-carbon industrial parks and use international standardization platforms to promote data mutual recognition.
On advancing carbon footprint accounting, certification, and mutual recognition, Zhao Lihua, Technical Director of the China Electronics Standardization Institute, introduced that China has established the first lithium battery carbon footprint background database, covering 95% of materials across the full industrial chain including cathodes, anodes, and electrolytes. The number of data entries increased from 210 in version 1.0 to 830 in version 2.0, with 90% derived from processes since 2020. The database adopts a “material flow-energy flow-emission flow” integrated modeling approach, enabling dynamic updates of power factors, thereby providing a scientific foundation for carbon footprint accounting, certification, and international mutual recognition. In the future, the database will be piloted in leading enterprises and its standard alignment with the EU and BRICS countries will be strengthened.
On international cooperation, Ionna Trofimova Elliott, CEO of the POLICY CLUB, pointed out that although the EU Battery Regulation sets carbon tariff thresholds, supply chain localization and technological cooperation must be balanced. The co-development of open carbon emission assessment methodologies for batteries and new energy storage technologies provides an opportunity for China-EU technical collaboration.
3. Under New Market Conditions, How to Measure the Comprehensive Value of Energy Storage (Including Green Value)?
On explicit revenue, Lai Xiaowen, CTO of Beijing Tsintergy, analyzed that as renewable energy storage policies phase out, energy storage revenues will shift toward market-driven mechanisms. In provinces with relatively mature market mechanisms, frequency regulation ancillary services (about 50–80%) and spot arbitrage (about 20–30%) are the main sources of revenue. However, provincial differences in market development are large, and independent energy storage revenue models face transitional adjustments, making it difficult to rely on a single trading product to achieve investment goals. Taking Guangdong as an example, with a spot price difference of only 0.1 yuan/kWh, energy storage must adopt a “multi-purpose” strategy (allocating part of capacity to frequency regulation and part to spot arbitrage) to balance revenue and lifecycle degradation. He suggested that in the future, capacity compensation or bidding mechanisms should be established to reflect the capacity value of energy storage, referencing thermal power standards.
On assessing the green value of energy storage for the entire power system, Qin Xiaohui, Deputy Chief Engineer of the China Electric Power Research Institute, analyzed that carbon reduction assessment of energy storage must establish a “baseline comparison” mechanism, distinguishing between bundled scenarios with renewable energy and independent grid-connected scenarios. Qiu Lin, Chief Scientist of Zero Carbon Products at Envision Digital, proposed that for solar-storage bundled projects, carbon reduction benefits can be quantified through green power tracing, while independent energy storage requires dispatch simulation models to evaluate renewable integration contributions. Edmond Etchri Sassouvi, adviser to the Executive Committee at Macau Power, shared the Macau case: by integrating green power from China Southern Power Grid and piloting second-life battery storage, the tourism city is advancing toward its 2050 carbon neutrality target, highlighting the role of regional grid interconnection in supporting low-carbon transition.
Yang Su from the State Grid Energy Research Institute proposed that China’s carbon market construction brings new opportunities for energy storage. The national carbon emissions trading market has already included the steel, cement, and electrolytic aluminum industries, with carbon prices expected to rise. Energy storage can actively participate in the selection of methodologies for voluntary greenhouse gas emission reduction projects and gain profit from the carbon market in the future. The full market entry of renewable energy will drive “wind-solar-storage” coordinated trading and give rise to new business models such as shared energy storage.
4. Conclusion: Building a Globally Coordinated Energy Storage Ecosystem of “Technology-Standards-Market”
The symposium reached a consensus: the value release of energy storage must be rooted in technological innovation, bridged by standard mutual recognition, and driven by market mechanisms. In the next three years, the National Key R&D Program “Strategic Scientific and Technological Innovation Cooperation” special project “Technical Cooperation Research on Value, Benefits, and Carbon Emission Assessment of Large-Scale Energy Storage” (2024YFE0209100) will focus on joint model and methodology research, co-development of international standards, and creation of cooperation and exchange platforms, promoting the transformation of energy storage from a “cost center” to a “value hub,” and providing China’s solution for global energy decarbonization.