On May 8th, the Sichuan Provincial Department of Economy and Information Technology and six other departments jointly issued the "Implementation Plan for Promoting High-Quality Development of the Vanadium Battery Storage Industry" (hereinafter referred to as the "Implementation Plan"). This policy is also the first vanadium battery industry-specific policy in the country. Qing Jiasheng, Director of the Material Industry Division of the Sichuan Provincial Department of Economy and Information Technology, introduced that by 2025, the penetration rate of vanadium batteries in the storage field is expected to reach 15% to 20%, taking a leading position in the field of large-scale, long-duration storage. The "Implementation Plan" aims to build a leading national vanadium battery storage industry base through initiatives such as conducting application pilot demonstrations, strengthening technological self-innovation, expanding the production and supply of vanadium products, promoting industry cost reduction and efficiency enhancement, accelerating the creation of industrial clusters, and cultivating improved standards and brands. Sichuan has a solid foundation for the development of the vanadium battery storage industry, holding the country's largest vanadium resource reserves and leading in the production of vanadium pentoxide, having built the world's largest and most comprehensive vanadium product production base. Additionally, Sichuan's abundant hydropower resources and gradually increasing photovoltaic power generation share provide a substantial market space for vanadium battery storage stations as important energy reserves. To further promote new industrialization, accelerate the construction of a modern industrial system, plan for future new products, cultivate new quality productive forces, and build a leading domestic vanadium battery industry base, it is necessary to introduce measures to promote the high-quality development of the vanadium battery storage industry.
Development targets include:
- Vanadium battery storage industry's technology level and innovation capacity to be among the national leaders;
- Vanadium electrolyte production capacity to reach 200,000 cubic meters/year, electrode material production capacity to reach 6.5 million square meters/year, stack production capacity to reach 3GW/year, and system integration capacity to break through 12GWh/year;
- Cultivate at least three innovative and nationally competitive leading companies;
- Build a number of economically effective pilot demonstration projects with strong driving capabilities.
Pilot demonstration proposals include:
- Support the promotion and application of vanadium batteries in various aspects such as photovoltaic, wind power generation storage, grid peak shaving and frequency modulation, and communication base station storage.
- Support areas with solid vanadium industry foundations such as the relevant load centers within the province and cities like Panzhihua, Neijiang, and Leshan, to construct a number of vanadium battery storage stations based on actual demand.
- Actively explore innovations in technology, business models, and institutional mechanisms to promote the market-oriented, large-scale application of vanadium battery storage.
Policy support proposals include:
- Increase fiscal funding support for major projects, innovation platforms, and characteristic parks in the vanadium battery storage industry.
- Strengthen the guarantee of essential resources such as land and energy use, and actively promote the construction of major pilot demonstration projects.
- Support grid integration and utilization of vanadium battery storage stations, optimize time-of-use electricity pricing policies such as peak and off-peak tariffs, and seasonal tariffs in a timely manner to increase revenue channels for vanadium battery storage.
- Improve incentive mechanisms, support new energy projects to deploy vanadium battery storage as needed, and implement related incentive policies from the "Action Plan for Quality Improvement and Doubling of Advanced Materials Industry".
- Explore establishing a vanadium resource price stabilization negotiation mechanism, construct a "vanadium electrolyte bank," a bulk vanadium asset trading platform, and a national vanadium asset trading system centered in Sichuan.
Market mechanism proposals include:
- Support vanadium battery storage to participate as independent market entities in medium and long-term transactions, spot and ancillary services in the electricity market.
- During charging in the electricity quantity market, it can enjoy time-of-use tariffs as an electricity market consumer, with the corresponding electricity purchased on its behalf by electricity sales companies or grid enterprises;
- During discharging, participate in the thermal power market transactions, with prices formed by the market.
- Accelerate the construction of an electricity ancillary services market, enrich the varieties of vanadium battery storage participating in the electricity ancillary services market, and fully reflect the flexible adjustment value of vanadium battery storage.
- Support joint investment by new energy development enterprises and vanadium battery storage enterprises, encourage new energy stations to configure vanadium battery storage through self-construction, leasing, or purchasing, and reasonably distribute profits through market mechanisms.