Analysis of global portable energy storage market: demand will reach 15Gwh

China will ship 37GWh of energy storage lithium batteries in 2021

At present, the lithium electric energy storage market is mainly divided into four categories: electric energy storage, communication energy storage, portable energy storage and home energy storage. On the whole, the above energy storage market see a significant growth in 2021.

According to data, the total shipments of lithium battery energy storage in China in 2021 were 37GWh, with a year-on-year growth of more than 110%. Electricity energy storage accounted for 47%, communication energy storage accounted for 33%, home energy storage accounted for 15%, portable energy storage accounted for 3%.

The expectation of the energy storage market demand in China

It is predicted that the total shipments of energy storage in China will be 330GWh in 2026, with a five-year compound growth rate of 55%, driving the further growth of the market demand in the above energy storage field.

It is worth noting that the portable energy storage market has been growing rapidly in recent years, mainly driven by the emergency measures during the epidemic and outdoor scenes, with shipments reaching 1.3GWh in 2021. The shipment is expected to reach 8.4GWh by 2026, becoming a new growth track of lithium electric energy storage market.

On the whole, dual carbon will become the core driving force. Lithium electric energy storage is in the explosive period from 1 to X, and many market segments are expected to emerge in the future.

Energy storage battery technology route

In terms of technical route, lithium battery will be the main technical route in the field of energy storage, but in the later stage, other technologies such as hydraulic battery and sodium ion battery will coexist with lithium battery.

In 2021, Square LFP batteries will be the main energy storage lithium batteries in China, with high capacity and large cell as the main development direction. In the field of battery energy storage, LFP market accounts for up to 98%, and the mainstream cell products are upgrading from 100Ah to 280AH.

Communication energy storage market is also dominated by square LFP cell, the main model is 50-100AH, is developing to 100-150AH and other large capacity direction.

The home energy storage market is more diversified, square, cylinder, soft package have applications, but the domestic is still dominated by LFP, product models concentrated in 25-50AH, 50-100AH direction in the future.

Portable energy storage is mainly cylindrical batteries, more than 80% of the use of high specific energy 18650 cells, the development trend is also large capacity, from 18650 to 21700 upgrade.

● In terms of system gross margin：

Portable energy storage > home energy storage > electric energy storage > communication energy storage. Among them, portable energy storage systems can achieve the highest gross margin of 45%-50%, mainly related to industry demand. However, the gross margin of communication energy storage system is only 15%-20%, and the price competition is very fierce.

●In terms of competitive factors:

Product consistency, price, safety, life, channel, brand and service capacity will be the key factors for lithium battery enterprises to compete in the energy storage market.

The global demand for portable energy storage lithium battery will reach 15GWh in 2025

In the context of carbon neutrality, the energy storage market will remain high in 2021. When it comes to energy storage, most people first think of large-scale scenery supporting energy storage power station or communication energy storage for base station backup. In addition to these two common forms of storage, there is another “little-known” type of portable storage. In recent years, portable energy storage continues to accumulate power and has spurted out.

According to the data of Tmall, the most influential shopping website in China, there were only one or two brands of outdoor power supply on Tmall before 2018, and the turnover was small. In 2021, the turnover of brands of outdoor power supply head during tmall 6•18 has reached the top 10 of 3C digital accessories industry, with the growth rate of more than 300% in the past three years.

Take Warburg New Energy, the leading enterprise in the industry, as an example, the revenue of portable energy storage products of the company was only 64 million yuan in 2018, and increased to 893 million yuan in 2020, with a compound annual growth rate of 274%, which shows the rapid growth of the industry.

What are portable energy storage products

Portable energy storage product is a kind of built-in high energy density lithium ion battery system, can provide stable AC/DC voltage output power system, can be applied to outdoor travel, emergency preparedness and other scenarios.

Compared with traditional small oil-fired generators, portable energy storage products have the advantages of safety, portability, environmental protection, no noise, simple operation, and can be widely used in outdoor leisure, operation, disaster relief and emergency power backup occasions.

Application scenarios of portable energy storage products

Schematic diagram of application of portable energy storage products in outdoor scene

In recent years, the overall demand environment of outdoor portable energy storage market is good. First, due to the impact of COVID-19, outdoor leisure time has significantly increased in developed markets such as Europe and the US, resulting in increasing demand for outdoor electricity.

Secondly, a large proportion of scenery grid connection has affected the stability of power supply, emergency standby power supply has gradually become an important spare supplies in family life in the United States, Japan and South Korea.

Third, the emergence of portable energy storage to fill the gap in the market of charging banks and fuel engines: conventional charging banks in the market with less than 0.4kwh of electricity, mainstream fuel generators with more than 3KWh of electricity. For outdoor leisure sports, field work, small emergency power backup at home and other occasions, the supply of 0.5-2kwh backup power has been blank for a long time, which is just filled by portable energy storage products.

Global demand for portable energy storage products

In this context, portable order demand for nearly three years of sustained high growth. According to statistics, the global portable energy storage product shipment scale in 2021 will be 2.9 million units. There is still room for significant growth in the next four years, with global shipments of portable energy storage expected to reach 19 million units by 2025.

Figure of global Portable Energy Storage Product Shipment size and Forecast (10,000 units) from 2019 to 2025

Global portable energy storage market competition pattern

From the perspective of competition pattern, the overall concentration of portable energy storage market is high, mainly because the market pattern is not fully opened. Leading companies include Warburg New Energy, Zhenghao Technology, Goal Zero, etc., which are rapidly expanding their market share by virtue of their advantages in channels and supply chains.

At the same time, Huawei, Xiaomi and the UPS power supply, mobile power supply enterprises are also gearing up to expand the emerging portable energy storage market. It is expected that with the continuous joining of giants, the future portable energy storage market competition pattern still exists a great variable. In addition, industry standards continue to mature, enterprises with technological advantages and channel advantages will eventually eliminate low-end backward OEM small workshop enterprises, and the overall market competition environment of the industry continues to be optimized.

Global competitive Landscape of portable Energy Storage Enterprises in 2020 (by shipments, %) 

On the supply side of the cell, due to the special requirements of portable energy storage for safety and portability, the downstream customers mainly apply mature 18650 cylindrical lithium batteries, while a small part of models pursuing high capacity use cylindrical 21700 batteries. In addition to cylindrical batteries, polymer soft packs are also used, but some manufacturers feedback that the consistency of soft pack batteries is temporarily difficult to meet the needs, restricting the further penetration of soft packs.

In terms of material system, the requirements of portable energy storage for energy volume ratio make terpolymer materials become the most widely used route in the market at present. However, lithium iron phosphate has better cost performance and safety, and is expected to occupy a certain market in the future in field rescue, operation and other special occasions. In 2021, due to the shortage of cell production capacity from Japan and South Korea, and the impact of the epidemic on the global cell supply chain, some Chinese head power supply enterprises gradually use domestic lithium iron phosphate cell.

From the perspective of cell supply pattern, Samsung SDI, LG Chem and China’s Bak Battery, Penghui Energy, Livaneng, Hengdian Dongxi and other cylindrical battery enterprises have batch supply, but the market pattern has not been fully opened.

Global portable energy storage lithium battery demand

Lithium battery is the highest cost of portable energy storage, which is also a key link to determine the service life and cost reduction speed of portable energy storage products. According to the survey, lithium batteries account for 50% to 70% of the overall cost of portable energy storage. It is expected that the global demand for lithium batteries for portable energy storage will be 1.45GWh in 2021, and the global demand for lithium batteries for portable energy storage will break through 15GWh in 2025.

The core driving forces for the continuous growth of the scale are as follows:

● The increase of portable energy storage with power per unit, from ≤ 0.5kwh of the mainstream in 21 years to more than 1KWh;

● The outbreak of outdoor and emergency backup markets pushes the shipment scale of portable energy storage to continue to grow exponentially;

● The continuous expansion of consumer 3C lithium battery capacity makes the cost of lithium battery reduce rapidly, and the sales price of portable energy storage continues to decline.

Image of global Demand and Forecast (GWh) for portable energy storage lithium batteries 2019-2025

At present, the mainstream energy storage products below 500W have a low entry threshold and generally require the quality of lithium batteries, so the market competition is fierce and the market concentration is low. More than 2KW energy storage in the future belongs to the high-end products with larger backup capacity, higher requirements for product safety, battery thermoelectric management, and higher added value. In the future, it will become the focus of the competition of the head portable energy storage lithium battery enterprises.