A corner of the echelon utilization workshop

In addition to poor cost estimates, batteries used in cascades also face the question of unstable performance. A person in the new energy automobile industry in East China said that because the battery quality of the cascade batteries is not uniform, if the consistency test is not done well, a 'barrel effect' will occur, which will greatly increase the follow-up maintenance cost. 'Just like decorating a house, the cost of a blank is much smaller than that of a second-hand decoration.' The reporter learned that China Tower’s communication base station backup battery used to be the largest application market for echelon utilization, but after 2019, China Tower has gradually reduced the echelon battery. Frequency of use. A person in the energy storage industry in East China also expressed a preference for using new batteries. He told reporters that the current source of cascade batteries is limited, and life and safety issues have yet to be verified. Although the current procurement cost is lower than that of new batteries, the payback period for energy storage projects is generally 6-8 years. During this period, if there is a problem with the cascade battery, it is easy to rip. After all, it is a new thing and there is no precedent for business operation. Outside the energy storage market, other application scenarios for cascade utilization are also facing challenges. Wu Ying introduced that the cascade battery can also supply power for street lights, but the domestic infrastructure is basically saturated, and the number of street lights is small and scattered; small energy storage in overseas households is also one of the scenarios, but it was severely impacted by the epidemic last year; there are also two-wheeled electric vehicles. In the electricity market, competition is also fierce, and it is difficult for large companies to find a positioning advantage. The reporter learned from people familiar with the matter that Didi’s green orange motorcycles all over the country clearly stipulate that suppliers must not use echelon batteries. 'When the application scenarios are not rich enough, the batteries collected by the recycling companies can easily be'overkilled', resulting in unwarranted waste of resources and reducing the input-output ratio.' Chu Bing said frankly, 'How to create a fine-tiered scenario to make retired batteries 'Make the best use of' is a problem that most recycling companies urgently need to solve. 'It is worth noting that if there is no market for echelon utilization, a large proportion of used batteries will have nowhere to go. 'If the battery has no tier value, we are actually unwilling to collect it. The battery that completes all the tier utilization life cycle will eventually need to find a way to deal with it. Now these batteries are flowing in the market, and they will show their magical powers. . If there is no harmless treatment for public welfare, the subsequent harm will be considerable.” Wu Ying said. Where is the future? The business model has not yet taken shape. At present, battery recycling is more dependent on other business formats as an 'icing on the cake'. For example, Li Liang said, the cascade utilization mainly depends on the energy storage, two-wheeler PACK factory or the battery factory, and the recycling utilization depends on the wet smelter. If a company survives only on ladders or regenerative businesses, it may lose money. GEM is a leading company in the domestic environmental protection and recycling industry. Zhang Yuping introduced that its power battery recycling business began to achieve profitability in 2019, three years after the initial production. “GEM’s advantage lies in the start of waste battery recycling. It has accumulated 20 years of experience. In addition, there are also industrial layouts such as home appliance recycling and end-of-life automobiles that play a synergistic role to drive the recycling of power batteries.' For battery recycling companies, Technological improvement is a sharp sword to solve the current problems. Zhang Yuping said that for cascade utilization, the problem to be solved is how to achieve fast and accurate detection and match the applicable scene; and on the route of recycling, crush and sort battery materials accurate to the micron level. Efficient extraction of resources and safe and environmentally friendly disposal of waste residues are the current difficulties. 'The development time of this industry is still very short. Now everyone is doing research and development while recycling.'