Huw Roberts
Bio
Huw Roberts is an economist and co-founder with Claire Hassall of CHR Metals Limited. The company has an international reputation for providing in-depth analysis of the global zinc and lead industries, offering particular insight into developments in China. It also publishes detailed forecasts of global industrial production in its regular monthly report, Global IP Watch. Huw’s career in the metals industry included working for an LME broker, a number of years with a mining company and senior positions in metals industry consultancy. CHR Metals was established in 2000 and has offices in the UK and China.
According to China’s National Energy Administration the total installed capacity of so-called “new energy” storage at the end of 2023 was 31.4 GW or 66.9 GWh. This was a 260% increase from the 8.8 GW/18.2 GWh installed at the end of 2022. The expansion of Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) is forecast to continue at a rapid pace for several years and will run alongside further growth in sources of renewable energy especially solar, with capacity in this sector of the market increasing by 217 GW last year, 150% more than in 2022. While it is estimated that over 97% of BESS installations in China currently use lithium-ion batteries, official policy is to encourage the development of a range of energy storage technologies. Prospects for lead-carbon batteries have been boosted by investment in several large-scale projects and work continues to improve cycle life and cost. A key advantage of lead batteries, acknowledged in official reports, is their safety, typically a smaller footprint than required by lithium-battery installations, the fact that there is a considerable residual value in lead batteries at the end of their useful life and that there is already well-developed, environmentally sound recycling infrastructure in place. This paper will provide a broad overview of BESS in China but will focus specifically on current developments relating to lead-carbon battery technology, the companies involved, the type of installations and prospects.
