Control of Temperature and Peak in Energy Storage-the Transformation of Liquid
In last summer, a 300MW energy storage power station in Ulanqab, Inner Mongolia, had to operate several groups of traditional air-cooled battery cabins at reduced capacity, while the liquid-cooled energy storage system adjacent to it was working steadily with a conversion efficiency as high as 98%. This small difference seems to reflect a technological revolution that may determine the survival of the energy storage industry. While global energy storage installations grow 30% annually, a once-neglected technical detail is slowly becoming the key to the industry’s future: temperature control.
I. Temperature Runaway: The “Achilles’ Heel” of the Energy Storage Industry
Statistics from U.S.-based Sandia National Laboratories show that with every 1°C rise in temperature, the cycle life of a lithium battery decreases by about two months.
When the temperature difference is more than 5℃, the capacity difference of the battery packs can amount to 15%. In a certain new energy base of Qinghai, at an ambient temperature of -20℃, the engineers found that there was a very high temperature difference in the battery cabin of the air-cooled system, reaching up to 8℃, which directly caused a 23% reduction in the available capacity of the system. These appalling figures reveal three fatal shortcomings in conventional temperature control technologies: Risk in thermal runaway: The investigation report of the 2022 energy storage fire accident in Victoria, Australia, shows that the main cause of the accident was the thermal runaway of the battery due to local overheating.
Energy efficiency black hole: In working condition, air-cooling systems take 3 to 5% for heat dissipation from the stored energy of the energy storage system.
Spatial constraints: In order to meet the heat dissipation requirement, compulsorily increasing the distance between the batteries by 30% seriously restricts the further improvement of energy density.
II. Breakthrough Path of Liquid Cooling Technology: From Physical Innovation to System Reconstruction
Liquid cooling technology has made qualitative leaps from “air conduction” to “liquid heat transfer” through the direct contact of the cooling liquid with battery cells. The latest 5MWh liquid-cooled energy storage system released by CATL has increased energy density by 35% in the same volume, and the temperature difference control accuracy has reached ±0.5℃. This breakthrough comes from three levels of technological innovation:
Material Revolution: The thermal conductivity of the new silicon-oxygen-based coolant reaches 0.6 W/m·K, which is 25 times that of air.
Structural evolution: The serpentine microchannel cold plate design increases the heat exchange area by 400%.
Intelligent control: Dynamic temperature control system based on digital twin, with response speed enhanced to the millisecond level.
In the Jiangsu Rudong offshore wind power supporting energy storage project, liquid cooling increased its battery life by 6,000-8,000 cycles and reduced the full life cycle cost per kilowatt-hour by 0.05 yuan, thus greatly leaping economically. The investment model of energy storage projects is renewed.
III. Industry Transformation Underway: The Chain Reaction Liquid Cooling Technology Triggers
Liquid cooling technologies are widely adopted, rewriting the competitive rules of energy storage. United States-based Wood Mackenzie predicts that by 2025, above 62% market share will be liquid-cooled energy storage, giving rise to three major new industrial trends: System integration: Huawei’s “All-in-One” liquid cooling energy storage solution shrinks the volume of the temperature control system by 40%.
Scenarios: Liquid cooling technology is vividly allowing energy storage systems to find their place in the projects on Bali Island, Indonesia, included in tropical rainforests and polar circles-the microgrid in Svalbard, Norway.
Standard Upgrade: Liquid cooling was listed as one of the best options for large-scale energy storage in the newly issued “Technical Requirements for Temperature Control of Electrochemical Energy Storage Systems” by China.
In the grid-side energy storage station of Zhaoqing, Guangdong, the frequency modulation response accuracy was increased to 99.2% with a combination of liquid cooling systems and AI algorithms, which completely dispelled the prejudice in the industry that “energy storage affects grid stability”.
IV. The Dialectics of Cold and Heat: The Future Direction of Technological Evolution
Standing at the technological inflection point of 2023, liquid cooling technology is continuing to evolve.
Tesla’s latest patent shows that its phase-change liquid cooling technology can further increase the system’s heat dissipation capacity by another 50%. The “thermal-electrical collaborative management” researched and developed by the team led by Academician Ouyang Minggao of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has been working on useless heat, transforming it into energy that can be used. These innovations reveal a deep technological philosophy: the best temperature control system does not fight against heat but is in dialogue with it. In this silent revolution, liquid cooling technology is driving the energy storage industry to new highs. From passive defense to active management in temperature control, energy storage has turned from physical containers to intelligent living entities. What we are witnessing is not only a technological advance but a leap in humankind’s perception of harnessing energy.
Perhaps not too far in the future, every energy storage station will turn into a “breathing” energy hub and will play a symphony in the carbon-neutral era, banging precisely to the rhythm of the fluctuating temperature.