The development process of any industry can be summarized in one sentence: "making cakes, dividing cakes, grabbing cakes, and finding cakes", and the energy storage industry is even more so. Before 2023, the government, enterprises, and capital worked together to "make cakes", and the industrial chain of each link developed rapidly. After everyone worked together to "divide the cake", the market has finally come to the exciting "grabbing cake" stage. If it is difficult to grab in China, then overseas developed countries can grab it. If it is difficult to grab in developed countries, then there are emerging markets in Southeast Asia and Africa.

Of course, in addition to the competition and race on price and technology, companies have also begun to gradually open up their minds and try to find "new cakes" based on the existing industrial foundation, thereby expanding their own development space. Highway + distributed energy storage is a delicious "little cake" that the author accidentally noticed.

Policies support the development of distributed photovoltaic + energy storage + highways

In fact, the top leaders have long paid attention to the development niche of distributed photovoltaics + energy storage + highways and have made plans and layouts at the policy level.

On May 30, 2022, the Ministry of Transport issued the "Work Plan for Solidly Promoting the Implementation of Major Transportation Engineering Projects in the 14th Five-Year Plan", proposing that during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, with the focus on the power revolution of operating transportation vehicles and the construction and operation of low-carbon infrastructure, the effective support of transportation infrastructure for low-carbon development will be strengthened, and a number of "distributed new energy + energy storage + microgrid" smart energy system engineering projects will be built in scenarios such as highways and water service areas, ports and terminals, and hub stations; support will be given to the large-scale application of new energy and clean energy operating vehicles and ships.

In February this year, the "Key Points for National Highway Service Area Work in 2024" issued by the Ministry of Transport clearly stated that around the "dual carbon" goals, relevant work requirements for green and low-carbon development in the transportation and highway industries should be implemented, the construction of near-zero-carbon service areas should be promoted, and the construction of photovoltaic infrastructure in service areas should be promoted.

In response to the policies of the superior units, local governments have also begun to accelerate their layout. In May 2023, the Shandong Provincial Department of Transportation issued the "Key Points (Work Plan) for the Provincial Transportation Work in 2023", encouraging the rational layout of photovoltaic power generation and energy storage facilities in transportation hubs and along roads and railways, promoting the application of photovoltaic power generation on highway slopes, and comprehensively promoting the pilot construction of "zero-carbon" highway service areas.

In November 2023, the Shanxi Development and Reform Commission filed a 300MW distributed photovoltaic power generation project on Shanxi's expressways. It is reported that the total investment of the project is 142,011.55 million yuan, covering the entire province, and plans to use idle roofs and ground (buildings, roofs of structures, interchange hubs, slopes, tunnel isolation zones, service areas, toll stations, overload control stations and other idle sites) within the scope of Shanxi's expressways to build distributed photovoltaic power stations and their supporting energy storage charging pile facilities.

In March 2024, the Anhui Provincial Department of Transportation issued the "Approval on the Design Change of New Energy Supporting Facilities on the Road Area of Wuyue Expressway and 9 Other Projects", agreeing in principle to Anhui Transportation Investment Group's application for new photovoltaic power generation systems, charging piles and other new energy supporting facilities on the road area of 9 highway projects including Wuyue Expressway.

184,000 km of highways hold important development opportunities for solar-storage systems

While governments at all levels are vigorously supporting, industry insiders continue to be optimistic about the development prospects of distributed photovoltaic + energy storage + highways. An executive of an energy storage company shared: "The total mileage of China's highways has reached 184,000 kilometers, and with the rapid development and popularization of new energy vehicles, the capacity gap of charging stations on highways is gradually expanding. Installing energy storage equipment combined with photovoltaic self-use can effectively solve the problem of highway charging."

A staff member of a highway group said: "As an important traffic artery, highways have huge energy demands. Installing energy storage systems can not only improve the utilization rate of idle land and building resources along the highways, but also effectively enhance energy self-sufficiency, thereby reducing excessive dependence on external power grids."

The figure below briefly summarizes the application directions, specific advantages and typical cases of distributed photovoltaic + energy storage in highway scenarios.

Demand quickly opened up, with 23 transportation/highway groups taking the lead

As the demand for distributed photovoltaics + energy storage in highway scenarios rapidly expands, local transportation investment groups/highway groups with state-owned backgrounds have decisively entered the market.

The difficulty in unifying cross-provincial project standards has become a development problem

Unlike application scenarios such as commercial buildings and large industrial parks that are more easily affected by the market and users, distributed photovoltaic + energy storage + highway projects can mostly be combined with municipal and livelihood projects, thereby obtaining support from governments at all levels and providing guarantees for subsequent installation, operation and maintenance.

However, at present, there is a lack of unified national technical standards and specifications for the construction and application of distributed photovoltaic + energy storage + highways. This also leads to unclear standards and inconsistent technical requirements in project design, construction, acceptance and other links, which in turn affects the quality and safety of the project.

A staff member of an energy storage company said: "my country has a vast territory, and highways stretch for tens of thousands of kilometers, spanning different provinces, with different geographical environments and different standards in different provinces. This further increases the technical difficulty of implementing cross-regional projects."

An academic expert said: "Affected by the comprehensive 'involution' of the energy storage industry, the technical difficulties in the distributed photovoltaic + energy storage + highway scenario will not cause trouble for equipment companies. We should be able to find a solution soon. The current priority is how to achieve cross-provincial project standard unification."

An industry insider analyzed: "If we want to achieve unified standards for distributed photovoltaic + energy storage + highway projects across provinces, it is not only necessary for provinces to work together around the highway sections in their regions, but also for relevant companies to strengthen communication with the government, promptly feedback problems in the project construction process, and help governments at all levels to obtain detailed data in a timely manner and formulate more comprehensive project standards."