As the data center market continues to grow, the demand for data center backup batteries (UPS) has been boosted. According to the statistics from EnergyTrend of TrendForce, lead-acid batteries are still the bulk of backup batteries in data centers, but lithium-ion batteries have the advantages of long service life, fast charging and discharging speed, and small size, and are expected to gradually replace lead in the future. acid battery. In 2019, lithium batteries accounted for 12% of backup batteries in data centers, and it is expected to grow to 16% in 2020.
Lithium-ion battery total cost of ownership is better than lead-acid battery
Lead-acid batteries have a century-old development history and have long been widely used in various energy storage systems. Excluding new energy vehicles, the lead-acid battery market in 2019 exceeded 380GWh, of which starting lighting and ignition (SLI) and backup power (UPS) applications accounted for 92% and 75%, respectively ; The remaining applications are mostly small and medium-sized batteries such as nickel-metal hydride batteries or lithium-ion batteries due to product volume limitations. Although lead-acid batteries have the advantages of mature development and low initial purchase cost, the small discharge characteristics and frequent maintenance are still insurmountable problems.
In contrast, thanks to the rapid expansion of new energy vehicles, lithium batteries have gradually entered mass production, and prices and product technologies have also been gradually optimized due to the successive investment of manufacturers. Whether it is energy density, charging and discharging speed, and maturity of use experience, lithium-ion batteries have the opportunity to be introduced into more application fields.
From the perspective of total cost of ownership (TCO), lithium-ion batteries have a long service life and a high discharge ratio, while lead-acid batteries need to add a generator to the installation considering the endurance, so the cost competition is often lost due to the prolonged purchase time. Initial cost advantage. In addition, the use of lithium-ion battery solutions can effectively reduce the size of the backup power system, so it has recently been adopted by large data centers. TrendForce expects that with the gradual improvement of the cost-effectiveness of lithium-ion batteries, the proportion of backup battery applications will increase rapidly in the future.
Data center backup batteries are developing towards sharing
With the development of the server industry, the data storage configuration of data centers will develop from decentralization to sharing, and this shift trend will also drive the auxiliary backup battery function from single and decentralized to shared. In addition to being used as the backup power for the data center, the backup battery maintains the integrity and continuous transmission of data. In the future, under the grid structure, when the grid is overloaded and the backup power needs to be activated, the emergency backup power system of the large data center can effectively continue to generate electricity. . Although the current energy storage system of the power grid is mainly based on large-scale centralized battery systems, in the future, as the smart grid becomes more and more mature, the decentralization and sharing of energy storage is bound to become the future development direction.
