Works begin on 1.4 GWh Inner Mongolia project combining lithium-ion, redox flow storage technologies

Inner Mongolia Energy Group has launched construction works on a 605 MW/1,410 MWh energy storage power station in the Ulan Buh Desert, near Bayannur City, close to the border with the state of Mongolia, in a bid to support the large-scale development of renewable energy in the sunshine-rich autonomous region.

The facility represents the first phase of the Dengkou Renewable Energy Storage Project with a total scale of 1,000 MW/2,290 MWh and comes with a price tag of RMB 2.1 billion ($295 million).

The first-phase storage plant will feature a mix of energy storage chemistries, with 505 MW/1,010 MWh coming from lithium iron phosphate battery storage and 100 MW/400 MWh of all-vanadium liquid flow battery energy storage capacity.

The winning bidders for the lithium ion battery energy storage component of the project were announced on the day of the groundbreaking ceremony on September 5, with Xuji Electric ranked first among the bidders with a bid price of RMB 0.495/Wh ($0.070/Wh).

Billed as the largest single-capacity energy storage station under construction in China, the project is expected to be connected to the grid by the end of this year. Once complete, the storage system will largely supply green energy to Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei cluster.

Inner Mongolia is the province with the highest coal-operating capacity in China, but also ambitious plans to harness its abundant wind and solar power potential.

Earlier this year, China Three Gorges announced plans to build a 16 GW renewables cluster in the region to the tune of $11 billion, including 8 GW of solar, 4 GW of wind, a 200 MW solar thermal system, a 4 GW coal plant, and a 500 MWh energy storage system.