Thereis a huge demand for replacement of LiFePO4 battery packs in tower basestations. The maintenance manager of China Tower told reporters thatXishuangbanna ’s power infrastructure is backward, and due to the weather, thebase station has frequent power outages, leading to severe attenuation oflead-acid battery capacity and generally short cycle life. This year, our newbase stations are all LiFePO4 for energy storage. Battery pack. This provesthat the base station will widely use lithium battery packs.
DevelopmentBackground of China Railway Station
Withthe advent of the post 4G and 5G era, the density of mobile communication basestations has increased and the number has increased exponentially. If a largenumber of new communication tower base stations are built in accordance withthe traditional construction method, not only will the industry's investmentpressure be huge, but the environment will also be unbearable. At the same time,post 4G and 5G base stations tend to be small and miniaturized, and varioustransportation, municipal, police, power, and other tower resources can beslightly modified to meet the requirements for mounting communicationsequipment, such as full integration and shared use. , Not only can greatlyreduce the construction cost, quickly meet the 5G network deploymentrequirements, but also in line with the concept of green development.
Fora long time, the tower's base station backup power supply mainly uses lead-acidbatteries, and about 100,000 tons of lead-acid batteries are purchased eachyear. Lead-acid batteries have the disadvantages of short service life, lowperformance, and a large amount of heavy metal lead. Improper handling afterdisposal will cause secondary pollution to the environment. To this end, ChinaTower changed to LiFePO4 battery packs, and vigorously promoted the use oflithium battery packs.
Thereis a huge demand for replacement of energy storage LiFePO4 battery packs intower base stations
Withthe increasing pressure on environmental protection and the national policy'spolicy-oriented support for lithium battery packs, coupled with the continuoushigh-voltage governance and supervision of the lead-acid battery industry inrecent years, the current lead-acid battery market continues to weaken.Although the lead-acid battery industry has undergone a series of reforms inrecent years, the industry reshuffle has accelerated, but the emergence ofLiFePO4 batteries has begun to erode the market share of lead-acid batteries.
ChinaTower has a huge demand for energy storage lithium battery packs, with lithiumbatteries accounting for about 2%; the lithium battery recycling utilization isalready in the pilot phase of expansion. The person in charge of CTECHI saidthat the prelude to the replacement of lead-acid batteries by lithium batterypacks in China's communication base stations has just begun. At this time, thespeed of advancement is basically determined by "price." Onlycompanies with a low price of BMS can guarantee their lasting participation.
Itis understood that China Iron Tower Co., Ltd. has stopped purchasing lead-acidbatteries in 2018, and unified the procurement ladder to use energy storageLiFePO4 battery packs as its base station backup power. By the end of 2018,approximately 1.5 GWh of staircase batteries had been used in approximately120,000 base stations in 31 provinces and cities nationwide, replacingapproximately 45,000 tons of lead-acid batteries. China Tower, one of the keyunits in the trial of new energy vehicle power battery recycling, will have agood demonstration effect on the large-scale use of retired lithium batterypacks.
Inaddition, according to the plan of the Tower Company, in 2019 it will continueto expand the scale of the use of the battery for step-up use. It is estimatedthat the use of the step-up battery will be about 5GWh, and the replacement oflead-acid batteries will be about 150,000 tons. 150 recycling service outletswere established in 17 provinces and municipalities, and various applicationmodes such as integrated backup power solutions were developed to break througha number of key common technologies such as residual value assessment and rapiddetection, and to improve and optimize the technical standard specificationsystem.
Whatare the benefits of using lithium batteries in tower base stations?
1.In terms of environmental protection, lithium battery packs have naturaladvantages. The materials used in LiFePO4 batteries do not containcontaminating metals, such as harmful heavy metal substances such as cadmium,lead, and mercury. There are no pollutants generated during the production anduse of lithium batteries.
2,from the perspective of electrical performance, lithium battery packscomprehensively exceed lead-acid batteries. The LiFePO4 battery has excellentcycle life, high temperature characteristics, charge-discharge rateperformance, and energy density, which are far superior to lead-acid batteries.
3.The excellent high temperature characteristics of lithium batteries can reducethe air conditioning configuration and power consumption of base stations.After the lithium battery is stolen, the recycling value is not great. Becauseof the existence of a battery management system, it cannot be used directly,reducing the risk of theft of the backup power supply.
4.Lead-acid batteries have the disadvantages of occupying a large area, heavyweight, and high load bearing requirements, and it is increasingly difficult tomeet the requirements of small space scenarios. The LiFePO4 battery has anenergy density that is 2 to 4 times that of a lead-acid battery, and isparticularly suitable for use in the above environment.
Inthe future, with the development of electric vehicles and the communicationenergy storage industry, the application of lithium battery packs will continueto scale, and prices will become lower and more competitive. Along with thelarge-scale production of energy storage LiFePO4 batteries and the continuousdecline in cost, lithium batteries will play an increasingly important role inthe field of communications backup power.