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Have you ever seen energy storage suspended mid-air? Above Zhangjiakou's wind farms, rows of ‘gravity weights’ resemble giant dumbbells. When turbines generate excess power, motors hoist these weights to 120-metre heights; when electricity is needed, hooks release them to plummet down, driving generators for secondary power generation. The entire system responds in 0.1 seconds—faster than you could scan a QR code. Engineers quip: This turns wind into “muscle”—one lift of iron generates one kilowatt-hour."

Imagine if your salary was paid daily, but you only needed money once a month. What would you do? Wouldn’t you need a “bank” to store it for you and release it when you need it? Energy storage technology is the “bank” for electricity, enabling it to be stored and released just like money.

Energy storage, as its name suggests, is the temporary storage of various forms of energy, such as electricity and heat, and then release them when needed. It is like a magical ‘energy box’, which can ‘eat’ into the energy when energy is abundant, and then ‘spit’ out when energy is tight or needed. Doesn't this sound like a scene from a science fiction film? But in fact, this is already a real part of our lives!

When it comes to energy storage, electrochemical energy storage has to be mentioned. Among them, lithium-ion batteries are currently the ‘star of the show’. It is like a high energy density, light weight, small size of the ‘small hand’, widely used in consumer electronics, new energy vehicles and energy storage field. However, lithium-ion batteries also have their own ‘temperament’, such as safety challenges, thermal runaway is the focus of research.

The energy storage industry has always played a role around us, but many people have not noticed. Imagine when the sun goes down and the solar panels stop generating electricity, or when the wind stops blowing and the wind turbines stop rotating, what happens to the equipment that originally relied on renewable energy? That's where energy storage systems come in. It's like a supercharger, storing energy when it's plentiful and releasing it when it's needed to ensure a stable energy supply. This technology is used in a wide range of applications, from small storage devices in homes, to large-scale grid storage systems, to battery technology in electric vehicles.

Imagine how convenient it would be if electricity could be charged and used at any time like a mobile phone. Energy storage technology is such a ‘supercharger’. It can be stored when there is an excess of power and released when there is a shortage of power, solving the limitations of instant power.