Portable power station – an emerging market segment for energy storage

1. Comparison of electrochemical energy storage application scenarios
2. Portable power station industry chain
   1. Upstream of portable power station
   2. Portable power station midstream
3. Portable power station industry development trend
4. The future of portable power station

Energy storage assists in increasing the stability of power systems and can be divided into portable, household, commercial and industrial, and grid-side by scenario. Among them, portable power station is an emerging market segment in recent years.

Portable power station’s power, referred to as outdoor power, is a small energy storage device with built-in lithium-ion batteries that replaces traditional small fuel generators, with high capacity, high power, safety and portability, and can provide a stable AC/DC voltage output power system.

Its battery capacity in 100Wh-3000Wh, with AC, DC, Type-C, USB, PD and other interfaces, support the mobile power scenario of cell phones, laptops, drones, refrigerators and other products charging, can match the market mainstream electronic equipment, while matching the use of photovoltaic panels can achieve the charging of energy storage devices.

Portable power station industry both growth and consumer attributes, the product in the use of experience and maintenance costs have obvious advantages. Its application scenarios are suitable for outdoor trips, emergency relief, medical rescue, outdoor work and other off-grid electricity needs, building a small micro-grid system, escorting the process of electrification.

From the distribution of portable power station sales in 2021, the United States is the world’s largest portable power station market, accounting for about 47.3%, the Japanese market accounted for about 29.6%, the two together accounted for more than 75%. China is the world’s main source of portable power station, accounting for 90% of worldwide production and shipments.

In 2021, the world’s portable power station products outdoor and emergency two areas of penetration rate of only 2.3% and 3.0%. The low penetration rate has a large room for improvement, and the high increase in demand brings growth attributes. According to the forecast, the world portable power station shipments and market size will reach 31.1 million units and 88.23 billion RMB respectively in 2026.

Comparison of electrochemical energy storage application scenarios

Compared with household storage, portable power station products have smaller capacity, but better portability. Home energy storage products are generally square in shape, connected to the power generation equipment, and fixed on the residential wall. portable power station products are generally box-shaped, with handles for easy lifting and moving.

Home energy storage products and portable power station products are mainly involved in the core, inverter, photovoltaic, BMS and other technical modules, the technical route is more interoperable, but in terms of cost, capacity, service life is different.

In terms of the differences between portable power station and household energy storage industry chain, there are differences in upstream component suppliers and downstream sales chain, but there is overlap in downstream application scenarios.

Portable power station industry chain

Upstream of portable power station

The upstream core products of portable power station are electric cells, inverters and photovoltaic power generation components, the midstream are manufacturers who design, develop and manufacture portable power station products, and the downstream are channel and brand operators.

Portable power station is mainly composed of batteries, energy storage converters, circuit boards and electronic components, housings, etc. Upstream link in the core, inverter and photovoltaic power generation with core technology barriers, the Chinese market supply is relatively adequate. The overall cost of cells and inverters account for more than 50%. Cells to cylindrical batteries, emphasizing the number of cycles, and product lightweighting drive the demand for large cells.

Cell trend, because the end product continues to intensive, lightweight evolution, the use of a single charge capacity of 2.8Ah above the high-capacity cells or will become the trend, compared to 2.5Ah below the low-capacity cells, high-capacity cells for the material system and product performance to put forward higher requirements, the selection criteria for cell suppliers to further enhance. Portable power station is expected to become the next important downstream application of cylindrical batteries, which is expected to drive 1.72 billion cells demand in 2025.

The cost side of the split to see, the core (34% of the cost), according to a single 2500mAh 18650 ternary cylindrical battery, 550Wh products need 61 cells, corresponding to 0.67 yuan / Wh. Energy storage converter (17% of the cost), the current 500W small energy storage converter unit price of 0.37 yuan / W.

Portable power station midstream

Portable power station industry chain midstream for the design, development, manufacture of portable power station products manufacturers, the industry self-production and OEM two forms are more common. And there is an odm best lithium battery manufacturer – TYCORUN Energy, who has more than 10-year experience of portable power station. And TYCORUN Energy is a undoubtedly a good choice.

Portable power station products development time is relatively short, many companies are from the battery class enterprises, power supply class enterprises and rechargeable treasure production enterprises based on its technical basis of transformation, the current low-end enterprise small capacity products are mostly, mostly to low price competition way into the market. Product homogenization competition is fierce, product quality and price varies.

Portable power station layout of earlier enterprises in the brand, the channel has a more significant moat, with a high product premium capacity.
At present, many Chinese companies have turned into this industry, the industry competition may intensify in the short term. From the revenue caliber, the top five companies in the portable power station industry occupy about 50% of the world’s market share.

Four of them are Chinese companies, and GoalZero has the largest market share, which is mainly OEM by China’s Haopeng Technology and Boliwei. 2020, in terms of shipments, Huabao New Energy has the largest market share (market share of 16.6%), followed by Zhenghao Technology (market share of 6.3%). Major Chinese manufacturers also include companies such as Anker Innovation and Painan Technology.

Brand owners of portable power station products face end-consumers and have high profit margins. Brand owners mainly adopt the M2C business model, i.e., the manufacturer directly to consumers to provide products, which can deeply investigate market demand and consumer preferences, reduce intermediate links, reduce channel costs, and quickly respond to user demand, thus creating value.

Portable power station industry development trend

Portable power station products to safety and convenience as the core, with the industry technology continues to upgrade and update, the capacity of portable power station products gradually improve. According to data, in 2016 the product capacity of more than 1000Wh product sales accounted for 3.0%, rising to 10.3% in 2021.

The new energy storage is of great significance to achieve the double carbon target, has a guiding role in the development of portable power station industry, has an important and far-reaching significance to the improvement of energy storage technology, and has become a strong driving force for the rapid development of the portable power station industry.

The future of portable power station

Portable power station power, referred to as outdoor power. It is an alternative to the traditional small fuel generator, built-in lithium-ion battery small energy storage equipment, the main use of scenarios including outdoor trips, emergency relief, medical rescue, outdoor work, etc.

At the same time, the transformation of outdoor activities, self-driving tours, camping, picnics, photography and other outdoor consumption upgrades, outdoor power supply has become the mainstream of short-distance electricity consumption. Demand-side growth has driven the development of the portable power station industry, with a bright future.

Solar panels are important supporting products for portable power station products, through photovoltaic power station can further improve its range. In recent years, the cost of photovoltaic products significantly reduced, and with the development of large silicon wafers, double-sided, stacked tile technology, will further improve the efficiency of photovoltaic power generation and reduce costs.

As an important supporting product for portable power station products, the progress of photovoltaic technology will also be conducive to the popularity of portable power station products.

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