Pathways for Enhancing Energy Efficiency in Smart Manufacturing of Energy Storage Systems
On December 9, the three-day High-Tech Energy Storage Annual Conference convened in Shenzhen, bringing together enterprises across the entire industry chain to explore development trends for 2025.
Zheng Ting, General Manager of the Marketing Center at SKQ, was invited to attend and deliver a keynote speech. Addressing the current market realities of “long-duration energy storage demand” and the “chip shortage crisis,” he systematically outlined SKQ’s core strategies for enhancing energy storage manufacturing efficiency.
Part 01
Energy efficiency emerges as a core metric: an inevitable choice for industrial transformation
Against the current industry backdrop, energy efficiency has become a core metric in energy storage manufacturing. This proposition stems from three definitive transformations the sector is undergoing:
First, market explosion is driving scale expansion. Annual energy storage shipments are projected to grow by 80% year-on-year, while the 15th Five-Year Plan sets a clear target of 180 gigawatts for new energy storage installations by 2027, signaling an unstoppable industry surge.
Second, scale expansion triggers efficiency bottlenecks. Leading manufacturers are planning production capacities of 50-100 GWh, with the top five companies (CR5) controlling over 70% of the market. This intensifies pressure for economies of scale. The surge in equipment and tightening manufacturing processes pose extreme challenges to production line coordination stability and Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE).
Third, technological iteration is squeezing manufacturing margins. As cell unit prices continue to decline, the dual demands for long-duration energy storage and cost reduction are simultaneously driving energy storage cells toward ever-greater capacities—rapidly expanding from 314Ah and 587Ah at the beginning of the year to over 1000Ah. The dual constraints of cost and performance are compelling the manufacturing sector to undergo an efficiency revolution to reconstruct value.
Part 02
A multidimensional approach to comprehensively address three major challenges
“The essence of energy storage manufacturing upgrades lies in solving three core challenges: scaling up, heavy-load capacity, and flexibility.” Zheng Ting pointed out the industry’s pain points. “SKQ’s solution isn’t about single-point optimization but building a multi-dimensional, integrated technological pathway.”
Spatial Reconfiguration: Solving the Twin Challenges of “Size” and “Weight”
To address large cells and heavy loads, an innovative dual-path approach combines “drag chains + aerial transport.” Drag chains reduce handling costs, while gantry trusses with 3D vision positioning enable precise, flexible positioning of heavy components—overcoming the high costs and limited flexibility of traditional solutions.
Logical Reconfiguration: Addressing Flexibility Demands
Facing coexisting multi-brand, multi-specification cells, equipment compatibility with 3-5 blueprints has become essential. SKQ proposes a hybrid model of “core process automation paired with manual critical stations,” ensuring production flexibility while maintaining quality standards.
Vertical Integration for Comprehensive Efficiency Enhancement
SKQ’s “three-dimensional integration” manifests as vertical connectivity spanning equipment, production lines, and factories: Equipment level achieves large-size compatibility and stable heavy-load handling; Production line level integrates management and control through AI-driven digital applications; Factory level establishes a 260,000-square-meter demonstration plant in Ningde, quadrupling production capacity.
This represents a multidimensional upgrade pathway: leveraging intelligent equipment as the hardware foundation, enabling data integration and dynamic optimization through digital empowerment, and ultimately achieving green manufacturing. This transforms energy efficiency improvements from isolated enhancements into comprehensive system-wide upgrades.
This approach has been validated on the production line of a leading energy storage enterprise: achieving 70% automation, a high-speed cycle rate of 24 ppm, and compatibility with 3-5 battery cell blueprints. This fully demonstrates that the challenges of “large, heavy, and flexible” are not insurmountable.
Part 03
Triple Value Proposition: SKQ’s Industrial Commitment
At the conclusion of his speech, Zheng Ting reaffirmed SKQ’s industrial mission through three core value propositions:
Upholding safety standards through reliability and stability. SKQ treats equipment reliability as an absolute non-negotiable baseline. Through in-depth exploration across design, manufacturing processes, assembly, and digital control systems, we ensure equipment stability under heavy-load and continuous operating conditions, laying a secure foundation for the large-scale development of the energy storage industry.
Boosting product yield through superior inspection efficiency. SKQ’s online CT inspection equipment employs proprietary Overhang and Gap detection algorithms to precisely identify cell defects, while also delivering significant advantages in raw material and component inspection.
Closing the investment return loop with enhanced energy efficiency. SKQ pursues not only optimal single-machine energy consumption but also deeply integrates production line and factory operational efficiency. By optimizing layouts and enhancing Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), it shortens the investment payback period, ensuring every investment translates into competitive advantage.
Facing the market reality where “capacity equals output,” SKQ stands ready to leverage intelligent equipment and digital empowerment to jointly safeguard the rapid expansion and high-quality development of the energy storage industry with industry partners.