A 30-fold surge in five years: Behind the high growth of China's new energy storage

"China has become an important engine for global energy storage development. The new energy revolution has entered the second half with energy storage as the key support." On September 17, Zeng Yujun, the founder and chairman of CATL, said at the 2025 World Energy Storage Conference.

Today, China firmly holds the top position as the world's largest new energy storage market. As of the first half of 2025, the national new energy storage installed capacity exceeded 95 million kilowatts, growing more than 30 times in just five years.

Against the backdrop of the steady growth of installed capacity, continuous technological iteration, and the continuous expansion of application scenarios, promoting the industry's transformation from high - speed growth to high - quality and sustainable development has become a key task during the 15th Five - Year Plan period.

Behind the rapid development of the industry, many problems have also emerged. Phenomena such as potential safety hazards, vicious price competition, false parameter labeling, technological homogenization, and low - level redundant construction have gradually become prominent, restricting the high - quality and sustainable development of the industry.

At this World Energy Storage Conference, Zeng Yujun proposed that an industrial ecosystem guided by safety, authenticity, and innovation should be built to break the vicious involution in the industry and promote the high - quality development of energy storage.

Zeng Yujun, Founder and Chairman of CATL. Source: 2025 World Energy Storage Conference

Under the "Blowout" of the Energy Storage Industry: High Growth and Hidden Concerns Coexist

During the 14th Five - Year Plan period, with policy support, China's new energy storage installed capacity and technological innovation achieved significant breakthroughs.

In terms of policies, new energy storage was written into the government work report for the first time in 2024, and the Energy Law officially implemented in the same year further clarified its legal status. According to incomplete statistics, a total of 770 energy - storage - related policies were issued from the central to local governments throughout the year.

The installed capacity has continued to grow at a high speed. According to Hu Ming, the general manager of the Electric Power Planning and Engineering Institute, as of July 2025, the national new energy storage installed capacity reached 96.68 million kilowatts, and the total energy storage reached 226 million kilowatt - hours. In 2024, the average utilization hours of new energy storage increased to 911 hours, a significant year - on - year increase, playing a key role in power supply guarantee and new energy consumption.

Technological innovation has achieved global leadership. The National Energy Administration promoted 56 new energy storage pilot demonstration projects, covering 9 technological routes such as compressed air energy storage, flow batteries, and flywheel energy storage. The industry has made multiple breakthroughs in key areas: 1175 - ampere - hour large - capacity cells have been mass - produced, the cycle life of cells has exceeded 15,000 times, semi - solid - state batteries have entered the small - batch production stage, the technology of all - solid - state batteries has been continuously iterated, the system cost has decreased by more than 15%, driving direct industrial investment of more than 300 billion yuan.

Despite the remarkable achievements, the new energy storage industry faces severe challenges during its high - growth period. At the 2025 World Energy Storage Conference, Zeng Yujun pointed directly at the five major pain points in the industry: safety risks, vicious price wars, parameter fraud, technological homogenization, and disorderly expansion.

Energy storage safety is the core pain point. As of May 2025, there have been 167 publicly reported energy storage safety accidents globally. As the frequency of use increases, the risks continue to accumulate.

The vicious price competition has intensified. It is reported that the price of energy storage systems has dropped by about 80% in three years. Recently, the winning bid price of a certain centralized procurement project was even lower than 0.4 yuan per watt - hour, seriously deviating from the cost. Vicious low prices lead to reduced configuration and quality, leaving safety hazards. The price war has spread overseas, resulting in shrinking corporate gross margins and being unsustainable.

False parameter labeling has become an "unspoken rule" in the industry. "The actual lifespan of some projects is less than 25% of the promised value, seriously damaging the industry's reputation," Zeng Yujun said. In addition, there are more than 300,000 registered enterprises related to energy storage in the country. Behind the boom of "everyone doing energy storage", there are risks of low - level redundant construction and future "orphan power stations".

Meanwhile, the current new energy power system still faces severe challenges in consumption. Zhao Tianshou, the dean of the Institute of Carbon Neutral Energy at Southern University of Science and Technology, pointed out that although the cost of wind and solar power generation is lower than that of coal - fired power and the installed capacity exceeds that of coal - fired power, due to its "uncontrollability", the average curtailment rate of wind and solar power nationwide is 5%, and in some areas, it even exceeds 30%. As a result, the actual power generation is significantly lower than the installed capacity.

He believes that the lack of "long - duration energy storage" technology capable of meeting cross - day, cross - week, or even cross - season regulation is the root cause of the current problem. Facing this challenge, he proposed that developing high - safety, economically feasible, and resource - accessible long - duration energy storage technology is the key to breaking the bottleneck of large - scale utilization of new energy.

Facing the current challenges, the industry unanimously calls for the construction of a new industrial ecosystem guided by safety, authenticity, and innovation. Su Bo, the former deputy secretary of the Leading Party Members' Group and vice - minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, also pointed out that systematic problems such as technological homogenization, imperfect market mechanisms, and insufficient safety supervision should be solved.

In February 2025, the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration jointly issued the "Notice on Deepening the Market - Oriented Reform of New Energy On - Grid Electricity Prices to Promote the High - Quality Development of New Energy" (hereinafter referred to as "Document No. 136"), marking that the energy storage industry has entered a new stage of full - scale marketization.

In response to the above document, on September 18, the participants at the 2025 Energy Storage Conference reached a consensus: "Document No. 136" cancels the mandatory energy storage allocation. In the short term, the "crazy growth" of the industry has been put on "pause", but in the long run, it is conducive to forcing the industry to move towards high - quality development.

Aiming at the Goal of 300 Million Kilowatts, Promoting High - Quality Transformation

Looking forward to the 15th Five - Year Plan period, new energy storage will enter a critical stage of achieving high - quality transformation. During this stage, 300 million kilowatts has become a "key figure".

According to the "Special Action Plan for the Large - Scale Construction of New Energy Storage (2025 - 2027)", by 2027, the target for China's new energy storage installed capacity is more than 180 million kilowatts. At the same time, the "Development Roadmap for New Energy Storage Technology (2025 - 2035)" further proposes that by 2030, the new energy storage installed capacity is expected to exceed 240 million kilowatts, and by 2035, it will reach 300 million kilowatts.

At the 2025 World Energy Storage Conference, Hu Ming pointed out that the 15th Five - Year Plan period is a critical period for planning and building a new energy system, accelerating the construction of a new power system, and achieving carbon peak. New energy storage is the most important development support.

"As an important component of the four elements of the source - grid - load - storage in the new power system, the large - scale development of energy storage is the most important symbol of the construction of the new power system. Compared with the scale of the source, grid, and load, the scale of energy storage determines the development quality of new energy during the 15th Five - Year Plan period, affects the safe operation level of the power grid, and is also related to the quality and economy of energy use on the consumer side." Hu Ming emphasized.

He pointed out that energy storage on the power generation side is an important means to improve the system energy density. Especially in the scenario of external transmission of new energy bases, during the 15th Five - Year Plan period, the proportion of clean energy is required to be no less than 60%, which is a significant increase compared with the 14th Five - Year Plan period, and the scale of new energy storage to be configured will also further increase.

Hu Ming further said that the coordinated development of energy storage on the power generation side, grid side, and load side should be promoted in a coordinated manner, the leading role of scientific and technological innovation in industrial innovation should be continuously strengthened, the market and price mechanisms should be improved, and the high - quality development of new energy storage should be actively promoted.

The global energy storage market also has broad space. "In the past five years, the cumulative installed capacity of global new energy storage has increased by 11 times. According to the data from the United Nations Climate Conference, to achieve the goal of tripling the share of renewable energy by 2030, the global cumulative installed capacity of energy storage needs to reach 1.5 terawatts, of which battery energy storage needs to reach 1.2 terawatts, which means a six - fold increase on the current basis," Zeng Yujun said.

To achieve these goals, the industry must shift from pursuing scale to focusing on quality and safety. As Zeng Yujun called for, the safety bottom line should be adhered to, an evaluation system based on empirical evidence should be established, intellectual property protection should be strengthened, and the application of cutting - edge technologies should be promoted. Through the collaboration of the entire industrial chain and the dual - wheel drive of the government and the market, new energy storage can truly undertake the historical mission of supporting energy transformation and building a new power system.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Financial Auto", author: Wang Xin, Zhao Cheng. Republished by 36Kr with permission.