As the 15th Five-Year Plan begins, China’s energy storage industry is embracing a booming golden era.
After a decade of steady development, China’s energy storage sector has achieved a critical transformation: shifting from policy-driven to market-driven growth, and from mandatory allocation to real value creation. Energy storage has become an indispensable part of the new power system and a core driver of the global energy transition.
At the 14th International Energy Storage Summit, Chen Haisheng, Chairman of China Energy Storage Alliance (CNESA), noted that competition in 2026 will evolve from a single focus on hardware costs to multi-dimensional competition around full-lifecycle value creation.
New energy storage has been listed as one of China’s six strategic emerging pillar industries. It represents new quality productive forces for energy transition and serves as key infrastructure supporting global AI and large-scale computing power systems. The industry is entering a new stage of high-quality development focused on value restructuring, scenario innovation, and global win-win cooperation.
From Large-Scale Growth to Full-Scenario Penetration
During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, China’s energy storage industry grew far beyond expectations. By the end of 2025, the installed capacity of new energy storage reached 136 GW, up 84% year-on-year and over 40 times that of the 13th Five-Year Plan period, ranking first worldwide. The average duration rose to 2.58 hours, and equivalent utilization hours reached 1,195.
Energy storage has officially evolved from a demonstration auxiliary role to a main support pillar of the power system.
China’s energy storage technology has formed a multi-level development pattern:
- First tier: Pumped hydro storage and lithium-ion batteries in large-scale application
- Second tier: Compressed air, flow batteries, and thermal storage in rapid promotion
- Third tier: Sodium-ion batteries, flywheels, and supercapacitors moving from demonstration to commercial use
Energy storage is expanding into full-scenario applications, including independent energy storage stations, distributed PV-storage parks, intelligent computing centers, low-altitude economy, and port shore power. It has entered the “S+Energy Storage” era, upgrading from a single equipment to a system-level energy hub.
Core Challenges in the Deep Development Stage
Despite strong progress, the industry faces three key challenges:
- Imperfect market mechanisms: Continuous cost reduction brings profit pressure, requiring diversified revenue models.
- Safety and technical maturity: Full-chain safety supervision remains a top priority for large-scale integration.
- Supply chain and globalization barriers: The shift to regional security demands stronger overseas operation capabilities.
Full-Lifecycle Value Restructuring & Future Trends
In the next 5–10 years, energy storage will become a core part of national energy strategy. Key trends include:
- Full-lifecycle value evaluation: Focus shifts from equipment cost to comprehensive contributions across planning, operation, and decommissioning.
- Grid-forming & long-duration storage: Emerging to solve long-period power balance and enhance grid stability.
- AI + energy storage: Intelligent scheduling maximizes economic and operational value.
- Boom in AI data center storage: A trillion-yuan market supporting high-reliability power demand.
Industry forecasts show China’s cumulative installed capacity will exceed 370 GW by 2030. Supported by national policies, Chinese energy storage enterprises will upgrade from product exports to ecosystem-level globalization, including technology export, standard alignment, and localized services.
From quantitative expansion in the 14th Five-Year Plan to qualitative upgrading in the 15th, China’s energy storage industry is achieving a historic leap. 2026 marks a new milestone for China’s energy storage to mature and lead the global market.
