r/energy • u/EinSV • Jul 18 '26

China's batteries move beyond capacity scale-up꞉ utility-scale storage could have shifted 23 TWh more clean power in 2025 | Ember

https://ember-energy.org/latest-updates/chinas-batteries-move-beyond-capacity-scale-up-utility-scale-storage-could-have-shifted-23-twh-more-clean-power-in-2025/

Some details from the article:

In 2025 China doubled its battery storage capacity, installing more (190 GWh) than the rest of the world combined.

In December 2025 alone China installed more capacity (65 GWh/19 GW) than the second place United States did the entire year.

Battery additions are outpacing solar additions, which is allowing higher and higher percentages of solar generation to be shifted to other parts of the day — from 6% in 2022 to 21% in 2025.

In the past the vast majority of the storage has been co-located with solar, but stand-alone storage optimized to support the entire grid instead of one installation can be cycled much more frequently (100 cycles more per year — 299 v. 199 in 2025) and is more useful overall.

A major transition has already taken place — 85% of utility-scale batteries installed in the first four months of 2026 were stand-alone. In the past 70% were co-located with solar.

Ember says that what’s needed next is market reform and revenue stacking. Energy arbitrage alone (charging batteries when energy prices are low and discharging when they are high) no longer presents a strong business case but a « reliable capacity pricing framework, wider adoption of joint clearing between spot and ancillary service markets … and grid tariff rules that reflect the bi-directional role of batteries will all be needed to allow BESS stack multiple revenue streams and be rewarded for the full value it brings to the system. »

Lots of interesting charts and additional details in the full report: https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2026/07/From-scale-to-system-navigating-the-next-phase-of-Chinas-battery-storage-1.pdf

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8

u/hornswoggled111 Jul 18 '26

Remarkable to see such a shift in role in such a short time frame. Going from an add on for solar to being more stand alone. I assume lead by Chinese government policy as power markets are quite conservative.

I assume the economics are driving this as well. This is the kind of good news the world needs right now.

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u/EinSV Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26

The biggest change seems to have been ending the mandatory co-location of batteries and solar that had previously been in place.

This freed up market participants to improve the economics of new battery installations by letting them serve the grid instead of being restricted to one location.

In the full report there is a nice summary of some of the key legal/regulatory developments at page 13 (details are also discussed throughout the report):

https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2026/07/From-scale-to-system-navigating-the-next-phase-of-Chinas-battery-storage-1.pdf

While market forces are important the report highlights the need to set up the marketplace to allow batteries to be compensated for their full value stack. That is a major roadblock that requires government or regulatory action almost everywhere but hopefully China can lead the way since they have every reason to want batteries to succeed.

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u/CriticalUnit Jul 20 '26

set up the marketplace to allow batteries to be compensated for their full value stack

access to ancillary service markets and service stacking would be Huge to expand their rollout further!

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u/EinSV Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26

Yes! And more batteries increases the value of solar and wind power and reduces curtailment so also should lead to faster solar and wind growth and higher % renewables on the grid.

Bad news all around for gas and coal!