The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that global total energy investment will reach USD 3.4 trillion in 2026, of which USD 2.2 trillion will flow into clean energy sectors including wind power, solar PV, energy storage and hydrogen energy. These sectors have become a key direction for the global rollout of a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation. On one hand, global electricity demand keeps rising, and new scenarios such as artificial intelligence and data centers generate massive new load demand. On the other hand, the installed capacity of renewables including wind and solar PV has climbed year after year, and their intermittency and volatility bring new challenges to the stable operation of power grids. To turn green power into truly reliable power supply, energy storage facilities are required to deliver critical flexibility and regulatory support for power systems.
Global energy storage battery shipments hit 550 GWh in 2025 and reached 461.3 GWh in H1 2026, a year-on-year increase of 71%. The IEA forecasts that energy storage installed capacity is likely to multiply in the coming years. Driven by rising demand, China’s new energy storage industry has drawn attention from the global energy community. According to market research firm SNE Research, CATL held a 30.4% global market share in energy storage battery shipments in 2025, ranking No.1 worldwide for five consecutive years. The 2026 World Energy Storage Conference was held in Ningde City, Fujian Province from October 14 to 16. Known as China’s "Capital of New Energy Batteries", Ningde adheres to the strategy of "supporting leading enterprises, building industrial chains and fostering clusters". With CATL as the anchor, the city has attracted nearly 100 industrial chain projects to form a full industrial chain layout. It has built platforms including national engineering research centers, intellectual property protection centers and operation centers, launched the "Sandu’ao Talent Program" and the "Talent-Driven Industrial Chain Initiative", gathering roughly half of China’s PhD talents in the lithium battery sector. Over more than a decade, the improvement of the city’s industrial ecosystem has supported enterprises in lifting global competitiveness, while the growth of leading enterprises has expanded the city’s industrial cluster. Ningde and CATL have achieved mutually reinforced and integrated development.
Energy storage serves as vital support to address the challenges of global energy transition. CATL is putting this into practice, spearheading the "system-level overseas deployment" of energy storage and accelerating global energy transition.
Profound shifts in the global power supply-demand landscape unlock sustained system-level demand for energy storage
CATL’s system-level overseas rollout of energy storage is rooted in profound changes in the global power supply-demand balance. Tightening global power supply and demand continues to release system-level demand for energy storage.
On the demand side, global power consumption is undergoing structural growth. Rapid AI development has made data centers major power consumers. Higher penetration of new energy and frequent extreme weather have driven fast-growing demand for flexible regulatory resources in power systems, while electricity demand in emerging markets keeps climbing. Electricity has become a rigid global necessity.
On the supply side, stable power supply faces multiple headwinds. Turbulent geopolitics amplify uncertainty over the price and supply of fossil fuels, and some countries are once again confronted with power shortages. Globally, 655 million people still lack access to electricity. Even in electrified regions, aging power grids and insufficient regulation capacity remain prevalent. The rapid expansion of wind and solar PV installed capacity imposes higher requirements on grid regulation capabilities due to their intermittency and volatility.
In the past, energy storage facilities were mostly treated as auxiliary equipment for new energy power generation, tasked only with smoothing fluctuations and curbing wind and solar curtailment without active grid support functions. Industrial competitiveness was mainly reflected in storage containers and battery cells. Today, combined shifts on both supply and demand sides require energy storage facilities to operate as independent power stations to participate in grid peak shaving, frequency regulation, standby capacity and demand response while coordinating with power grids. Links beyond battery cells, including power conversion, thermal management, relay protection and dispatch communication, must operate in synergy.
Evolving from auxiliary facilities for renewable power generation to key regulating resources for power systems, energy storage installations have become an integral part of global energy infrastructure. The capability of system-level delivery has emerged as a major metric for measuring the competitiveness of the energy storage industry.
Exporting energy storage products from "containers" to "power stations": CATL delivers system-level solutions
Recently, South Africa’s Hydra solar-storage hybrid project was commissioned as Africa’s largest mixed renewable energy project. Equipped with a 216 MW solar PV plant and roughly 588 MWh energy storage system, the project adopted CATL’s holistic solution, with 158 Tianheng energy storage systems, integrated PCS (Power Conversion System) equipment and a whole-site energy management system delivered by CATL.
The value of "system-level delivery" is especially prominent under strict performance obligations. Under the 20-year power purchase agreement with South Africa’s state utility Eskom, the project must supply 75 MW of dispatchable power continuously from 05:00 to 21:30 every day. The energy storage system is only charged by the on-site PV without grid power supplementation, and grid-connection power output is capped in compliance with grid requirements. CATL leverages its 3S integrated solution to coordinate energy management and power control, translating equipment performance into advantages for the entire power station. The project is expected to deliver over 400 million kWh of clean electricity per year, equivalent to the annual power consumption of around 200,000 local households.
Behind "system-level delivery" lies continuously upgraded product capabilities: precise matching of software and hardware that converts performance strengths into whole-station efficiency and long-term value. Built upon high-quality battery cells, CATL’s Tianheng energy storage system adopts an integrated design combining battery management, thermal management, power conversion and grid interaction. It interconnects AC and DC software systems to achieve deep coordination.
Battery unit delivery is measured in months, while power station delivery takes years. It requires full-chain coordination covering design, supply, construction & commissioning and grid-connection acceptance, as well as adaption to local grid conditions, climate environments and regulatory frameworks across countries. What CATL supplies globally is no longer components, but complete power stations ready for grid connection. Supported by deep system integration and full-lifecycle services, CATL drives the system-level global expansion of energy storage.
Sustained innovation fuels high-quality development; technological strength underpins overseas competitive edges
The Outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan sets out arrangements to reinforce enterprises as the main players in scientific and technological innovation. CATL’s pioneering success in system-level overseas expansion stems from its long-term technology accumulation.
R&D investment lays the foundation. In 2025, CATL’s R&D spending reached RMB 22.147 billion, with cumulative investment exceeding RMB 100 billion over the past decade. This has enabled the company to gain scientific understanding of battery mechanisms and independent control over technical routes. CATL has reduced the single-cell failure rate to the ppb level (parts per billion). A 1 GWh energy storage station integrates hundreds of thousands or even millions of cells, and cell consistency is essential to sustain long-term reliable operation of the whole station. The latest patent data shows that among global battery manufacturers, CATL ranks first with 26,574 patent applications filed in the past decade.
Meanwhile, for energy storage’s system-level global expansion, translating technological advantages into engineering capacity is a prerequisite for whole-station delivery.
In May this year, the Xiamen Energy Storage Empirical Research Institute invested RMB 3 billion by CATL was officially launched. As the world’s largest and most comprehensive full-scenario verification platform for energy storage systems, it verifies laboratory indicators repeatedly under real climate and grid conditions to feed insights back into product design, extending capabilities from battery expertise to grid connection and AC-side control. CATL has independently developed energy storage PCS (power conversion system), EMS (energy management system), BMS (battery management system) and TMS (thermal management system). It incorporates grid-forming control and system verification into its technical architecture to realize deep coordination between battery data and AC-side control capabilities. This closed loop of "R&D – verification – delivery" makes CATL an industry pioneer and further strengthens its overseas competitiveness.
From individual cells to complete power stations, and from product sales to system delivery, CATL participates in global energy infrastructure construction through system-level overseas deployment of energy storage, offering a replicable Chinese enterprise solution for global energy transition.
