1、 The booming development of industrial technology
During the 14th Five Year Plan period, China's energy storage industry achieved leapfrog growth. As of the first half of this year, the cumulative installed capacity of new energy storage reached 101.3GW, breaking through 100GW for the first time, which is 32 times that of the end of the 13th Five Year Plan period.
In the first half of this year, 23.03GW/56.12GWh of new energy storage was put into operation, with a year-on-year increase of 68% in both power and energy scale. ”As of the end of June this year, the cumulative installed capacity of China's power storage has reached 164.3GW, a year-on-year increase of 59%.
Of particular note is that the proportion of pumped storage has dropped below 40% for the first time, marking a historic leap for new energy storage.
Xu Ziming, Director of the Energy Efficiency and Energy Storage Department of the Energy Conservation and Technology Equipment Department of the National Energy Administration, pointed out that since the 14th Five Year Plan, China's new energy storage has developed rapidly. As of the first half of this year, the cumulative installed capacity of new energy storage in the country has increased by about 29% compared to the end of 2024, accounting for over 40% of the global total installed capacity. In terms of technological innovation, a variety of new energy storage technologies are emerging, with lithium-ion battery energy storage technology constantly iterating and upgrading. Key energy storage technologies such as compressed air energy storage, flow batteries, and sodium ion batteries are also further commercialized, and innovative technologies such as gravity liquid carbon dioxide are constantly being implemented.
Chinese energy storage companies have added 163 GWh of overseas orders, a year-on-year increase of 246%, involving over 50 overseas enterprises and covering more than 50 countries and regions worldwide.
2、 Market demand continues to be strong
The current new energy storage market is entering a period of concentrated demand explosion, and its popularity is not only reflected in the surge of data, but also permeates into various dimensions of industrial structure, product iteration, and practical applications.
This can be seen from the tremendous changes in application structure. In the first half of this year, new energy storage has shifted from user side dominance (accounting for 35%) to independent energy storage dominance, with the proportion of independent energy storage soaring to 55%. Behind this structural leap is the market's recognition and concentrated release of demand for the independent value of energy storage.
The three major characteristics of the energy storage market pattern further confirm the strong demand trend: firstly, the trend of large-scale projects is extremely significant, with a year-on-year increase of up to 75% for projects above 100MW, and the intensive landing of large projects directly reflects the surge in demand for large-scale energy storage; Secondly, the regional distribution shows a high degree of concentration, with the top ten provinces accounting for over 80% of the total installed capacity. The strong performance of the six western provinces highlights the rigid demand for new energy bases and energy storage facilities; The third is the rapid increase in industry concentration, with the top ten homeowners accounting for nearly 50% of the total. Central enterprises represented by State Power Investment Corporation and State Energy Group are accelerating their layout and becoming the core force driving market demand.
According to WXERA, in the first half of this year, the bidding scale of energy storage systems surged by 264% year-on-year, reaching 86.2 GWh, reflecting the sustained strong market demand.

At present, the upgrade cycle of battery cell capacity is continuously compressed from 280Ah to 600Ah, and enterprises are accelerating the landing of technology to seize market share. Whether 500Ah and above energy storage products can become mainstream in the market remains to be tested by the market.
In practical applications, the demand value of energy storage is pushed to new heights. According to statistics from the National Energy Administration, in the first half of this year, the equivalent utilization hours of new energy storage in China were about 570 hours, a year-on-year increase of over 100 hours. Especially during this year's peak summer season, the new energy storage system has fully played the role of a "super power bank". Xu Ziming said: "During the summer peak, Jiangsu, Shandong, Yunnan and other provinces have successively carried out the centralized deployment of new energy storage power stations in the province, with a simultaneous deployment rate of more than 95%."
3、 Still facing triple 'growing pains'
Despite the rapid rise of the energy storage industry, it still faces the triple "growth troubles" of imperfect electricity market mechanisms, prominent technological bottlenecks, and incomplete standard systems in the critical stage of transitioning to high-quality development.
Among them, the issue of electricity market mechanism is currently the most prominent constraining factor. Shi Yubo, Chairman of the China Energy Research Association, pointed out that although Mengxi, Gansu and other places have entered the formal operation stage of the electricity spot market, the rule design for energy storage participation in the spot market in most western regions is still at the pilot level. The openness of auxiliary service market varieties to energy storage is insufficient, and the capacity value of energy storage has not been fully reflected, which directly leads to the difficulty of independent project economic support.
At the same time, the shortcomings of the standard system and risk management cannot be ignored. Although China's first mandatory national standard for energy storage was officially implemented in August this year, overall, the management system covering the entire life cycle of energy storage still needs to be improved, which to some extent affects the process of industrial standardization.
In response to these challenges, the industry generally believes that efforts need to be made from three dimensions: policy market coordination, technological innovation leadership, and standard safety foundation building, to clear obstacles for the healthy and sustainable development of the energy storage industry.
The dual wheel drive of policy and market is the key breakthrough point. Xu Ziming suggests that firstly, we need to strengthen top-level design, formulate a new energy storage "15th Five Year Plan" implementation plan, and promote its large-scale application in various scenarios such as new energy bases, alternative energy storage in the power grid, zero carbon parks, and direct connection of green electricity; Secondly, we will improve the mechanism for energy storage to participate in the market, accelerate the comprehensive integration of energy storage into various market transactions, fully unleash its multiple values such as peak shaving, frequency regulation, and backup, and enhance the level of comprehensive utilization; The third is to guide the logic of industrial competition to shift from "price comparison" to "value comparison", forcing enterprises to focus on technological upgrading and service optimization.
It is widely predicted in the industry that the installed capacity of energy storage is expected to reach 230-290GW by 2030. To achieve this goal, the government, enterprises, and research institutions need to work together to solve core problems such as market mechanisms, technological innovation, and standard safety.
Looking ahead to the 15th Five Year Plan, Chen Haisheng believes that the new energy storage market will gradually shift towards a market driven development model. In this process, the industry will deeply explore the green value of energy storage, expand diversified application scenarios in zero carbon parks, green power resource development and other fields through scientific planning and coordinated layout, innovate business models, and enrich the path of realizing commercial value. With the further acceleration of capacity mechanism construction, new energy storage will obtain stable value return channels, promote the transformation of industrial competition from "roll price" to "roll value", and ultimately achieve a key leap from high-speed growth to high-quality development.