What’s new: More than two dozen of China’s provinces and cities have set new-energy storage installation targets for 2025, with these regions’ total planned capacity more than doubling the country’s target for the year, according to an industry expert.
As of July, 26 provinces and cities had laid out plans to bring the total installed capacity of their storage facilities for renewable energy projects to 86.6 gigawatts (GW) by the end of 2025, according to data released Sunday by Chen Haisheng, chairman of industry group China Energy Storage Alliance.
In May, the State Council, China’s cabinet, issued an action plan which set the national target for new energy storage installations at “over 40 GW” by the end of 2025. In 2021, national authorities set the goal for 2025 at “more than 30 GW”, which was achieved in 2023.
The background: Chen linked the rapid build-out of new-energy storage to local government support for the industry. They have been pushing the development of renewables to meet President Xi Jinping’s dual carbon goals of achieving peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060.
However, the pace of expansion has slowed as the energy storage industry has become mired in a price war due to overproduction of storage batteries and other components.
The cumulative installed capacity of new-energy storage surged 156.4% year-on-year to 44.44 GW in the first half of 2024, according to data released by the National Energy Administration on July 31. The pace of growth slowed from last year’s 260.8%.
Contact reporter Wang Xintong (xintongwang@caixin.com) and editor Joshua Dummer (joshuadummer@caixin.com)
