Energy Storage: A Frontier for Technological Breakthroughs and Market Changes
Against the backdrop of today's global energy transition, the energy storage industry is becoming a key
force in promoting the development of renewable energy and achieving the goal of ‘carbon neutrality
’. As the technology continues to advance and the market matures, the energy storage industry is
embracing unprecedented development opportunities. In this article, we will give you an overview of
the latest progress and technology trends in the energy storage industry.
I. Definition and importance of energy storage industry
Energy storage technology refers to the technology of storing electrical, thermal or other forms of energy
through specific devices or physical media, and releasing them when needed. Energy storage systems
play a vital role in power systems, especially in dealing with the intermittency and instability of
renewable energy sources (e.g., wind, solar). Through energy storage technology, peak shaving and
valley filling, frequency and voltage regulation of the power system can be realised, and the stability and
reliability of the power grid can be improved.
Second, the development status of the global energy storage market
According to the data of ‘Energy Storage Industry Research White Paper 2025’, in 2024, the global
energy storage market continued to maintain a high-speed development trend, with the installed scale
of new power storage projects reaching 82.7GW, of which the new installed capacity of new energy
storage accounted for nearly 90%, reaching 74.1GW. China, the United States and Europe are the three
major leaders in the global energy storage market, and the combined share of the three installed
capacity further increased to 90%. Further increase, reaching 90%.
The Rise of China's Energy Storage Industry
China's position in the global energy storage market is becoming increasingly important. By the end of
2024, the cumulative installed capacity of China's power storage projects reached 137.9GW, accounting
for 37.1% of the world's. In 2024, China's new energy storage installed capacity remained the world's first
for three consecutive years, reaching 43.7GW. China's energy storage technology not only dominates
the field of lithium-ion batteries, but also achieves a wide range of non-lithium storage technologies,
such as compressed air energy storage, fluid flow batteries, sodium-ion batteries and flywheel energy
storage. Non-lithium energy storage technology to achieve breakthroughs in the application.
Fourth, the diversification of energy storage technology and innovation
Diversification of energy storage technology is a major trend in the industry. In addition to the traditional
lithium-ion battery energy storage, compressed air energy storage, liquid flow battery, flywheel energy
storage, gravity energy storage and other technologies also show their unique advantages. For example,
compressed air energy storage has the advantages of large capacity, long energy storage cycle, short
construction cycle, etc., which is suitable for the construction of large-scale energy storage power plant;
flywheel energy storage uses high-speed rotating flywheel to store energy, mainly used for grid frequency
regulation, which can smooth out the fluctuations of the power grid in time.
In addition, the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology and energy storage is becoming a
new highlight in the industry, with AI technology empowering energy storage systems to achieve safety
monitoring, intelligent operation and maintenance, and optimised trading. For example, by using AI
technology, HBST can fuse multimodal data for high-precision price prediction and output dynamic
trading strategies based on power market fluctuations.
V. Market Drivers and Policy Support for the Energy Storage Industry
In 2025, the energy storage industry is transforming from policy-driven to market-driven. the Notice on
Deepening the Reform of New Energy Feed-in Tariff Marketisation to Promote the High-quality
Development of New Energy, released in January, cancelled the configuration of energy storage as a
precondition for the approval of new new energy projects, grid connection, and access to the Internet,
etc. The policy shift marks the beginning of a new era in the energy storage industry. This policy shift
marks a key point in the market transformation of the energy storage industry, and the direction of
technological innovation of energy storage products has begun to shift from ‘volume competition’ to
‘value creation’.
With the deepening of power marketisation, the revenue channels of energy storage power stations
have expanded from a single ‘capacity compensation’ to more than ten scenarios, such as peak/valley
arbitrage, auxiliary services, black start services, etc. This market-driven demand will drive the development
of the energy storage industry. This market-driven demand will drive the energy storage from
‘passive configuration’ to ‘active choice’, and its core value from the simple cost of hardware to the
comprehensive revenue capacity.
Sixth, the future outlook
Looking ahead, the energy storage industry has broad prospects for development. With the continuous
promotion of technological innovation, policy support for the continuous strengthening and the
increasingly perfect market mechanism, energy storage technology will play a more important role in
the power system. It is expected that by 2025, China's new energy storage projects are expected to
install more than 30 GW. Entering the ‘Tenth Five-Year Plan’, China's new energy storage market will
gradually transform from ‘policy-driven’ to ‘market-driven’.
Diversified applications of energy storage technology will continue to expand from the grid side to the
user side, covering wind power, photovoltaic, thermal power and other energy scenarios, and around
the ‘energy storage + charging / oilfield / mining / data centre’ and other load-side application
scenarios, empowering thousands of industries green low-carbon transformation.
As the core supporting technology of energy transformation, energy storage industry is ushering in a
golden period of rapid development. Driven by technological innovation and market mechanism, energy
storage technology will play an irreplaceable role in the future energy system and provide a solid
guarantee for achieving the global ‘carbon neutral’ goal.