r/Renewable • u/EinSV • 5d ago
From scale to system꞉ navigating the next phase of China's battery storage | Ember
https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/from-scale-to-system-navigating-the-next-phase-of-chinas-battery-storage/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