The cumulative energy storage capacity of China’s energy sector reached 213.3 GW at the end of 2025, up 54% year-on-year, according to data from the China Energy Storage Alliance (CNESA). Pumped hydro accounted for 31.3% of the total, while “new type” energy storage accounted for 67.9% – about 144.7 GW.
Based on the CNESA DataLink 2025 annual energy storage data set, presented at a press conference in Beijing on January 22, a total of 66.43 GW/189.48 GWh of new energy storage systems were deployed in 2025.
Added power and energy scales increased 52% and 73% year-over-year, respectively, tying CNESA to a continued shift toward longer duration configurations. It reported that the average duration rose to 2.58 hours in 2025 (from 2.11 hours in 2021).
CNESA said the leading application scenario has shifted to standalone energy storage, which accounted for 58%, while user-side storage dropped to 8% and frequency regulation of thermal plus storage to 1.4%; “storage linked to renewable energy sources” was described as stable.
Geographically, CNESA reported that the top 10 provinces each exceeded 5 GWh of newly commissioned capacity and together represented approximately 90% of additions. Inner Mongolia ranked first in power and energy capacity, and Yunnan entered the top 10 for the first time.
Lithium iron phosphate batteries (LFP) continued to dominate, with CNESA reporting more than 98% of installed capacity of the new type. CNESA also noted emerging applications of sodium ions, vanadium flow, compressed air, gravity storage and hybrid systems, separately citing a 40 MW/40 MWh networked sodium ion project in Wenshan, Yunnan as an example.
In terms of procurement, CNESA reported 690 tenders for energy storage systems (excluding centralized/framework tenders), a decrease of 10.4%, while EPC tenders increased to 1,536, an increase of 4.5%. The winning bid volumes (excluding centralized/framework purchasing) reached 121.5 GWh for systems and 206.3 GWh for EPC.
CNESA’s analysis of tender prices for LFP systems (excluding user-side applications) reported a winning bid price for 2025 of CNY 391.14/kWh ($55/kWh) to CNY 913.00/kWh ($128/kWh). For EPC (excluding user side), CNESA reported average winning bid prices of CNY 1,043.82/kWh ($146/kWh) for 2-hour projects and CNY 935.40/kWh ($131/kWh) for 4-hour projects.
CNESA also launched a policy map for standalone storage market mechanisms covering 21 provinces.
