China’s new energy storage capacity is expected to surpass 50GW by 2025

By the end of 2022, China had a total new energy storage capacity of 8.7GW, a more than 110 per cent increase year on year

New energy storage refers to electricity storage processes that use emerging technologies

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Ultra-high voltage and other high-voltage power lines near a solar farm in China’s Qinghai province. When compared with pumped storage, new-energy storage is more flexible when it comes to site selection, and has other advantages, including short construction periods, faster and flexible response and more diverse functions. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 1:25pm, 30 Mar 2023Updated: 1:29pm, 30 Mar 2023

China is expected to have a total new energy storage capacity of more than 50 gigawatts (GW) by 2025, according to a report released last week, as the country expects energy storage to boost renewable energy consumption while ensuring a stable power supply.

China’s installed capacity of renewable energy reached 760GW in 2022, a 20 per cent rise year on year, according to Dai Jianfeng, an engineer at the China Electric Power Planning and Engineering Institute (CEPPEI), a Beijing-based consultancy under state-owned China Energy Engineering Group.

“The safe and reliable operation of the power system is becoming even more [of a priority]. Against this background, the demand for new energy storage, as an important technology supporting the construction of the new power system, will become even stronger,” he said at a forum in Beijing last weekend.

New energy storage refers to electricity storage processes that use emerging technologies such as compressed air, flywheels and electrochemical rather than traditional pumped hydro storage.

Compared with pumped storage, which uses water behind dams to store energy and generate electricity when needed, new energy storage is more flexible when it comes to site selection, and has other advantages, including short construction periods, faster and flexible response and more diverse functions. It also plays a crucial role in renewable power systems by ensuring a stable supply of power generated from intermittent and variable wind and solar sources.

China, the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, wants to develop a new power system that features a higher proportion of renewable energy resources, such as wind and solar, to support the country’s goal of reaching peak carbon emissions by the end of this decade and net-zero emissions by 2060. The government has also set goals of at least 1,200GW of solar and wind generation capacity by 2030, and at least 80 per cent of its total energy mix coming from non-fossil fuel sources by 2060.

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