China's operational new-type energy storage capacity reached 167 GW/435 GWh at the end of September 2026, up 63% from a year earlier, according to data the National Energy Administration released on October 30.
The figures, presented at the NEA's quarterly press conference on national energy development, cover electrochemical, compressed-air and other emerging storage systems. Conventional pumped hydro is excluded.
At the end of 2025, the fleet stood at 135.93 GW/351.12 GWh. The latest total therefore implies a net addition of about 31 GW/84 GWh in the first nine months of 2026.
Utilization edges higher
Average storage duration rose to 2.61 hours, about 0.27 hours more than a year earlier. Equivalent utilization reached about 915 hours during the nine-month period, an increase of roughly 10 hours from the same period in 2025.
The NEA data point to changes in system configuration and use accompanying the capacity build-out, rather than expansion in installed megawatts alone.
The agency attributed the growth to government policies, technological innovation, industrial supply chains and rising demand for flexibility in the power system.
Renewables increase the need for flexibility
China's combined wind and solar generating capacity exceeded 2.01 TW at the end of September, or about 48.7% of total installed power capacity. As variable renewable output grows, storage is increasingly called on to absorb surplus electricity, move generation to higher-demand periods and provide fast-response grid services.
The composition of the market is also shifting. Official 2025 figures showed independent storage facilities accounted for 51.2% of cumulative new-type installations. Projects rated at 100 MW or above made up 72% of installed capacity, while systems with at least four hours of duration represented 27.6%.
Lithium-ion batteries remained dominant, at about 96% of installed new-type storage capacity. Compressed-air, flow batteries and other technologies are gradually gaining a presence.
Market rules and 2030 target
Market reforms are expected to reinforce those trends. China has been developing arrangements that let independent storage operators earn revenue from electricity trading, ancillary services and capacity remuneration, gradually reducing reliance on mandatory storage requirements linked to renewable projects.
Under the 15th Five-Year Plan for power system development, new-type storage capacity is targeted to reach 300 GW by 2030. The plan places greater emphasis on longer-duration systems, grid-forming capabilities and improved operational efficiency.
Storage's contribution is already visible in renewable-rich regional grids. In western Inner Mongolia, the grid operator reported 20.23 GW/70.47 GWh of operational storage capacity in October. During emergency dispatch operations, storage supplied up to 12.25 GW, equivalent to 33% of the grid's electricity demand at the time.
Such cases show how storage can provide short-term balancing capacity in systems with high renewable penetration. For other countries expanding wind and solar generation, China's deployment offers experience in large-scale storage manufacturing, grid integration and centralized dispatch, the NEA data and the regional example suggest.