Global shipments of energy storage batteries surged by 60% year-on-year to 314.7 GWh in 2024, with China’s CATL ranking first, according to data from the consulting firm InfoLink Consulting.
Energy storage batteries are mainly used in applications like residential storage, commercial and industrial storage, and large-scale grid storage to regulate and balance electricity. Wind and solar power are sustainable green energy sources, but their volatility—due to the nature of wind and sunlight—highlights the importance of energy storage batteries.
China has a significant advantage in the energy storage field, with nine Chinese firms ranking among the top ten global energy storage battery vendors in 2024, according to the data. In addition to CATL, companies like EVE Energy, BYD Company, HiTHIUM Energy Storage and CALB secured spots in the top five.
The rankings of other companies saw significant changes. EVE Energy surpassed BYD to become the second largest, while CALB jumped from tenth place in 2023 to fifth place. Samsung SDI dropped from sixth to ninth, and LG Energy Solution fell out of the top ten, shows the data.
CATL’s key client is Tesla, while EVE Energy and CALB’s primary customers are Huawei and Sungrow Power Supply, respectively.
CATL is also leveraging its system integration capabilities to secure large-scale energy storage project orders. In January 2025, CATL won an order from Masdar, a UAE-based company, for a 19 GWh project.
InfoLink predicts that the global energy storage battery market will continue to grow in 2025, but the growth rate will slow significantly to 25%, with the market size expected to reach around 392 GWh.
On February 9, 2025, China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the National Energy Administration (NEA) released a notice on deepening the market-oriented reform of new energy grid electricity prices and promoting high-quality development of new energy. The notice said that energy storage cannot be a prerequisite for the approval, grid connection, or power transmission of new energy projects.
This shift from policy-driven to market-driven development, with a focus on demand-based configuration, indicates that energy storage development will require companies to engage in a more comprehensive competition of capabilities.
Apart from the existing market competition, energy storage battery companies can explore new application scenarios. With the rapid development of AI technology, there has been a global surge in data center construction, which consumes vast amounts of energy and requires backup power.
Currently, the backup power for data centers is primarily a combination of energy storage batteries and diesel generators, offering new market opportunities for both storage batteries and diesel generators. Weichai Power (000338.SZ) recently stated during an investor survey that its data center-related business is growing rapidly.