Chinese energy storage companies go global: soaring orders combined with a wave of overseas factory construction

Currently, energy security and the low-carbon transition are converging, and Chinese energy storage companies are accelerating their overseas expansion.

So far this year, on the one hand, the global energy storage industry chain is speeding up its restructuring, and leading domestic energy storage companies are accelerating plans for overseas localization and building factories locally; on the other hand, the scale of overseas orders placed by Chinese energy storage companies and the year-over-year growth are impressive. The industry’s logic for going global has evolved from the export of single products to a deeper wave of globalization characterized by the coordinated output of capacity, technology, and standards. Emerging markets such as the Middle East and Latin America have even become new driving forces for global energy storage growth.

Meanwhile, behind the acceleration of Chinese energy storage companies going overseas, issues related to industry profitability and compliance risks also warrant attention. How to balance scale and profitability, and address localization risks and other challenges, remains a core long-term question for enterprises.

▍Supply Side: Chinese energy storage companies cluster and rush overseas to land projects and build factories

According to reporters from the Kechuangban Daily, since this year, Chinese energy storage companies have been accelerating their efforts to head overseas and set up local factories.

Specifically, in Europe, in March this year, EnergySource and the Spanish government completed the signing of a letter of intent. The plan is to invest about EUR 400 million (about RMB 3.18B) to build a large manufacturing plant for batteries and energy storage systems. The plant focuses on the production of lithium iron phosphate battery cells and containerized energy storage systems, with the goal of entering operation in 2027.

In February this year, Sungrow announced that it will invest in and build its first manufacturing factory in Europe, with a total investment of EUR 230 million (about RMB 1.83B). The factory will have the manufacturing capacity for 20GW of photovoltaic inverters and 12.5GWh of energy storage systems per year.

Earlier, in January this year, CALB and the Portuguese government completed the signing of an investment contract. Its investment project is located in Sines, Portugal. The plan is to build a lithium battery factory, with a total investment of EUR 2.07B (about RMB 16.44 billion). It is expected to be fully operational in 2028, and after completion may have energy storage-related production capacity of 15GWh.

In emerging markets such as the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Africa, in January this year, Sungrow signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Egyptian government and Norwegian renewable energy company Scatec. The three parties will jointly advance a clean energy project with a total investment of over USD 1.8 billion. The cooperation includes Sungrow’s investment to build a factory in the Suez Canal Economic Zone.

It is worth noting that, according to the annual report disclosure of Sungrow, in 2025, the revenue share of the company’s energy storage systems was 41.81%, exceeding for the first time revenue from its photovoltaic inverter and other power electronics conversion equipment. In the same period, the company’s revenue from overseas regions was RMB 53.99B, up 48.76% year over year, benefiting from the expansion of overseas markets for its energy storage business.

Also in January this year, Trina Storage (Jiangsu?) and the Egyptian companies WeaCan and Kemet signed a strategic cooperation agreement. They plan to supply a total of 6GWh of energy storage system products to Egypt in phases, and announced that they will jointly build an energy storage battery factory with Kemet. The project’s total investment is USD 200 million (about RMB 1.38B), with a planned annual capacity of 5GWh.

Trina Storage’s President Huang Feng said, “Over the next 2–3 years, we will deepen our focus on overseas markets to achieve global development. The company is not only involved in energy storage; we will also expand into other power-related products.”

In the U.S. market, among other things, in January this year, Longi Green Energy was reported to have formed a joint venture with NeoVolta Power, LLC, together with U.S. lithium battery supplier NeoVolta, and planned to build a battery energy storage system production base in Pendergrass, Georgia, in the U.S.

In response, analysts in the industry told reporters from the Kechuangban Daily that the demand for energy storage in the U.S. is clear due to factors including outdated and weak traditional grid infrastructure, as well as the combined impacts of growing data center demand and the return of domestic manufacturing capacity. Currently, companies such as Longi Green Energy and Array Technologies are exploring diversified innovation paths through optimization of models, integration of resources, and other approaches to further cultivate the U.S. energy storage market.

Gao Chengyuan, president of the Far-reaching Influence Research Institute, told reporters from the Kechuangban Daily that, taking photovoltaic companies as an example, they enhance pricing power by increasing margins through overseas factory building, photovoltaic-plus-storage integration, and the deployment of higher-end products. Lithium battery companies are accelerating “capacity going overseas,” lowering risks from trade barriers through localized production and capital operations, among other measures.

▍Demand Side: Emerging markets become new growth drivers for global energy storage

Looking back at the full year of 2025, according to incomplete statistics from CNESA DataLink’s global energy storage database, in 2025 Chinese energy storage companies added overseas orders totaling 366GWh, up 144% year over year. Orders covered more than 60 countries and regions worldwide, and there were more than 70 Chinese energy storage companies going overseas. Core enterprises such as CATL, Sungrow, BYD, and Hi-Tech Achieve have accelerated their overseas expansion plans, with business scope reaching key markets including Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, North America, and the Middle East.

And this upward momentum also continued into 2026. Reporters from the Kechuangban Daily noted that since the beginning of this year, Chinese energy storage companies’ orders in overseas markets have continued to surge.

Data from the General Administration of Customs shows that in January to February this year, the export value of inverters from China reached USD 1.66 billion, up 56% year over year.

According to data from the China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance, in the first two months of this year, China’s total exports of power and energy storage batteries were 48GWh, with cumulative year-on-year growth of 24.6%. Of this, the cumulative export volume of energy storage batteries was 13.5GWh, accounting for 28% of total exports.

In addition, according to energy storage intelligence statistics from CINNO, in January to February this year, Chinese energy storage companies received nearly 50 overseas orders, with a total scale of over 33.5GWh, up more than 45% year over year. The orders covered Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia.

Behind these impressive export “scorecards,” a deeper trend is already taking shape: Chinese energy storage companies going global are accelerating from single-product exports toward a comprehensive global layout that encompasses capacity landing, technology output, and standards co-building.

In Tan Wen’s view, CEO of Pylon Technologies, as the industry chain gradually matures, market demand is also shifting from single products to diversified, integrated energy storage solutions. Therefore, most energy storage companies going overseas will go through role evolution—from energy storage equipment suppliers to energy storage solution providers, and then to energy operators.

Overall, in today’s global energy storage market, the U.S., China, and Europe are expanding from a “three-legged” structure toward wider regional coverage; China has ranked first globally for new installed capacity for four consecutive years; and emerging markets have become a new driving force for global energy storage growth.

At the recently held 14th International Energy Storage Summit and Exhibition, Chen Haisheng, Chairman of the Council of the Zhongguancun Energy Storage Industry Technology Alliance and Director of the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that as of the end of 2025, the cumulative installed capacity of globally operational power energy storage totaled 496.2GW, with a year-over-year growth rate of 33.4%. The energy storage industry is facing a new global win-win situation, with global supply chain systems being reshaped at an accelerated pace. The focus is shifting from prioritizing “globalization efficiency” to prioritizing “regionalized security.” A clear tendency toward globalization, diversification, and full-lifecycle deployment is evident.

Among this, emerging markets are accelerating their rise and becoming a new driving force for global energy storage growth.

Specifically, in the Middle East, construction of large-scale new energy bases boosts energy storage demand rapidly; in Latin America, system balancing pressure driven by a high proportion of renewable energy is pushing the energy storage market to expand faster; in Asian emerging markets, grid stability and growth in electricity demand, along with intensified policy support across multiple countries, are speeding up project implementation; in Africa, electricity supply security and demand for integrating new energy are the main drivers.

Fang Yi, chief strategy analyst at Guotai Junan Securities, believes that the essence of Chinese companies going overseas is a process of Chinese industries occupying high value-added segments of the industry chain and moving toward deep globalization, under the backdrop of the global transfer of the industry chain in a new round. Chinese companies are shifting from exporting products to systematic going global featuring “capacity + brand + channels,” achieving a leap into high value-added segments at both ends of the “smile curve.”

▍Behind the acceleration of Chinese energy storage companies going overseas: pay attention to these tests and risks

Reporters from the Kechuangban Daily noted that, currently, leading Chinese energy storage companies are no longer blindly pursuing scale expansion. They place greater emphasis on choosing to focus on high-gross-margin markets. This also means that competition in overseas high-gross-margin markets may intensify.

An Altn? (Aters?) spokesperson told reporters from the Kechuangban Daily that, “The development of Europe’s large-scale energy storage market is faster, becoming the core support for the company’s overseas business. Sungrow? continues to adhere to a profitability-first strategy, focusing on high-gross-margin markets such as Japan, Europe, and Canada.”

According to a March disclosure by Altn? (Aters?), as of December 31, 2025, the contract-backed order amount at hand for Energy Storage Technology (e-STORAGE) reached USD 3.6 billion (equivalent to about RMB 25.70 billion).

In the research notes disclosed in January this year, Longi Green Energy admitted frankly that the company is conducting a detailed review and further planning of the market regions for the development of its energy storage business. “The domestic market, as well as the European market, the U.S. market, and the Australia market, are the phase-specific key markets for Longi’s energy storage business development.”

Meanwhile, reporters from the Kechuangban Daily also found that some investors have concerns about whether the low gross-margin situation in China’s domestic energy storage market will be transmitted overseas.

Recently, Sungrow ran into the above question when it responded to investor research. In response, the company said that on the supply side, it has signed long-term cooperation agreements with core cell suppliers. Leveraging the advantages of large-scale procurement, it can lock in cell prices within a certain time window, and the prices are more competitively than the market. On the technology side, the company each year continuously reduces costs through multiple methods such as technological innovation and supply chain coordination. On the client side, although negotiating prices with customers can be painful, we will keep working hard to ensure price transmission. Overall, customers recognize our value and our past service capabilities. “We believe that the overall overseas situation can basically remain stable.”

Reporters from the Kechuangban Daily also learned that, currently, in Europe, the region has already put forward higher requirements for localized production.

Among them, Pylon Technologies stated in its annual report: in the future, it is not excluded that relevant countries or regions may see changes in import trade policies and product certification requirements for lithium battery energy storage products, which in turn could bring adverse impacts to the company’s operations. The company will continue to build localized organizational structures in its target markets overseas to reduce the impact of trade barriers on the company’s operating performance.

In addition, in recent years, phased adjustments in demand for residential energy storage have resulted in significant differences across regions in overseas markets. According to CNESA statistics, looking at the scale of new residential storage installations in typical regions from 2020 to 2025, Europe saw a decline, while Australia surged significantly.

Going overseas is a necessary path that Chinese energy storage companies cannot avoid, with both opportunities and challenges. How to gain a foothold and steadily expand in the wave of globalization, and head to broader overseas markets, remains a core topic that relevant companies need to deeply focus on over the long term.

（Source: Caixin/China Finance and Securities?）