New Energy Storage 2025: Status, Trends & Milestones

This report, released by the China Energy Storage Alliance (CNESA) in January 2026, details the development status and trends of the new energy storage industry during China's 14th Five-Year Plan period. Key milestones include the strategic upgrade of energy storage from passive support to core support for the new power system, comprehensive technological breakthroughs across multiple routes (lithium-ion, flow batteries, compressed air, sodium-ion, flywheel, etc.), and a reshaping of the technology landscape. By end of 2025, China's cumulative installed power storage capacity reached 213.3 GW, with new energy storage exceeding 100 GW for the first time—45 times that at the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan. The penetration rate of new energy storage in wind and solar capacity leaped from 0.61% to 6.88%. The industry is advancing towards low cost, high efficiency, high safety, domestication, and grid compatibility, with lithium-ion batteries dominating but diversification accelerating.