The battle for large-capacity batteries is in full swing, with energy storage integrated with AI technology accelerating.

Securities Times reporter Liu Canbang

Recently, Chen Haisheng, Chairman of the Energy Storage Industry Technology Alliance of Zhongguancun (000931), released a forecast. By 2030, the cumulative installed scale of new-type energy storage in China will reach 371.2GW—450.7GW, and the compound annual growth rate from 2026 to 2030 will be 20.7%—25.5%.

Data show that over the past 5 years, the installed capacity of new-type energy storage in China has grown by more than 40 times. At the ongoing 14th International Energy Storage Summit and Exhibition, more than 800 companies across the full energy storage industry chain are exhibiting, which underscores how hot the energy storage sector is.

Since the second half of last year, as policy guidance shifted from mandatory capacity allocation to market-based utilization, some links in the energy storage industry chain once experienced supply tightness. At this energy storage exhibition, large-capacity battery cells have become the main battlefield for manufacturers to “show muscle.” In addition to technological iterations, energy storage for AIDC (artificial intelligence data centers) as a key application scenario has also become the focus of competition among manufacturers. Moreover, AI prediction models are being deeply embedded into the entire energy storage trading process to adapt to the new situation brought about by market-oriented changes in the power market.

Accelerating Iteration of Large-Capacity Battery Cells

At present, the mainstream cell model for energy storage is 314Ah. At this energy storage exhibition, the reporter saw that besides models such as 587Ah and 588Ah, multiple manufacturers also showcased 600Ah-class, 700Ah-class, and even higher-capacity cells.

The reporter learned from relevant personnel at Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL) (300750) that since 587Ah cells were introduced in 2025, their mass production progress has attracted close attention. The cumulative shipments of this cell have now exceeded 5GWh.

In application fields, the independent energy storage power station Erhan Tu 400MW/2400MWh, a benchmark grid-side project located in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, is one of the largest grid-side independent energy storage projects in China. CATL said that this project applied 587Ah cells in large batches for the first time. Compared with the traditional 314Ah solution, the number of components is reduced by about 40%, the system energy density is significantly improved, and construction and operation/maintenance costs are effectively lowered.

At the Ruipu Lanjun booth, the reporter saw that the company’s core product is a 588Ah large-capacity energy storage cell. It also showcased its latest Powtrix system solution in parallel, further strengthening the company’s integrated energy storage capability from cell to system. Company booth staff said that each ultra-large-capacity 588Ah cell can achieve more than 10,000 ultra-long cycles, meeting the high-intensity demand for long-duration energy storage.

The industry’s intense push for large-capacity cells is against the backdrop that the standard for third-generation energy storage cells has not yet been finalized. The “Zhi Jiu” series long-cycle energy storage cells exhibited by Sinomatec include three capacity versions: 392Ah, 588Ah, and 661Ah.

“We judge that in the next three years, the energy storage industry will be ruled by large cells at the 500Ah class.” Wang Bing, Product Director of EVE Energy (300438), told reporters. The company’s Fengpeng large cell 587Ah has entered the production line commissioning stage, and mass production and delivery are expected to begin in June. “Fengpeng large cell 587Ah mainly targets the next-generation large storage market. We have already received some orders from domestic customers. For overseas markets, it is expected to enter the market in 2027.”

Currently, not only cell suppliers are rolling out large-capacity technologies, but equipment companies such as energy storage inverters are also actively promoting product compatibility. At the booth of Kehua Digital Energy, the company mainly exhibited products such as a 6.25/6.9MW centralized energy storage inverter and step-up integrated machine, and a 6.25MW modular energy storage inverter and step-up integrated machine. Their power has been significantly improved compared with the previous generation.

Feng Xuetao, product manager at Kehua Digital Energy, told reporters: “As battery capacity gradually increases, our products continue to iterate toward higher power and higher energy density. Our 5MW inverters will continue to be promoted, but in the future demand will gradually decrease, and the 6.25MW/6.9MW products are expected to become the new mainstream in the market.”

In addition, with the acceleration of large-capacity and long-duration energy storage technologies reaching deployment, the energy storage industry has put forward higher requirements for the testing process. It must meet higher voltage level and accuracy standards, and also balance efficiency and reliability in large-scale production. A负责人 of Rongnen Co., Ltd. told reporters that based on the actual needs of energy storage R&D and manufacturing, the company has built a full-level testing system covering energy storage cells, modules/PACK, battery clusters, energy storage systems, and MW-class containerized units.

AIDC Energy Storage Set to Surge

If large-capacity cells are a popular path for technological iteration in energy storage, then from the perspective of scenario applications, AIDC energy storage is one of the core directions attracting market attention.

At the exhibition, Trina Storage, together with Kehua Digital Energy, released an AIDC end-to-end integrated solution across the whole domain. The solution is built on “source-storage grid-forming as the foundation, efficient load dispatch as the core,” constructing an end-to-end full-chain system from energy production, storage, and distribution to consumption. The company’s负责人 said this is not just a simple set of product solutions, but a reconfiguration of energy flow from “the grid to the chip,” and reshaping of energy flow from “the grid to the chip,” enabling energy-intensive data centers to have a foundation for efficient, stable, low-carbon operation, providing sustainable energy support for AI infrastructure.

Veloxo also simultaneously showcased its first sodium-ion energy storage cell dedicated to AIDC and an AIDC end-to-end energy solution. It is understood that the company’s first dedicated sodium-ion energy storage cell was officially rolled off the line in March 2026. With a capacity exceeding 180Ah and a cycle life of over 20,000 times, it will in the future match differentiated scenarios such as backup power for AIDC and extreme high/low temperature environments, forming synergy and complementarity with lithium batteries.

In addition, Veloxo also首次 released an end-to-end energy solution from “chip to grid,” covering the grid side, the station side, the load side, and the control side, directly targeting the power bottleneck faced by data centers in the AI computing power era. The company is working with leading AI companies to build what is expected to be the world’s largest zero-carbon AIDC park in Ulanqab (Wulanchabu), with the project scheduled for delivery this year.

“AI large models drive a sharp increase in global computing power; large computing power must be supported by electricity. The company’s AIDC business growth last year exceeded 600%, and we have cooperations with major domestic internet companies,” said a vendor that focuses on the AIDC energy storage market.

Song Wan,部长 of the energy storage R&D department at Goldwind Technology, told reporters that AIDC scenarios impose very high reliability requirements on the power supply system. Once accidents such as power outages occur, the impact on data service providers and potential property losses would be substantial. Therefore, reliability is a core threshold for energy storage to enter AIDC.

Song Wan Guang said that for large-scale application of AIDC energy storage, two paths can be considered: first, further improve the reliability of energy storage inverters (PCS)/DC-DC, strengthen product performance, and further reduce failure rates; second, conduct redundant thermal backup design for AIDC energy storage, configuring additional energy storage equipment as backup so that seamless handover can be achieved when a fault occurs. This can reduce the risk of power interruption for AIDC.

“Based on comprehensive information such as how frequently customers inquire, delivery schedules for orders, and information collected from the market side, we judge that AIDC energy storage will see a surge at the end of this year,” Wang Bing said.

AI Deeply Embedded in Energy Storage Trading

In the past two years, the energy storage industry has benefited from policy tailwinds. The No. 136 document last year canceled mandatory energy storage allocation and promoted all full power generation from renewable energy entering the market. This opened the market-based profitability space for independent energy storage, broadening diversified revenue streams and asset appreciation pathways for high-quality development of renewable energy. This year’s No. 114 document, for the first time, included grid-side independent new-type energy storage into the capacity tariff system, fully establishing a “capacity floor + market uplift” new revenue mechanism.

As Yang Bo, President of Haimai Co., Ltd., said, currently, the energy storage industry is accelerating from policy-driven development toward market-based value creation, shifting from scale expansion to high-quality development—this trend is also the direction of Haimai’s strategic layout. For a new-type power system, energy storage competition is no longer limited to single equipment; it has been upgraded into a comprehensive contest of end-to-end solutions across scenarios, value across the full lifecycle, and coordination capability across the entire industry chain.

Industry views hold that in the future, energy storage will be deployed increasingly on the user side. As the power market transitions from fixed tariffs to floating tariffs, the profit model of peak-valley arbitrage by user-side energy storage will be constrained. Tariff fluctuations will further test energy storage charging/discharging strategies and trading models.

To address this situation, the support of AI digitalization technologies appears especially critical for energy storage trading models. At this energy storage exhibition, the reporter saw that multiple manufacturers are focusing on revenue enhancement and value creation.

For example, Guoneng Rixin exhibited its newly released Kuangming AI intelligent system, namely Kuangming weather model 4.0 and Kuangming power trading model 1.0. Company personnel told reporters that the two models deeply collaborate to completely push power trading from an “experience-based game” into a brand-new paradigm of “data-driven, intelligent decision-making,” transforming the high-economic utilization of renewable energy assets from probabilistic events into calculable, controllable, and deployable deterministic outcomes.

“The company uses an AI-driven smart energy (600869) solution. Through its self-developed WE platform and a virtual power plant management platform, it supports safe and stable operation of the power grid, while also opening a new market-based revenue pathway,” said personnel from Goodwe.

“In the future, energy storage trading will need to predict day-ahead spot electricity prices. This will introduce more AI-based power trading agents, thereby improving the accuracy of price forecasting. AI investment on power trading platforms will be a key point for competition among all manufacturers,” said an exhibitor.

(Editor: Zhang Yang HN080）

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