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 National Energy Administration (NEA) figures released on October 30. The category includes electrochemical, compressed-air and other emerging storage systems, but not conventional pumped hydro.
The total compares with 135.93 GW/351.12 GWh at the end of 2025, implying a net addition of about 31 GW/84 GWh in the first nine months of 2026, the NEA said at its quarterly press conference on national energy development.
Capacity and utilization
Average storage duration rose to 2.61 hours, about 0.27 hours more than a year earlier. Equivalent utilization hours reached roughly 915 during the nine-month period, an increase of about 10 hours from the same period in 2025. The improvements suggest that China's storage buildout is being accompanied by changes in system configuration and use, not only by growth in installed capacity.
The NEA said the rapid expansion has been supported by government policies, technological innovation, industrial supply chains and rising demand for flexibility in the power system. 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 needed to absorb surplus electricity, move generation to higher-demand periods and provide fast-response grid services.
Market structure and policy
The makeup of the storage market is also changing. Official 2025 figures showed that independent storage facilities accounted for 51.2% of cumulative new-type installations. Projects rated at 100 MW or above represented 72% of installed capacity, while systems with durations of at least four hours accounted for 27.6%. Lithium-ion batteries remained dominant at about 96% of installed new-type storage capacity, though compressed-air, flow batteries and other technologies are gradually expanding.
Market reforms are expected to reinforce these trends. China has been developing arrangements that allow independent storage operators to earn revenue from electricity trading, ancillary services and capacity remuneration, gradually reducing reliance on mandatory storage requirements tied 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, with greater emphasis on longer-duration systems, grid-forming capabilities and operational efficiency.
Regional example
Storage's growing 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, equal to 33% of the grid's electricity demand at the time.
The NEA data and the Inner Mongolia example indicate how storage can provide substantial 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.