China’s Energy Storage Battery Shipments Surge in Q1 2026, Driven by Multiple Growth Drivers
Recently, data disclosed by Xinluo Lithium Power shows that in the first quarter of 2026, China’s energy storage battery shipments reached 209GWh, a year-on-year increase of 115%, while global energy storage battery shipments hit 216GWh, up 117% year-on-year, according to Securities Daily. The impressive data reflects that the energy storage industry has entered a high prosperity cycle driven by global market demand and endogenous value.
Essentially, the in-depth advancement of global green and low-carbon development strategies is the underlying logic for the sustained high growth of the energy storage industry, according to Xinhua News Agency. Currently, countries around the world have taken energy green transition as their development goal, with wind power and photovoltaic power becoming the main force in the energy structure transformation. However, the inherent intermittency and volatility of renewable energy have seriously restricted their large-scale grid connection and consumption, making the core value of energy storage systems in peak shaving, valley filling, and frequency regulation increasingly prominent.
Overall, the surge in energy storage demand stems from three major drivers: rigid supporting demand driven by the explosion of AI computing power, basic guarantee demand driven by the global power grid security upgrade, and endogenous demand driven by China’s power marketization, noted Chen Xingwen, an industry analyst from Soochow Securities.
AI data centers are regarded as the primary driver of energy storage demand growth. The 2026 Government Work Report proposes “implementing new infrastructure projects such as ultra-large-scale intelligent computing clusters and computing-power-electricity coordination”. Building an integrated “source-grid-load-storage” system has become the mainstream technical path for computing-power-electricity coordination globally. At present, many regions in China have included energy storage configuration as a rigid indicator for data center approval.
Globally, North America and Europe are also strengthening rigid requirements for energy storage configuration in AI Data Centers (AIDCs). According to the International Energy Agency’s special report “Energy and Artificial Intelligence”, it is predicted that the power consumption of global AI data centers will account for more than 10% of the world’s total electricity consumption by 2030, driving the continuous growth of energy storage demand.
Secondly, the prominent rigid demand for power grid security has made energy storage a basic guarantee for the global energy system. With the continuous improvement of the global penetration rate of renewable energy, the intermittency and volatility of wind and photovoltaic power have become increasingly prominent. Coupled with the aging power grid facilities and insufficient power supply stability in many countries, energy storage has become a core support for ensuring the safe and stable operation of power grids.
Finally, China’s power marketization has spawned endogenous demand for energy storage. Now, the growth of China’s energy storage installed capacity has gradually moved away from the “mandatory energy storage” driven model. Soochow Securities’ research report predicts that China’s new energy storage installed capacity will reach 265GWh in 2026, a year-on-year increase of 63%, with independent energy storage and industrial and commercial energy storage scenarios continuing to expand.
While the energy storage industry is developing rapidly, some issues have attracted great attention from the market, including balancing capacity expansion and profitability, achieving stable returns from computing-power-electricity coordination, improving the power marketization mechanism, and keeping up the resource recycling system with the retirement rhythm of energy storage batteries. Proactively addressing these issues is crucial for the sustainable and healthy development of the industry.
