Presentation

CPIA: China’s PV and Storage Market Surpasses 1.1 TW, Driven by Policy and Integration

Jialin Ru, Director at CPIA, presented at the China-EU Solar & Energy Storage Industries Dialogue 2025, detailing the rapid expansion of China's PV and battery energy storage (BAT) sectors. Her presentation highlighted how policy reforms and market-oriented mechanisms are accelerating the integration of renewables and storage applications across diverse scenarios.

Event
China-EU Solar & Energy Storage Industries Dialogue 2025
Segment
Utility
Technology
Inverter, Photovoltaics, Storage
Format
Presentation
Interviewer · EUPD Group
Jialin Ru
Director · CPIA
Guest · CPIA
Jialin Ru
Director · CPIA
Filmed ·Runtime 18:40Presentation ·
PresentationChina-EU Solar & Energy Storage Industries Dialogue 2025 ·
18:40
Filmed on site · No editorial direction beyond question set · Captions auto-generated, reviewed by EUPD Research

Key takeaways

4 points · 18:40 video
  1. China's PV Enters Terawatt Era
    Cumulative PV installations in China exceeded 1.1 TW by the third quarter, marking a new milestone in global solar development. Net new installations reached 240 GW in the first half of the year, with significant monthly growth in May influenced by policy changes.
  2. Energy Storage Sees Rapid, Larger-Scale Growth
    China's new-type energy storage capacity reached nearly 95 GW by mid-2024, characterized by a rising share of projects over 100 MW and durations exceeding two hours. This sector has experienced over 40% annual growth for seven consecutive years.
  3. Policy Reforms Drive Market-Oriented Renewable Pricing
    Deepening price reforms for renewable electricity are shifting from fixed tariffs to market-based pricing, integrating almost all wind and solar into power markets. These policies promote long-term PPAs and capacity payments, offering clearer price signals for flexible resources.
  4. Integrated Projects Showcase Multi-Sector Application
    Case studies demonstrate advanced applications such as PV plus storage plus hydrogen, solar zero-carbon industrial parks, and PV-powered data centers. These projects enable local integration, optimize energy use, and significantly contribute to carbon reduction.

China's Terawatt PV Market and Soaring Storage Capacity

China's solar PV industry has officially entered the terawatt era, with cumulative installations exceeding 1,126 gigawatts by the third quarter. This milestone marks China's PV capacity surpassing one terawatt, following global cumulative installations reaching two terawatts last year. The first half of the year saw net new installations hit 240 GW, with monthly installations in May exceeding 90 GW, primarily influenced by policy shifts. Concurrently, China's energy storage sector is experiencing rapid expansion, with PV-plus-storage projects showing significant growth for seven consecutive years, exceeding 40% annually until last year. By the end of last year, commissioned new-type energy storage reached over 73 GW and nearly 168 GWh, representing a twenty-fold increase in five years. The first half of 2024 saw cumulative installations reach nearly 95 GW, with a growing trend towards larger, longer-duration projects (over 100 MW and 2-hour duration).

"Chinese solar industry entered a terawatt era. So... the cumulative installation is over one thousand one hundred and twenty-six gigawatts." Ru · 00:22

Policy Frameworks Driving Renewable Energy Integration

China's government is actively shaping the future of its energy landscape through targeted policies aimed at scaling new-type energy storage and reforming electricity pricing. The National Development and Reform Commission and National Energy Administration anticipate total battery storage installation nationwide to exceed 180 GW by 2027. This growth is supported by policies for power generation-side, grid, and multi-scenario storage applications, alongside market mechanisms like new energy plus storage and independent storage entities. A significant policy change involves deepening price reforms for renewable electricity, accelerating market-oriented pricing systems. This reform mandates that almost all wind and solar energy enter power markets, shifting developers from fixed tariffs to competition based on cost and location, and promoting long-term Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs). These changes provide clearer price signals for flexible resources and pressure the industry to build capacity and auxiliary service mechanisms across more provinces.

"China is accelerating the market-oriented reform of its renewable power pricing system to... build new power system and promote the sustainable development of renewable energy generation." Ru · 09:36

Integrated PV Applications and Lessons from Europe

China is implementing advanced integrated PV projects across various sectors. Examples include a 400 MW offshore PV plus 60 MW storage station with hydrogen production in Jiangsu Province, generating 470 GWh annually and integrating offshore solar, hydrogen, storage, transport, and use. Another case involves a solar zero-carbon industrial park in Shanghai, utilizing rooftop PV for offices, factories, and car parks with a smart energy platform, enabling over 30% self-consumption and cutting 1.2 kilotons of CO2 annually. Further integration is seen in a low-carbon computing base in Wuhan, featuring 20 MW wind, 100 MW PV, and 45 MW storage to power data centers via direct green power supply. This project delivers approximately 0.85 TWh of clean energy annually, avoiding about 0.848 million tons of carbon dioxide. Such projects highlight China's focus on flexibility, capacity support, stability services, and curtailment reduction through shared storage and microgrids. Recognizing emerging challenges like weak grid operation and curtailment hotspots, China seeks to learn from Europe's experience in managing inverter-based resources and storage. The goal is to collaborate on establishing clear standards and fair markets to ensure PV and storage become dependable peak-hour supply sources and reduce curtailment. Priority areas for cooperation include grid codes, flexible markets, TSO-DSO coordination, price signals, safety, cybersecurity, data interoperability, and circularity.

"Europe... the rules, markets and coordination for inverters-based resources and storage, they have very good experience. And we could join work to turn PV and storage into dependable peak hour supply." Ru · 17:43

Two questions on the stand

Chapters · click to jump
00:00
China's PV Market Enters Terawatt Era
Jialin Ru introduces China's PV market, highlighting cumulative installations surpassing 1.1 TW and significant export stability, particularly for inverters and storage.
03:21
Rapid Growth of China's Energy Storage Sector
The presentation details the rapid expansion of China's energy storage, noting significant cumulative capacity, a trend towards larger and longer-duration projects, and the rise of grid-forming storage.
12:05
Key Policies Driving Renewable Energy Integration
China's policies aim for 180 GW storage by 2027 and reform renewable electricity pricing to market-oriented systems, alongside promoting direct renewable connections and portfolio standards.

Interview transcript

Auto-generated · reviewed · ~3 min read
Thank you, Daniel. Morning, everyone. Today, I would like to share some overviews of Chinese solar PV and, BAT industry situation. And, first, I would like to introduce some the PV and storage market in China. About the PV part, Chinese solar industry entered a terawatt era. So in the first, and the-- until to the third quarter and, the cumulative, installation is, over one thousand one hundred and twenty-six gigawatts. So you can see that, China's cumulative installations over one thousand, gigawatt. Uh, we can see that in two-- twenty twenty-two, the global cumulative in-installation reached, one terawatt cumulative installation. And last year, the global reached, more than two ter-terawatt. And this year, and China reached one terawatt. That's very, significant thing. And, we could see the Chinese solar installation hit new milestone. On the left side, we can see that the net, in the first half year, the net, new installation reached two hundred and forty gigawatt and, is a very significant growth. And, on the right part, we could see the monthly installation. And you can see the-- in this May, the installation is very significant rise, over ninety gigawatt. That's related with, the policy changes. And, I will, introduce it later about the policy part. On this part, we could see the solar products export. On the left part, we could see that, China, we provide high quality products to all the world, and the export is s-s-stable. And we can see that the wafer and the module have, slightly growth, but the sales grows very significantly. Since twenty twenty-two, China's module shipment to Europe have been broadly stable. And Europe, flex-flexibility and intercan-- interconnection bottleneck are the key headwind of the PV growth. Besides the wafer, cells, and module, we could see that the inverters and the storage, that's where they're growing very fast. That, about our forecast about, Chinese market. We could, see that, this year, we have a low scenario and a high new scenario expectation about the, the yearly installation. Uh, I think, it's going to be more than two hundred and seventy gigawatt to three hundred gigawatt this year. Uh, that's based on the firm interconnection or pipeline support for further expansion and the, the utility scale product resilient in recent, policy shift and, also, based on the material market province show steady demand. So about the storage. We-- You could see that the PV plus storage product grow very signifi-significant in these recent years. And until last year, it, reached, seven straight years, over forty percent growth. As a renewable, fully marketized PV and the storage integration can help maintain competitive price advantages. And as regional leaders in two thousand and twenty-four implemented strict rules on PV storage and co-commissioning. So emerging requirement for storage with offshore wind and in Shanghai, Jiangsu, and, Shandong, Guangdong province, new application screen for storage. So about the BAT sector continue rapid growth. By the end of last year, China has commissioned a cumulative more than seventy-three gigawatts and, nearly, one hundred and sixty-eight gigawatt hours of new tech energy storage. About, twenty times in the previous, five years. And over the whole twenty twenty-four, and new addition totally about, forty-two gigawatts. And in the first half of this year, the cumulative installation reached ninety-four, nearly ninety-five gigawatts, implying the net increase. And, so China's energy storage continue its rapid growth. About the larger and the longer duration storage ri-- is also rising, and we could see on the distribution by the single station site, and also distribution by storage duration. By the end of last year, the project over one hundred megawatts per set and, more than two hours duration make up highly share of the total new type of storage. And, we could also see that, over one hundred megawatts site and, cu-cumulativeCapacity is the, the-- all, about, total of about more than eighty-six percent of the cumulative capacity. And standalone and shared renewable rapid storage dominates the whole market. And, the standalone share and the, the renewable paired share are also very significant. For the grid-forming storage to grow at about forty-six pers-percent is on the CAGR. And China's grid-forming storage additionally are expecting to exc-exceed, twelve gigawatt in this year and, maybe thirty-four point eight percent, year-on-year growth. By twenty-thirty, annual additional, projected to reach thirty-six gigawatt hour, with market share likely about twenty-five percent. And, from the twenty twenty-four to twenty twenty-thirty, the CAGR is about forty-six percent. The cumulative grid-forming capacity in China forecast to exceed one hundred and forty gigawatt hours by to twenty-thirty. Now, I'm going to go to the next part. It's about, the PV and the storage policies. China's storage, policy capacity will exceed, one hundred and eighty gigawatt by twenty twenty-seven. So the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration jointly issue some notice, on a plan for the scale-up development of the new-type energy storage. Is from this year to twenty twenty-seven. Uh, by the... By twenty twenty-seven, the total battery storage installation nationwide will reach more than one hundred and eighty gigawatt. According to the National Energy Administration, the-- this year, the first half of this year, China's new-type energy storage capacity reached, more than ninety- ninety-four point nine gigawatt. And the new-type energy storage capacity is expected to double between two thou-two thousand twenty-five to two thousand twenty-seven. So as a power generation side storage application and the grid storage application and the multi-scenario and the pilot, application, there are s-very specific details. Under the market mechanism, you could see that new energy plus storage and independent storage entities and, ancillary services and also related with, capacity pricing. So, just now, I mentioned in this May, the PV installation growth very significant. So that's because the policy change. I would like to introduce about the very important policy is, China is, deepen the price reforming for electricity generated from, renewable energy. So China is accelerating the market-oriented reform of its renewable power pricing system to-- into a bid to, build new power system and promote the sustainable development of renewable energy generation. So the t-the content ma-mainly contend with the market lies the pricing. Put almost all wind and solar into power markets. And, also related with transitional mechanism. Some output can be secured by sustainable development price settlement mechanism to stabilize price expectation of generators. And province, provincial directions, because, the changes is up to provinces to determine the price and the quantity of the output that's produced by the mechanism. This policy have some impacts. The first is for developer. So, the shift from the fixed tariff to competition on cost, local, local, location and focus on trading. Stronger role for long-term PPAs and using the maximum price as a key anchor. So for storage and flexibility, the long-term, more economic, economic-driven business model based on peak value and spread and auxiliary services and capacity payments. The clear price signal for flex, both resources and pressures to build capacity and auxiliary service mechanism into more provinces. And one more is about allow direct renewable connection and enable PPAs and eas-easing the grid strains. That's a very, important policy. This defini-definition is about the wind and the solar and the biomass plants can supply a single user via the direct line with physical traceability and meeting corporate's green power and carbon foot needs. The main goals are local integration of renewable and hyper-local oriented firm scope with green trait requirements, and also encourage storage and demand responseTo improve self-balancing and reducing the grid resonance. The first test, test is a first national level during direct land framework. About the renewable portfolio standards, meet the twenty, twenty five renewable po- portfolio standards from bending at the twenty twenty six target indicate, for provinces. So the green power quarters for specific industry mainly include for example electronical aluminum, the steels and the cement and, polysilicon, and also included with data centers. We can see, see that the all data centers requirements, is over eighty percent for all provinces. And, about the renewable energy integration, there are two policies, important I would like to share. The first, is about, the top level roadmap for renewable energy integration and, power system. The target is about sub more than two hundred gigawatts new renewable per year by twenty thirty. The system power substantially by renewable by twenty thirty, thirty-five. So another is about the guidance on price mechanism and, products. The key pricing, piece for green direct line and zero carbon mark balanced product economical whereas the system balancing cost. This I think this, two notice are very important. Uh, we, we should know about the change, policy changes. And the third part, I want to introduce some cases about the PV plus project. The first is about, cases about the solar PV plus storage and, plus hydrogen basis. That's the project located in Jiangsu Province, Rudong City. So it's about solar plus hydrogen. The hydrogen and the storage extend the offshore PV value and to power mobile, mobility and the industry loads. So four hundred megawatt offshore PV plus sixty megawatts storage station, and also hydrogen production. That's, that's, around four hundred and seventy gigawatt are annual genera- generation, integrating offshore solar, hydrogen and the storage and the transport and use in one product. That's very, significant product. And the second is about the solar PV plus, zero carbon industry park. The solar zero carbon park, this project is located in Shanghai and, Minhang Economic Zone. So the rooftop as the green power infrastructure for the all zone and en- ca- enable classroom level optimize of energy. So the distributed PV deployed, deployed on offices, factories and, car park with central heating and a smart energy platform. So the self-consumption solar exceeds thirty percent of power demands of the key firms. Uh, it also could cut the carbon dioxide about one point two kilotons per year. The third is about, solar PV plus the data center. Uh, this project is a low carbon computing basis, and located in Wuhan China. And, the data center located as, anchor customer for renewables, enable local res absorbing a long-term green PPAs. Uh, twenty megawatts wind, one hundred megawatts PV and forty-five megawatts of storage. The feeding data centers via direct green power supply. That's delivered roughly about, zero point, eighty-five terwa- terawatt hour, about the clean energy per year and avoid about, zero point eight forty-eight, me- met ton of... million tons of, carbon dioxide. So, in sum about the solar storage in China and the new power system. The firstly is about the flexibility and, capacity support. Shift energy to peak and faster ramping. Under the stability services, frequent voltage and in- interelect response from inverters-based, resources. And the third is for the curtailment reduction and the low... the local balancing through shared storage, microgrid and VPPs. Uh, and finally about, we should learn from Europe. We can see that China scaling up PV and storage now face a weak, grid operation, curtailment hotspot and, even market access for storage. So Europe, we could see that the rules, markets and coordination for inverters-based resources and storage, they have very, good experience. And we could join work to turn PV and storage into dependable peak hour supply and reduce curtailment through clear standards and fair markets. And the, the priority fields are grid code, flexible market from the TSO to DSO coordinating and the price signals, safety and cybersecurity, the data interpera-- interoperable and, circularity. These are our priority fields. That's what I want to share today, and thank you all. Thank you, Xu for presentation, showing us, uh-
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Frequently asked questions

China’s PV market growth is primarily driven by significant policy changes that have spurred new installations, especially a notable surge in May. The forecast for annual installations this year is between 270 GW and 300 GW, supported by firm interconnection, pipeline support for expansion, resilient utility-scale projects, and steady demand from material markets.

China’s energy storage market is rapidly expanding, with new-type energy storage capacity reaching nearly 95 GW by mid-2024, a twenty-fold increase in five years. There’s a rising trend towards larger, longer-duration projects, with those over 100 MW and exceeding two hours making up a significant share. Applications range from standalone and renewable-paired storage to grid-forming solutions, with robust growth projected for grid-forming capacity.

China is deepening price reforms for renewable electricity, transitioning almost all wind and solar into power markets to accelerate market-oriented pricing. This shift moves developers from fixed tariffs to competition based on cost and location, with a stronger emphasis on long-term PPAs and capacity payments for flexibility. Provinces also have discretion in determining prices and quantities for output under sustainable development price settlement mechanisms.

Integrated projects include a 400 MW offshore PV plus 60 MW storage station with hydrogen production in Jiangsu Province, generating 470 GWh annually. In Shanghai, a solar zero-carbon industrial park uses rooftop PV for offices, factories, and car parks, achieving over 30% self-consumption. A low-carbon computing base in Wuhan combines 20 MW wind, 100 MW PV, and 45 MW storage to directly supply data centers, delivering approximately 0.85 TWh of clean energy yearly.

China acknowledges facing challenges like weak grid operation, curtailment hotspots, and market access for storage, similar to issues Europe has addressed. China aims to learn from Europe’s experience in rules, markets, and coordination for inverter-based resources and storage. The objective is to collaborate on establishing clear standards and fair markets to make PV and storage dependable peak-hour supply and reduce curtailment.