206GWh, signing up to 2031—according to a research report by Soochow Securities, this set of figures has refreshed the scale record for a single supply framework agreement in the energy storage industry, and also marked a new benchmark for Chinese energy storage companies going global.
As orders shift from "case-by-case negotiation" to five-year locked volumes, the competitiveness of Chinese energy storage companies is shifting from current quotations to capacity certainty; echoing this, among the signed orders for energy storage systems disclosed by Chinese energy storage companies in the third quarter of 2026, the overseas proportion has reached 93%, with Europe and the Middle East becoming the most concentrated destinations. Behind the order data lies a quiet shift in the dimensions of industrial competition.
01. The Weight of 206GWh
On September 18, EVE Energy announced that its subsidiary Hubei EVE Power signed a five-year supply framework agreement with Fluence, a US energy storage integrator, agreeing to cumulatively produce and deliver 206GWh of battery products from 2027 to 2031.
The implementation method of the agreement is quite representative: 16GWh is committed for delivery in 2027, and the reserved capacity from 2028 to 2031 totals 190GWh. The scale of this order is most intuitively referenced by the company's own shipment data. The 206GWh is the five-year cumulative framework volume covering 2027 to 2031. In the first half of 2026, the company's energy storage battery shipments were 44.46GWh, a year-on-year increase of 54.88%. The 206GWh is about 4.6 times this half-year shipment volume.
In the research report, Soochow Securities defined this agreement as "the largest supply framework agreement in the history of the energy storage industry," estimating that this scale is about 1.7 times EVE Energy's total shipments of power and energy storage batteries in 2025, which was 121.2GWh, and pointed out that Fluence adopts a global diversified cell supply strategy. "Calculating backwards from this signed scale, EVE Energy is expected to become the main supplier."
02. Customer Quality: Why Fluence
The value of a framework agreement is largely determined by the counterparty. Fluence was established as a joint venture by Siemens and AES Group, headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, USA, and listed on the NASDAQ in October 2021. According to a research report by Soochow Securities, Fluence's energy storage business shipped 5GWh in 2025; as of the end of June 2026, the company had 6.4 billion US dollars in orders on hand, of which the signed energy storage scale was 12.6GW. Data from Yiou Zhiku shows that the North American market is dominated by Fluence and Tesla Energy, and Fluence is "one of the leaders in the North American energy storage market."
Of greater note is Fluence's other line on the power supply side. In June 2026, Siemens, Nvidia, Fluence, and nVent joined forces to design power supply and control solutions for data centers equipped with Nvidia's DSX Vera Rubin computing power platform—the position of energy storage in this solution has moved forward from an auxiliary role into the power supply chain.
A research report by Guojin Zhengquan pointed out, "Considering that Fluence is expanding into AIDC scenarios, there is room for further cooperation between the two parties in the field of data center energy storage in the future." This means that what this agreement locks in is not only the supply relationship of energy storage cells but also a channel leading to the AI computing infrastructure supply chain.
03. A Set of Industry Coordinates: 93% of Signed Orders Come from Overseas
Looking at industry-level data again, according to incomplete statistics from Jibang Guangchu Observation (Jibang Zixun), in the third quarter of 2026, the orders disclosed by Chinese energy storage companies were mainly from overseas markets: the total volume of Q3 energy storage system orders was about 94GWh, and the total volume of energy storage cell orders was about 246.6GWh.
From the disclosed signed orders, the signed scale of energy storage systems by Chinese enterprises in Q3 was about 74GWh, of which overseas market orders were about 67.8GWh, accounting for 93%. By region, Europe remains an important destination for the overseas business of Chinese energy storage companies. The signed scale disclosed in the third quarter was about 31.2GWh, accounting for 42% of the overall signed scale. In addition to mature markets such as Germany and the UK, emerging markets such as Greece and Romania also signed large-scale orders; the signed order capacity in the Middle East market was about 21.3GWh, accounting for about 28.7% of the overall signed capacity; the signed orders in the Asia-Pacific market (excluding China) were about 14.6GWh, mainly from markets such as Australia, India, Japan, the Philippines, and Malaysia.
From the perspective of order structure, there are a total of 19 orders with a clear scale of 1GWh and above, totaling about 62.2GWh, accounting for 84% of all signed orders; there are 5 orders with a single scale of 5GWh and above, which are the 11.275GWh order signed by Biyadi and the UAE energy company Masdar, the 6GWh order in Saudi Arabia signed by Guoxuan Gaoke, the 5GWh order signed by Cornex New Energy and the Danish KK Group, the 5GWh Tianheng sodium-ion energy storage system order signed by Ningde Shidai and the European new energy integrator Alfen N.V., and the 5GWh energy storage system order signed by Rongjie Nengyuan and the Indian power company JSW Energy Limited.
Looking at a longer cycle, the global position of Chinese energy storage cells is equally clear. According to InfoLink data, global energy storage cell shipments in the first half of 2026 were 467.84GWh, a year-on-year increase of 94.76%, of which overseas shipments were 248.73GWh, accounting for 53.2%.
According to SNE Research data, global lithium-ion energy storage battery shipments in the first half of the year were 461.3GWh, a year-on-year increase of 71%. Among them, the top ten enterprises in terms of shipments are all Chinese companies, accounting for about 89% in total: Ningde Shidai ranked first with 125GWh, a share of 27.1%, a year-on-year increase of 81%, ranking first globally for five consecutive years; EVE Energy with 48GWh and Haichen Chuneng with 46.2GWh ranked second and third respectively.
04. The Essence of Locked-Volume Long-Term Agreements: From Grabbing Orders to Occupying Capacity
Putting 206GWh back into the industry coordinates, its greater significance lies in the change of the cooperation structure. Traditional energy storage going global is mostly spot procurement with "case-by-case negotiation," where companies compete on current quotations; whereas a five-year framework agreement locks in the ownership of capacity for the next five years, testing the company's capacity planning, delivery rhythm, and cost stability.
The design in the agreement of "committing 16GWh in 2027 and reserving 190GWh for the following four years" is a direct reflection of this logic—first completing supply chain verification with a determined small-scale commitment, and then anchoring the long-term supply position with reserved capacity. Behind this structural shift is the emergence of structural increments on the demand side. The white paper released by the Zhongguo Huaxue Yu Wuli Dianyuan Hangye Xiehui shows that in 2026, the newly installed capacity of global AI data center (AIDC) energy storage was about 29GWh, and the cumulative installed capacity was about 80GWh. By 2030, the cumulative installed capacity will reach 522GWh.
Of greater note is the slope of this curve—within the four-year span, industry expansion is still in an accelerating phase. The changes on the demand side have been confirmed in corporate orders. According to the 2026 semi-annual reports of various companies, in the first half of the year, Xinwangda's AIDC energy storage orders increased by nearly 30 times year-on-year; Shuangdeng Gufen's newly added AIDC energy storage orders increased by more than 80% year-on-year, of which the newly added AIDC lithium battery orders were 20 times that of the same period last year; the operating revenue of Yuandong Gufen's "smart battery energy storage/computing power AI" business increased by 107.18% year-on-year. The overall scale of going global is also expanding simultaneously.
According to data from the Zhongguo Qiche Dongli Dianchi Chanye Chuangxin Lianmeng, in the first half of 2026, China's cumulative exports of power and energy storage batteries were 181.3GWh, a year-on-year increase of 42.5%; among them, the cumulative exports of energy storage batteries were 58.6GWh, a year-on-year increase of 28.5%. Overseas markets have become an important carrier for incremental demand, and the scale of individual projects is also expanding—according to statistics from Jibang Guangchu Observation, in the third quarter, there were 5 signed orders with a single scale of 5GWh and above, among which the scale of the Saudi energy storage order signed by Guoxuan Gaoke was 6GWh. Large amounts, long-term agreements, and multiple regions are becoming the common characteristics of this round of energy storage going global orders.
05. Key Variable: The Fulfillment Pace of the 190GWh Reserved Capacity
Looking at a longer cycle, whether locked-volume long-term agreements can be transformed into actual shipments, the key variable lies in the fulfillment pace of the reserved capacity. Among the 206GWh, the determined commitment in 2027 is only 16GWh, and the remaining 190GWh is reserved capacity, which requires the company to continuously pass the customer's supply chain verification with delivery capabilities and cost advantages. This is both an order and a five-year delivery capability test.
At the same time, the product structure is also shifting. Data from Jibang Zixun shows that in Q3, the signed cell orders disclosed by Chinese energy storage companies were about 246.6GWh. The 314Ah cell is still an important specification in current orders, and large-capacity cells are also beginning to enter the market on a large scale. The iteration of technical specifications means that whether the locked capacity can adapt to the needs of the next generation of products is also a question that needs to be answered.
The proposition facing going-global enterprises is now clear: when orders move from "case-by-case negotiation" to "five-year locked volume," the focus of competition shifts from price to the certainty of capacity, cost, and delivery. Whoever can steadily realize long-term agreements into long-term shipments will occupy a more forward position in the new round of global energy storage supply landscape.