Before 2026 has even concluded, domestic energy storage orders have already surpassed the total for the entire previous year.
According to incomplete statistics from Expert Say Energy Storage, from January to September 2026 (as of September 30), domestic energy storage-related companies have publicly announced a cumulative total of 324 energy storage orders (excluding winning bids), representing a 44% year-on-year increase in order volume. Among these, 257 orders disclosed specific capacities, totaling 1,137.02 GWh, a year-on-year increase of 180.11% in order capacity. (For the full year of 2025, Chinese energy storage companies announced 316 orders with a total capacity of 917.617 GWh.)
The substantial increase in capacity mainly stems from the intensive emergence of 10 GWh-level orders. In particular, a mega-order exceeding 200 GWh was added in September, accounting for 18.1% of the total capacity in a single deal. (Note: Some corporate orders involve confidentiality matters and remain undisclosed, thus they are not included in the statistics.)
Breaking down the orders, there are four noteworthy changes: procurement is shifting from fragmented orders to three-year and five-year long-term contracts; overseas markets are further expanding into multiple regions such as the United States, India, Australia, and the Middle East; application scenarios are extending to AIDC, mining areas, and transformer district areas; and in terms of technology routes, sodium-ion battery energy storage is beginning to receive orders in batches. The following analysis will further explore quarterly performance, type distribution, overseas markets, and corporate landscape.
On a quarterly basis, Q1 saw 100 orders, with 91 disclosing specific capacities for a total order capacity of 167.34 GWh. As Q2 coincided with the peak exhibition season, orders were frequent; this quarter recorded the highest number and capacity of orders, with 135 orders, 125 of which disclosed specific capacities, totaling 620.93 GWh. Q3 had 89 orders, with 73 disclosing specific capacities, totaling 348.78 GWh.
Q2 capacity accounted for 54.61% of the January-September total. However, in Q3, the single-month capacity in September reached 247.51 GWh, accounting for 71% of Q3, driven up by EVE Energy's massive 206 GWh order. Excluding this order, September's capacity was only 41.51 GWh, and Q3's total was merely 142.78 GWh. The growth in order volume and capacity are not synchronized, with capacity highly dependent on the timing of individual mega-orders being finalized.
Among the 257 orders that disclosed specific capacities, there is only one order above 100 GWh, with a capacity of 206 GWh; 30 orders are above 10 GWh, with a total capacity of 652.78 GWh; 14 orders fall in the 5-10 GWh range (<10 GWh), with a total capacity of 84.67 GWh; 82 orders fall in the 1-5 GWh range (<5 GWh), with a total capacity of 158.27 GWh; and 130 orders are below 1 GWh, with a total capacity of 35.3 GWh.
Mega-orders have a significant leverage effect on the total volume. The growth in order volume is mostly concentrated in small-capacity orders (the tier with the highest volume being below 1 GWh), while the growth in capacity is contributed by mega-orders of 10 GWh and above.
Compared to the order statistics of domestic energy storage-related companies from January to July (click here), three new orders of ≥10 GWh level were added in August and September. These include: EVE Energy's (300014) 206 GWh mega-order for North American AIDC energy storage with Fluence (click here), where both parties reached an agreement on a committed delivery volume of 16 GWh in 2027, with a reserved capacity totaling 190 GWh from 2028 to 2031; HiNa Battery's 10 GWh sodium-ion battery energy storage cell order with South Korea's VOLTA Co., Ltd. (click here); and Songke Xiandao's 10 GWh BESS production line order with Indian renewable energy company Powertrac.
Notably, there are changes in order delivery cycles: most 10 GWh-level orders are long-term contracts, with delivery schedules generally extending to 2027-2028. Both EVE Energy's 206 GWh order and HiNa Battery's 10 GWh order are five-year long-term contracts, with delivery extending to 2031. Additionally, in the large battery energy storage cooperation signed between EVE Energy and India's GNEPL in May, it was agreed that the potential cooperation scale over the next five years could reach up to 60 GWh.
Energy storage procurement is shifting from fragmented orders to concentrated long-term contracts, and the delivery period for long-term contracts is also extending to five years. For the industry, 2027-2028 will usher in a concentrated delivery period, during which corporate delivery capabilities and supply chain organization will face intensive tests. The focus of competition is also shifting from grabbing orders to locking in customers, but long-term contracts imply stronger execution constraints and longer risk exposure periods.
In terms of order types, among the 324 orders, those involving energy storage systems still account for the majority, with a volume proportion of 63.47%; orders involving energy storage lithium batteries/cells account for 14.97%; orders involving sodium-ion batteries, flow batteries, PCS, EMS, BMS, PACK, and operations account for 7.78%; and orders with unspecified types account for 13.77%.
Compared to the January-July statistics, one new PCS order was added—a 100 MW inverter order signed on-site at the new product launch event of Sofar Solar (301658) on September 21 (click here); the remaining two public orders are both from Sineng Electric (300827), totaling 5 GW in PCS orders.
From the perspective of technology routes, lithium batteries still dominate, while orders for sodium-ion battery energy storage are beginning to scale up. Specifically, among the 324 orders, 9 involve sodium-ion battery energy storage; the publicly disclosed total capacity is 87.294 GWh, accounting for 7.3%. Of this, 80.21 GWh is for sodium-ion cells/batteries, and 7.08 GWh is for sodium-ion systems.
Sodium-ion batteries have entered a scaling-up phase, but this is primarily driven by cell supply, with system integration not yet implemented on a large scale. Relevant orders include CATL's three sodium-ion battery + system orders totaling 67 GWh signed this year, HiNa Battery's 10 GWh cell order for South Korea, as well as related orders from China Sodium Electricity, Xingchu Shiji, and Sodium Energy Era.
Looking at specific tracks, although the number of orders explicitly identified as AIDC energy storage, mining area energy storage, and transformer district energy storage is not large, they are still worthy of attention.
Among them, there are 6 AIDC energy storage orders with a total capacity of 231.5 GWh, all involving overseas markets (North America, Southeast Asia). AIDC orders are highly concentrated, with EVE Energy's single order accounting for 90%; however, Clou Electronics (002121), Envision, and Tianneng Battery Group (688819) have followed suit, indicating that AIDC is expanding from overseas data center energy storage allocation to more integrators. On October 9, Far East Smarter Energy (600869) even announced that its intelligent battery energy storage/computing power AI business saw a 126.38% year-on-year increase in contract orders won above CNY 10 million from January to September; Lead Intelligent (300450) has also secured related AIDC energy storage customer production line equipment orders.
There are 6 mining area energy storage orders with a total capacity of 5.77 GWh (calculated using the median value for BYD Energy Storage's orders); and 3 transformer district energy storage orders, obtained by SAV Digital Power and Xingxing Taiyi, respectively.
The United States Surpasses Australia to Rank First
In terms of order distribution by region, among the 257 orders specifying a single country/region, 187 are overseas orders, accounting for over 70%; the capacity is 569.19 GWh, which is also higher than domestic orders (70 orders, 413.31 GWh).
The regional landscape has undergone significant changes. For the full year of 2025, the United States ranked second in overseas order capacity with 40.8 GWh; from January to July 2026, the United States ranked third with 15.8 GWh; however, in the January-September statistics, the United States leaped to first place—signing 9 deals in total with a scale of 221.90 GWh.
The main increment for the ranking leap comes from EVE Energy's 206 GWh North American AIDC order in September. Excluding this order, the remaining 8 orders in the United States total approximately 15.9 GWh, involving Trina Solar (688599), Highstar (688411), Envision, Canadian Solar (688472), and Suqian Shidai Energy Storage. Among them, Canadian Solar secured 4 orders with a total capacity of 3.803 GWh; Envision contributed 10 GWh through the Prevalon order. In other words, after excluding EVE Energy's mega-order, the scale of the remaining U.S. orders is basically on par with the 15.8 GWh for the United States in the previous January-July statistics, and is even lower than Australia's 26.5 GWh.
In other words, the United States' rise to the top this time is not due to a sustained surge in orders from the U.S. market, but rather a single mega-order inflating the total volume. In the statistics for January-July 2026 and the full year of 2025, the country championing overseas capacity was Australia.
In this statistics, India, Australia, the United Arab Emirates, and Turkey rank behind the United States. In particular, the Indian market, despite ranking second in overseas order capacity with 83.5 GWh, has always received complex reviews from the industry—issues such as increased policy localization requirements, long payment collection cycles, and delayed project execution have always existed. Despite this, Chinese companies are still increasing their bets, with CATL (500 MWh), EVE Energy (potential cooperation scale of 60 GWh over the next five years), Songke Xiandao (10 GWh), and Rongji Energy (9 GWh) all securing orders here.
These three countries—Australia, the UAE, and Turkey—all have 10 GWh-level mega-orders as support. For instance, in the Australian market orders, Maysun Solar signed a total of 10 GWh in orders during the SNEC exhibition in June; in the UAE market orders, the UAE enterprise Masdar awarded an 11.275 GWh order to BYD (002594) Energy Storage and a 7.5 GWh order to Sungrow (300274).
In terms of order volume, Romania and Germany have the highest number of orders, both with 17 orders, and order capacities of 11.87 GWh and 11.28 GWh, respectively.
Additionally, in this statistics, there are 17 orders covering multiple countries/regions, with a total capacity of 35.32 GWh, which are basically orders for European, Southeast Asian, and South American countries. Such orders involve 13 enterprises: CATL (300750), Sungrow (300274), Highstar (688411), Ashitech, REPT Battero (0666), Sacred Sun (06960), Skyworth Energy Storage, Cornex New Energy, CARI, Star Charge, Rongji Energy, Hoenergy, and SVOLT.
The overseas market is shifting from Australia's leadership to a multi-point bloom in markets such as the United States, India, and the Middle East. The biggest subsequent variables remain policies, tariffs, and localization requirements—for example, the United States has local manufacturing thresholds and stricter compliance; India has ALBM and local content requirements; and Europe is advancing local supply chains. For Chinese energy storage companies, the certainty of overseas order growth is increasing, but the difficulty of implementation and the risk exposure period are also lengthening.
Over 110 Companies Secure Orders, EVE Energy Leads in Order Capacity
According to incomplete statistics from Expert Say Energy Storage, among the orders publicly announced by domestic energy storage companies from January to September, over 110 Chinese energy storage-related companies have secured new energy storage orders. Battery companies still dominate, with the top five remaining EVE Energy (443.54 GWh in total), Cornex New Energy (99 GWh in total), CATL (92.32 GWh in total), Hithium (56.94 GWh in total), and Pengcheng Wuxian (35.4 GWh in total).
In terms of the publicly announced order volume, the top five are Sungrow (23 orders), Trina Solar (19 orders), Cornex New Energy (18 orders), CATL (16 orders), and Highstar (15 orders). It should be noted that this ranking is strictly limited to order information publicly disclosed by the companies; some companies have not disclosed relevant data due to confidentiality reasons and are therefore not included in this ranking.
Among them, the largest single energy storage system order remains unchanged, which is the BYD Haohan energy storage system order supplied by BYD Energy Storage for the UAE with 11.275 GWh (click here). Meanwhile, Sigenergy (06656) secured a total of 20 GWh in energy storage system-related orders with multiple partners during The smarter E Europe, and Rongji Energy also obtained a 12 GWh energy storage cell and system order during the same exhibition. The largest single energy storage cell/battery order was won by EVE Energy, which is its AIDC energy storage order with Fluence, with a capacity of 206 GWh.
In addition, other noteworthy large orders include the 60 GWh sodium-ion battery cooperation signed between CATL and Highstar, and the 60 GWh large battery energy storage cooperation between EVE Energy and India's GNEPL; the two orders totaling 50 GWh reached by Hithium with Xingchen Xinneng and Clou Electronics successively; the 50 GWh energy storage battery order secured by Cornex New Energy during the Shenzhen CIBF exhibition in May; the two cell orders totaling 35 GWh signed by Pengcheng Wuxian with Jiayang Energy in July, and so on.
Conventionally, Q4 each year is often the peak season for energy storage orders. In Q4 2025, the order capacity of domestic energy storage companies reached 511.698 GWh, exceeding the total of the first three quarters, which was 405.919 GWh. Whether this can be sustained in Q4 this year remains to be seen, but the quality of Q4 will likely determine whether the 2026 orders are high in the first half and also high in the second half or overdrawn in the first three quarters and falling back in Q4.
Looking ahead, it is advisable to pay attention to three signals: Will there be more 10 GWh-level long-term contracts in Q4? Will AIDC orders extend from overseas to domestic markets? Can sodium-ion battery system integration continue to scale up? These three points will determine whether the 2026 energy storage orders represent true prosperity or mega-order pulses.
It should also be noted that 10 GWh-level long-term contracts are often unpredictable, and ultimately, it depends on actual performance and delivery. Locking in orders does not equal delivery, and signed capacity does not equal grid-connected capacity. The real test is not at the signing table, but in the concentrated delivery period over the next few years.
Note: The content of this article is only a compilation of public information in the energy storage industry, industrial research, and objective analysis. The listed companies mentioned in the article are only for reference as industry chain cases and do not constitute any investment basis. The market has risks, and investment requires caution.