Author: 24Chao Industry Research Institute, Editor: Shuijing
Globally, amid the continuous game between energy and politics, a new world and order are taking shape.
In particular, given the acceleration of global electrification and the continuous boom in AI (Artificial Intelligence), electricity is becoming one of the most critical energy assets globally. Coupled with the global consensus on carbon neutrality, new energy power dominated by wind and solar is entering an epic growth cycle. According to data from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), by the end of 2025, the global installed capacity of renewable energy reached 5,149 GW, of which the installed capacity of solar photovoltaics was 2,392 GW and wind power was 1,291 GW, accounting for a combined 71.53%.
However, alongside the strong rise of new energy sources such as wind and solar, some issues remain unresolved. In particular, the issue of grid integration and absorption is becoming the most severe challenge in the industrialization process. The new industry consensus is that energy storage will be the decisive factor in the global energy transition, which is also one of the core drivers behind the rapid surge in global energy storage in recent years.
According to data from authoritative institutions, from 2020 to 2025, the annual newly added installed capacity of global new-type energy storage increased from 13 GWh to 306 GWh, a 23.54-fold growth. Among them, the Chinese market grew from 3 GWh to 190 GWh, a 62.33-fold increase; the US market grew from 3 GWh to 42 GWh, a 13-fold increase; and the European market grew from 2 GWh to 30 GWh, a 14-fold increase.
Looking ahead, accompanied by the extreme fission of the global energy landscape and application scenarios, global energy storage is likely to enter an even more explosive growth cycle.
Minmetals Securities analysis suggests that the peak of annual newly added installed capacity for global wind, solar, and energy storage (utility-scale storage) will appear around 2035. The peak annual newly added installed capacity for energy storage is expected to exceed 1.5 TWh, leaving 8.6 times of growth space before reaching the installed capacity ceiling, while the peak shipment volume is expected to exceed 2.0 TWh. The CAGR for newly added global energy storage capacity from 2024 to 2035 is approximately 21.3%.
Additionally, according to the latest analysis report by CSC Financial, taking residential electricity prices as a reference indicator for the economic payback period of residential energy storage, and considering the higher electricity demand in developed countries, high-electricity-price areas, villas, and power-deficient regions at 20 kWh/household, and 5-10 kWh/household in emerging markets and medium-to-low electricity price areas, with the average price of residential energy storage products in developed countries calculated at 1.5 RMB/Wh and in developing and underdeveloped countries at 1.2 RMB/Wh, the corresponding cumulative global installed capacity of residential energy storage can reach 2,842 GWh.
According to its preliminary statistics, by the end of 2025, the cumulative installed capacity of global residential energy storage was approximately 79 GWh. Based on the long-term cumulative installed capacity, the corresponding penetration rate is about 2.8%, indicating a very broad prospect.
From the perspective of national development potential, the residential energy storage market space in 9 countries/regions exceeds 100 billion RMB. China is the only country with a market potential exceeding 1 trillion RMB, with a residential energy storage market space reaching 1.61 trillion RMB; the United States ranks second at 855 billion RMB; and Japan ranks third with a market space of 236.2 billion RMB.
Looking ahead, CSC Financial's analysis suggests that global commercial and industrial (C&I) energy storage has greater growth potential. The main reasons are: on the one hand, countries with a high proportion of green power generation are gradually introducing and improving electricity market mechanisms, expanding the economic viability of C&I energy storage through peak-valley price spreads and ancillary services, stimulating storage deployment to alleviate grid absorption pressure; on the other hand, the power supply-demand gap in high energy consumption application scenarios such as AI data centers and mining areas is gradually widening, prompting various commercial and industrial owners to increase the proportion of self-owned energy storage facilities, driving high demand growth.
Referencing the commercial and industrial electricity consumption of various countries globally, and comprehensively considering the penetration rate and power generation duration, CSC Financial estimates that the long-term cumulative installed capacity will exceed 4,592 GWh, with a market space of approximately 4.7 trillion RMB, corresponding to a penetration rate of less than 1%. By anchoring to the commercial and industrial electricity demand of various countries, assuming that the proportion of enterprises installing C&I energy storage is about 50% and the discharge duration is 4 hours, the long-term cumulative capacity demand for C&I energy storage is expected to reach 4,592 GWh, with a market space of approximately 4.7 trillion RMB.
According to our statistics, by the end of 2025, the cumulative installed capacity of global C&I energy storage was approximately 42 GW, corresponding to a penetration rate of about 0.9%.
More importantly, driven by the extreme fission of global application scenarios, energy storage applications are no longer limited to the traditional "source-grid-load". Incremental application scenarios such as computing power centers, ultra-fast charging networks, and off-grid microgrids are all bringing about massive energy storage demand.
A set of data is sufficient to demonstrate the growth potential of energy storage in the AIDC (AI Data Center) field. Given the characteristics of AI data centers, such as extremely high power density, severe load fluctuations, and stringent reliability requirements, according to the 800V high-voltage DC power supply architecture solution released by NVIDIA in October 2025, energy storage is expected to become a standard configuration for the new generation of power supply architecture in AIDCs.
According to IEA forecasts, the total scale of global data centers (traditional + AIDC) is expected to reach 226 GW by 2030, including 100 GW in the US, 67 GW in China, and 27 GW in Europe. Consequently, the annual newly added scale of global data centers will rise from 14 GW in 2024 to an average of 23 GW per year over the next five years.
Furthermore, according to Minmetals Securities' calculations, the incremental energy storage demand brought by AI is expected to increase the CAGR of energy storage from 2024 to 2035 from 21.3% to 24.0%, and raise the peak energy storage demand in 2035 from 1.5 TWh to 1.9 TWh.
Additionally, according to our market research, the demand for energy storage in microgrid scenarios such as mines, oil fields, salt lakes, and islands is also steadily increasing. According to Market.us forecasts, the global microgrid battery energy storage market will grow rapidly from $2.1 billion in 2024 to $8.9 billion in 2034, with an expected CAGR of 15.6% from 2025 to 2034.
Furthermore, given the acceleration of global vehicle electrification, there is also huge hidden energy storage demand under the fast-charging network. According to data from the State Grid Energy Research Institute, by the end of 2025, the total number of public charging piles globally was nearly 7 million, with over 1.6 million newly added, representing a year-on-year growth of more than 30%. We assume that even if 10% of public charging piles complete the integrated storage-charging transformation, it will release nearly 260 GWh of energy storage demand.
In the foreseeable future, globally, there will undoubtedly be more and more new application scenarios for energy storage. It is no exaggeration to describe it as "a thousand scenarios with a thousand faces," and every new application scenario contains growth opportunities worth tens of billions or even hundreds of billions of RMB.
Returning to the business level, if we consider the entire life cycle of energy storage, we believe that enterprises possessing factors such as "profound insight and deep understanding of global power systems and all application scenarios, full-stack in-house R&D capabilities in key software and hardware, and even the entire energy storage system, extremely rich practical experience globally, and sustainable operational capabilities" are more capable of crossing cycles and holding a leading position in the new world order.
Observing from a longer cycle, the global energy storage industry is far from its endgame, and more exciting stories will undoubtedly unfold in the future of energy storage.
References and Acknowledgments:
CSC Financial — Overseas Behind-the-Meter Energy Storage is in the Ascendant, the Winning Hand Lies in Commercial and Industrial Energy Storage