China commissioned 21.81 GW/58.60 GWh of new energy storage in the first half of 2026, down 18% in power terms and 16% in energy terms on the same period a year earlier, the first half-year decline the market has recorded, according to the China Energy Storage Alliance (CNESA). At the same time, Chinese suppliers signed 298 GWh of overseas contracts, an 83% increase, with Europe the largest destination and the Middle East, India and Chile identified as the fastest-growing regions.
The domestic slowdown reflects a shift towards fewer, larger and longer projects rather than a collapse in demand. The number of newly commissioned projects fell 51% year on year, yet the market share of projects of 100 MW or more rose by 8%. Average storage duration climbed 2.3% to 2.69 hours, and the share of projects with four hours or more increased by 4.8%. Standalone storage accounted for 15.1 GW, or 69.3% of new capacity, up 13.9% on the year. Cumulative installed storage of all types reached 237.7 GW by the end of June, up 41.7%, of which new-type storage made up 168.3 GW/448.7 GWh.
Procurement activity points to a rebound in construction later in the year. Framework agreements covered 80.16 GWh in the half, up 95%, while awarded EPC capacity reached 161.2 GWh, up 112%, spread across 580 winning bidders. Prices have firmed: the average awarded price for two-hour systems rose 8.3% to RMB 599.3 per kWh, and for four-hour systems it rose 21.1% to RMB 541.3 per kWh. Global lithium-ion cell shipments reached 380 GWh in the period against 809.5 GWh of operational Chinese cell capacity, a gap that helps explain the push into export markets.
Policy is reshaping domestic revenue. National Document No. 114 established China’s first national capacity pricing mechanism for standalone storage, and seven provinces, Gansu, Jilin, Shaanxi, Xinjiang, Hubei, Ningxia and Qinghai, have introduced capacity tariff rules. CNESA describes a three-pillar revenue model built on capacity tariffs, energy markets and ancillary services. CNESA chairman Chen Haisheng said “the underlying logic of the storage sector has shifted”.
Why does this matter?
Buyers in the Middle East, South Asia, Africa and Latin America are now a primary outlet for Chinese battery capacity that the home market no longer absorbs at the previous pace. That supports availability for emerging market tenders, but rising Chinese award prices signal that steadily falling system costs may be pausing.
What happens next?
The 161.2 GWh of awarded EPC work will feed into second-half commissioning, so full-year Chinese deployment figures will show whether the first-half dip was a timing effect of the new capacity pricing regime or a structural plateau. Overseas, procurement teams running storage tenders in Saudi Arabia, India, Chile and beyond should expect strong Chinese participation and will need to watch cell price trends as domestic Chinese awards move upward.