Technically, batteries are always being used for energy storage. However, in this industry, saying they will be used for “energy storage” means for stationary energy storage systems rather than in electric vehicles. Anyway, the largest battery maker in the world, China’s CATL, has said that it expects energy storage will come to account for 50% of its battery sales by 2030, up from 25% today. If that seems like a crazy increase, note that approximately 2% of CATL’s battery sales were for energy storage five years ago. Also note that CATL is only 15 years old, founded in 2011 just as the EV revolution was getting going. This is a story we’re very familiar with by now. Solar and wind power have dominated new power capacity additions around the world in recent years, but since those power systems can only produce electricity when there’s sun or wind, it’s useful to have batteries nearby to store it when it’s not needed for times when it is. So, stationary battery storage systems have been growing tremendously alongside solar and wind power growth. The news that CATL expects stationary storage’s share of its sales will double to 50% by 2030 came from Kevin Tang, CATL’s director of energy storage systems for Europe, according to Reuters. “CATL mines lithium in southern China to exert some control over the battery supply chain. It also operates the world’s largest recycling plant for recovery of the raw materials used in batteries, Tang said.” Reuters also notes that the company has battery factories in Germany and Hungary, with another one being built in Spain under a joint venture with Stellantis.
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