New Energy Storage Manufacturing Industry Advances Towards High-Quality Development
On March 12, 2025, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology held a policy briefing in Beijing for the Action Plan for High-Quality Development of the New Energy Storage Manufacturing Industry. During the meeting, officials from the Ministry’s Electronic Information Department outlined the plan’s formulation and considerations. Representatives from key industrial regions, enterprises, associations, and research institutions attended the conference. Many participants expressed that the Action Plan serves as a “guideline” and “roadmap” for the development of China’s new energy storage industry, which will significantly propel the sector into a new phase of high-quality growth.
According to Academician Nan Cewen of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Action Plan is not only vital for the high-quality development of the new energy storage industry but also has a strong industrial driving and radiating effect. It can directly stimulate the development of electrochemical energy storage, battery physical storage technologies, and related information technologies, as well as promote advancements in subfields such as battery materials, power electronics, semiconductors, intelligent sensors, and system integration. Furthermore, it can enhance the synergy of related industries, including renewable power generation, smart grids, new energy vehicles, artificial intelligence, and data centers.
The new energy storage manufacturing industry, as an emerging sector within the electronic information manufacturing industry, plays a crucial role in the efficient development and utilization of renewable energy and is a key component in building a modern industrial system. In recent years, China’s new energy storage manufacturing industry has rapidly advanced, achieving leading advantages in industrial ecology, technological innovation, and market scale. The country has built a comprehensive industrial chain, leading globally in technologies such as lithium batteries, sodium-ion batteries, flow batteries, and large-scale compressed air energy storage.
In terms of policy, 2024 marked the first time new energy storage was included in the government work report, significantly enhancing its importance and value positioning. This year’s report proposed the cultivation of several national-level advanced manufacturing clusters, with emerging industries like commercial aerospace, BeiDou applications, and new energy storage rapidly developing. By 2024, China’s cumulative installed capacity of new energy storage surpassed that of pumped storage for the first time, becoming the second largest flexible adjustment resource in the power system following thermal power. As of the end of 2024, the cumulative installed capacity of new energy storage projects in China reached 73.76 million kilowatts / 168 million kilowatt-hours, achieving a remarkable 20-fold increase since the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan.
In February this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and eight other departments released the Action Plan, aiming for China’s new energy storage manufacturing industry to exhibit significant international competitive advantages across the entire supply chain by 2027, with a stronger lineup of leading enterprises and enhanced industrial innovation and comprehensive competitiveness. The plan emphasizes achieving high-end, intelligent, and green development while fostering 3 to 5 dominant ecological enterprises.
This marks the first supply-side policy document for new energy storage issued by the Ministry, covering various aspects such as encouraging technological innovation, preventing low-level repetitive construction, expanding application fields, enhancing intellectual property protection, and promoting high-level international expansion.
Liu Wenqiang, Secretary of the Party Committee and Vice President of the China Electronics Information Industry Development Institute, noted that the global demand for new energy storage is continuously increasing, with countries vying for dominance in this sector. The inclusion of “developing new energy storage” in the government work report last year highlighted its significance in establishing a green and low-carbon energy system in China under new circumstances. The timing for the Action Plan is indeed fortuitous.
Liu further explained that the global energy structure is rapidly transitioning to clean energy, with significant growth in the installed capacity of renewables like wind and solar. As a key technology supporting the construction of a new energy system and new power system, the market demand for new energy storage has surged. Beyond traditional storage markets in China, the United States, and Europe, emerging markets in Southeast Asia and the Middle East are also experiencing rapid growth and significant potential for expansion. Chinese new energy storage companies are accelerating their global industry dominance through product exports, technology exports, and capacity exports.
Jiang Hailong, Chairman of the National New Energy Storage Innovation Center, stated that the Action Plan serves as a “guideline” and “roadmap” for the development of China’s new energy storage industry, strongly propelling it into a new phase of high-quality growth. New energy storage technologies represented by lithium-ion and sodium-ion batteries are expected to achieve lower lifecycle costs than pumped storage during the 14th Five-Year Plan period.
Technology innovation is the core driving force for the rapid development of the new energy storage industry. The Action Plan encourages the development of diversified new energy storage technologies, aiming to accelerate the diversification of energy storage technologies to meet various time scales and application scenarios for medium and short-term, as well as long-term energy storage. It supports disruptive technological innovations and promotes engineering and application advancements in supercapacitors, lead-carbon batteries, sodium batteries, and flow batteries.
According to Nan Cewen, the Action Plan highlights technological innovation, dedicating one-third of its content to this topic. It emphasizes strengthening disruptive technological innovation and the development of key common technologies while presenting numerous technology guidelines related to new energy storage. This provides robust guidance for the direction of innovative research and the healthy, orderly development of the industry.
However, Nan also cautioned that these diversified technologies will inevitably undergo a process of competition. It is crucial to identify the specific technologies and products needed in the new energy storage sector. The Action Plan emphasizes increasing the supply capacity of new energy storage products and technologies that are high in safety, reliability, energy efficiency, long-lasting, and economically viable. This addresses critical issues and pain points in the development of new energy storage technologies, and high-safety, long-life, and cost-effective technologies will face broader development opportunities.
Liu Wenqiang pointed out that China’s new energy storage market is currently dominated by lithium batteries, with multiple technological routes competing for development. Lithium battery technology is the most mature, holding the largest market share. Semi-solid batteries have begun mass production and are approaching the cost of liquid lithium batteries. Solid-state batteries are developing along various technological routes, including sulfides, polymers, and oxides. Sodium batteries, benefiting from abundant sodium resources and low costs, as well as advantages in performance and low-temperature performance, are gradually demonstrating scale effects. Flow batteries, with a wide operating temperature range, have been scaled in cold regions and are expected to become the mainstay of long-term energy storage. Additionally, physical storage technologies like compressed air and flywheels continue to iterate, improving efficiency and reducing costs.
The Action Plan not only sets requirements for current mature technologies but also supports disruptive technological innovations. It considers both the current state of the industry and anticipates potential future directions for development. Zhang Jianhui, Chairman and CEO of Haibo Science and Technology Co., Ltd., expressed hope for more supporting policies to be introduced. He noted that the Action Plan elevates the requirements for safety technology research to encompass the entire lifecycle of new energy storage, meaning that safety considerations will extend beyond battery and system safety to encompass security issues from the perspective of the entire power station lifecycle.
On the market side, the Action Plan emphasizes the application of grid-type energy storage, marking a significant turning point as the storage market transitions from traditional grid-type energy storage technologies to advanced grid-type energy storage technologies.
Moreover, industry experts indicate that the rapid development of the new energy storage manufacturing industry relies not only on technological innovation but also on intelligent transformation. The Action Plan proposes promoting deep integration between new energy storage and the new generation of information technologies. Liu Wenqiang predicts that the integration of cutting-edge information technologies could lead to new service manufacturing models for the lifecycle management of new energy storage batteries. For example, using artificial intelligence to swiftly screen high-performance battery materials, optimize battery synthesis processes, and predict battery lifespan. By employing technologies such as the Internet of Things and cloud computing, real-time monitoring and fault diagnosis of new energy storage products can be achieved, reducing operational and maintenance costs and facilitating the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry.
Zhang Jianhui noted that Haibo Science and Technology has integrated its big data analysis system with the DeepSeek platform to deeply mine the vast amounts of data generated during the operation of energy storage systems. This deepens the integration of artificial intelligence technology with energy storage scenarios while further enhancing the lifespan, efficiency, and reliability of energy storage systems.
As for the future development of the new energy storage industry in China, Nan Cewen proposed three suggestions during the briefing. Firstly, government departments should strengthen policy coherence and firmly implement the initiatives outlined in the Action Plan, ensuring sustained investment from enterprises. Secondly, companies should abandon low-price strategies and shift towards value competition based on technology and services. Additionally, industry standards should be strengthened to avoid chaotic low-end development. China’s new energy storage industry not only possesses scale advantages but is also becoming a “leader” in standard-setting.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has revised and implemented the Regulatory Conditions for the Lithium-Ion Battery Industry (2024 Edition), raising technical indicators and safety quality requirements in response to the development of the new energy storage manufacturing industry. It aims to reinforce the regulatory management of the new energy storage sector, represented by lithium batteries, and enhance the quality supervision of new energy storage products. Moreover, it has issued the mandatory national standard Safety Requirements for Lithium Storage Batteries and Battery Packs Used in Energy Storage Systems, accelerating the formulation and revision of safety testing and evaluation standards, and conducting thorough quality inspections of lithium batteries for energy storage while ensuring safety standards.
