Nearly 21GWh of grid-scale BESS came online globally last month, of which around a fifth was in Saudi Arabia while the majority was in China.
The latest figures are out from Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, which we report as part of a monthly series for ESN Premium.
They show that grid-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS) entered commercial operation last month globally totalling 6,516MW/20,855MWh of capacity.
Some 61% of that was in China, 19% was in Saudi Arabia, 11% was in Europe while just under 5% was in South and Central America. See a full table of the figures further down.
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The monthly activity brings the total year-to-date (YTD) figure of commission BESS capacity to 177GWh, a year-on-year increase of 35%.
| Region | MW | MWh |
| Africa | 100 | 200 |
| Asia (ex China) | 52 | 208 |
| China | 4,131 | 12,757 |
| Europe | 914 | 2,290 |
| Middle East | 1,000 | 4,000 |
| North America | 100 | 400 |
| Oceania | 20 | 40 |
| South & Central America | 199 | 960 |
| Total | 6516 | 20,855 |
Europe in particular has ramped up its activity, commissioning three times the amount of capacity that it did in the same eight-month period in 2025: 18.2GWh. In August, 914MW/2,290MWh came online, including a 150MW/600MWh project from EDF in Belgium and a 500MW/1GWh project from CIP in Scotland.
Saudi Arabia’s figure was made up of two 500MW/2GWh projects (the Tabuk and Ha’il projects) supplied by China-based Hithium. The South and Central America figures meanwhile are made up of projects that Engie brought online during the month.
North America had its quietest month of the year by far, with only 100MW/400MWh coming online, mainly comprising EDP’s Sandrini project in California.
China meanwhile deployed 4,131MW/12,757MWh of capacity. The largest of these were two in inner Mongolia (the Inner Mongolia Xilingol Dongsu Energy Storage Project sub-project I & 2, 500MW/2GWh each with StarCharge as integrator) and one in Hebei (a 300MW/1.2GWh project with Sungrow as integrator).
