Australia, India, Japan, and the Philippines are driving a rapid transformation in the Asia-Pacific’s utility-scale battery storage market, with developers moving from 10-30MWh deployments to 500MWh or larger systems, often as their first major project.
This is according to Trina Storage’s head of sales, BESS APAC, Warrick Stapleton, who told ESN Premium in an exclusive interview that these four markets, alongside China, are key focus areas for the company in the region.
However, he emphasised that market maturity levels differ substantially across APAC, creating diverse technical requirements and procurement dynamics.
“Across the region, we’re seeing different levels of maturity. In certain markets, we’re seeing that the frequency control ancillary services (FCAS) market has largely disappeared. We’re moving more toward an energy arbitrage market and a longer-duration market. In contrast, in other parts of APAC, there’s still an active FCAS market” Stapleton said, drawing parallels to Australia’s market evolution several years ago.
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The fundamental challenge facing the industry is no longer proving technology at pilot scale but delivering confidence when projects have increased capacity by more than 10-fold.
Stapleton noted that what is considered standard practice in Australia can be “completely different” in markets such as the Philippines, Taiwan, Korea or Japan.
“What may be considered normal in Australia, you could flip it on its head through what we call the rest of Asia: the Philippines, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, for example,” he said.
“Big drivers will be cost, so a dollar per kilowatt-hour in each of those markets. But it also could be compatibility with a particular trading desk or an aggregator in different markets, or the market operator, or the network.”
The Asia-Pacific region is set to become a major global market for energy storage technologies, not just at a deployment scale, but also in the manufacturing space.
Just last month, Energy-Storage.news reported that Chinese lithium-ion battery and energy storage systems manufacturer Hithium inked a cooperation agreement with infrastructure investor Brawn Capital for potentially 3GWh of battery storage deployments in the Asia-Pacific region.
For those interested, our publisher, Solar Media (part of the Informa Group), is set to host the Energy Storage Summit Asia 2026 in Bangkok, Thailand, on 1-3 July. You can find more information about the event on the official website.
The regional variations extend even within individual countries across APAC. Stapleton discussed with ESN Premium the differences between Australia’s National Electricity Market (NEM), which spans Australia’s eastern and southern states and territories, and the Wholesale Electricity Market (WEM) in Western Australia, as well as variations across Japan’s geography.
However, Stapleton noted that Australia remains a priority market for Trina Storage, with the company focusing on standalone and hybrid large-scale utility systems.
While the majority of APAC’s utility-scale battery storage market is moving toward larger platforms, with inverters approaching 5MW and Trina Storage’s battery containers scaling from 4MWh to 6.25MWh, infrastructure constraints in certain markets are driving demand for smaller systems.
Japan presents a contrasting requirement due to its limited transport infrastructure, prompting Trina to offer a 1.56MWh option that can reach sites “without having to disassemble and then reassemble the product.”
This article features comments from our exclusive interview with Trina Storage on ESN Premium. Those with a subscription can read the full interview, which includes Stapleton‘s thoughts on grid-forming technology, co-location and insights into the company’s integrated system test centre in Chuzhou, China.
