Saudi Arabia and the UAE have emerged as two of the world’s most prominent energy storage markets, with mega-scale projects announced and moved forward at a staggering pace over the last two years. But what does the next phase look like?
A staggering total of 18GW/65GWh of large-scale BESS came online in China last month, accounting for a quarter of the total capacity deployed across the globe in 2025.
A total of around 4.9GW/14GWh of grid-scale BESS entered commercial operations around the world last month, a 29% fall year-on-year owing to an unusually slow month in China.
The US market is expected to be the largest source of revenue and driver of activity for Fluence in 2026, and a second battery cell deal with a domestic supplier is imminent.
The battery storage industry’s race for higher energy density should be put into a site-level perspective, rather than focusing solely on larger cells.
China continued to drive global grid-scale BESS commissioning activity in July, as the technology approaches the global installed gigawatt (GW) capacity of pumped hydro.
June 2025 saw a total of 7.96GW/22.17GWh of grid-scale BESS enter commercial operations across 109 projects, with over half of that being in China, while the overall first half of the year saw substantial growth.
