By Sudarshan Varadhan and Colleen Howe
SHANGHAI, June 5 (Reuters) – China’s main photo voltaic panel producers are ramping up higher-margin battery exports to spice up income as development in photovoltaic (PV) gross sales slows, betting on rising world demand for renewable vitality storage to lower reliance on fossil fuels.
The sector has been hit by weaker home installations, slowing exports and record-low costs, with executives anticipating world demand to say no in 2026.
That has pushed gamers together with JinkoSolar, JA Photo voltaic, LONGi Inexperienced Power and Trina Photo voltaic to speed up enlargement into battery storage, firm executives advised Reuters.
JinkoSolar plans to almost triple its battery manufacturing capability from 5 gigawatt-hours (GWh) to 13-14 GWh by the tip of this yr, as builders search to handle the intermittency of renewables, an organization official mentioned at SNEC – a photo voltaic business gathering attended by over half one million folks.
“We’re seeing some goodwill from our firm’s administrators’ standpoint, in that we’re having huge investments,” Titus Koech, a regional technical head for vitality storage programs, advised Reuters.
International locations with excessive renewable penetration – together with Japan, Vietnam and India, in addition to Germany, the Netherlands, the U.S. and Australia – had been among the many largest importers of batteries from China in 2025, in keeping with vitality assume tank Ember.
At JA Photo voltaic’s sales space, vitality storage merchandise took centre stage, marking a shift from PV-focused shows in earlier conferences, mentioned Gloria Gao, advertising and marketing director of its storage unit.
“If you happen to solely personal a photo voltaic enterprise, it is not serving to your corporation develop as a result of the margins are actually small. That is why we began our vitality storage enterprise, as a result of we foresee the long run,” Gao advised Reuters.
Photo voltaic panels exports, which generally carry higher margins than home gross sales, grew 4.7% in 2025 – the slowest tempo since 2018, Ember knowledge confirmed. Development from Could to December is predicted to lag that seen within the first 4 months of the yr, Rystad Power analyst Fei Chen mentioned.
In contrast, battery exports for vitality storage are forecast to leap 30% to 150 GWh in 2026, Rystad mentioned.
ONE-STOP-SHOP VERSUS BATTERY MANUFACTURING GIANTS
China’s photo voltaic producers are coming into a market dominated by battery giants akin to CATL and BYD, however are betting on their supply-chain experience and skill to supply built-in solar-plus-storage options.
Such integration has made vitality storage “the second development curve” after photovoltaics, a Trina Photo voltaic official mentioned.