Chinese battery manufacturer CATL anticipates that energy storage will make up half the global sales by 2030

CATL in China, the?largest battery manufacturer in the world, is expecting energy storage to account for 50% of its global sales, up from 25% today, according to a company official on Thursday.

Kevin Tang, CATL’s director of Energy Storage Systems for Europe, stated that energy storage is already up from 2% of battery purchases five years ago.

CATL was founded in 2011 and initially specialized in manufacturing lithium-ion battery for electric vehicles. These batteries now account for about three quarters its sales. Tang stated that the demand for battery storage is driven by an increased need to complement intermittent renewables.

He said that "once we have more renewable energy," energy storage is needed. This was on the sidelines the International Photovoltaic Power Generation and 'Smart Energy Conference & Exhibition, which was the largest solar conference in the world.

Customers in Europe, CATL’s third largest?energy storage markets after China?and the U.S. are investing both in renewables plus grid-side storage and grid-side energy storage, depending where congestion points are in local power grids, he explained.

CATL operates manufacturing plants in Germany, Hungary and Spain. A joint venture between Stellantis and CATL is building a new factory in Spain.

Tang stated that unlike the automotive industry, energy storage in Europe has not been subject to calls for stricter requirements regarding local sourcing components to protect domestic businesses. He said that making these?projects financially viable remained a major challenge for the energy sector.

CATL announced this week that it would invest 3 billion dollars ($440 million) into an energy storage testing center to simulate grids, and investigate the causes of fires and explosions related to energy storage.

Energy storage manufacturers face another challenge with the rising prices of raw materials such as lithium, 'copper and aluminium, following the U.S./Israel war against Iran. However, Tang believes that costs will?fall in the longer term, as the supply -chain matures.

CATL mines Lithium in southern China to exert control over the supply chain. Tang added that the company operates the largest recycling facility in the world for recovering the raw materials needed to make batteries. (Reporting and editing by Susan Fenton; Sudarshan Varadan, Colleen Waye)

(source: Reuters)