The Battery Boom Is Becoming Impossible to Ignore
For the past several weeks, I have been working my way through the major findings in the Energy Institute’s 2026 Statistical Review of World Energy. This article concludes that series. For readers who want to catch up, the previous installments are: Energy Demand Outpaced the Transition in 2025 Global Emissions Hit a New Record as U.S. Emissions Rebounded The U.S. Is Both the World’s Top Oil…
In recent years, the battery storage industry has experienced unprecedented growth, making it the most remarkable story in the Energy Institute's 2026 Statistical Review of World Energy. Global battery energy storage system capacity reached 301.7 gigawatts in 2025, up from 182.0 GW in 2024 - a nearly 120 GW increase, or 65.8% growth.
The surge in battery capacity is closely linked to the explosive expansion of solar power. Solar generation has become cost-effective on a massive scale, surpassing wind in global electricity generation for the first time in 2025. However, solar has a significant limitation - its production peaks during daylight, while electricity demand doesn't wane when the sun sets.
Battery storage addresses this challenge by absorbing excess solar power during peak generation times and releasing it later when electricity is more valuable.
China leads the world in battery storage capacity, accounting for nearly half of the global total. In 2025, China had about 144.1 GW of installed battery capacity, representing virtually all growth in the industry. Its capacity more than doubled from 79.5 GW in 2024, more than half of all new battery capacity installed worldwide that year. China's 2025 total is over 1,200 times larger than its 2015 capacity of just 115 MW.
The United States ranks second with 56.6 GW of installed battery capacity, representing almost 19% of the global total. U.S. capacity grew by 21.9 GW in 2025, or about 63%. The American market is more balanced between utility-scale and behind-the-meter installations than China's. U.S. front-of-the-meter capacity reached nearly 43.3 GW, while behind-the-meter capacity totaled about 13.3 GW. Ten years ago, total U.S. battery capacity stood at only about 354 MW.
Europe and Australia are also rapidly scaling up their battery storage capacity. Europe finished 2025 with about 57.7 GW of battery capacity, slightly more than the U.S. Germany was Europe's leader, with over 14.4 GW of its 17.5 GW total behind the meter. Australia saw a massive increase in battery capacity, more than doubling from 6.6 GW to 12.6 GW, giving it more than 4% of worldwide capacity despite its small population.
Written by urgent.news from OilPrice's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
