While the photovoltaic industry is still struggling in the loss quagmire, energy storage companies are taking the lead out of the bottom of the cycle. With the
recent shortage of energy supply caused by the Middle East conflict, the new energy transformation of many countries around the world has been put on the agenda again, and the European optical storage market has also seen a rare "single explosion" situation. In addition, the demand for energy storage brought about by the great development of new energy, and the surge in demand for green power, especially energy storage, triggered by the great development of AI big data, all indicate that the energy storage industry is ushering in a super cycle.
Recently, the International Energy Agency released the "2026 Global Power Report", directly releasing a heavy judgment: global energy storage has entered the eve of the outbreak.
Under such a tuyere, as the core player of the new energy industry chain, more and more photovoltaic enterprises are also laying out energy storage business, relying on the inherent advantages of the power generation side.
On February 26, Inner Mongolia Tian Energy Storage Technology Co., Ltd. was registered and established with a registered capital of 10 million yuan to promote photovoltaic storage energy storage track". The company is jointly owned by Tianjin Zhonghuan New Energy Co., Ltd. (10%) and Guotian (Inner Mongolia) New Energy Technology Holding Group Co., Ltd. (90%). Its business scope covers: emerging energy technology research and development, power generation technology services, energy storage technology services, battery sales, sales of power electronic components and other core energy storage business segments.
Prior to this, TCL Zhonghuan has been involved in energy storage business as a supporting extension of the main photovoltaic industry through subsidiary project matching, joint bidding and scheme output. The establishment of a new energy storage company with equity participation is to turn to entity investment and independent operation, which means that TCL Central formally enters the energy storage track.
Photovoltaic enterprise layout energy storage business is not new, in the past few years, this momentum is more and more strong!
JinkoSolar is also accelerating the collaborative layout of optical storage. As of November 2025, the company has 17 GWh energy storage system capacity and 5 GWh battery capacity, and it is expected that by the end of 2026, the company will have more than 30 GWh energy storage system capacity. In addition, Tongwei shares, Zhengtai Xinneng, Hengdian Dongci, Xiexin Group, Dongfang Risheng and other photovoltaic enterprises have come to an end sooner or later, more or less, to participate in the market competition. The "Photovoltaic Corps", which once focused on photovoltaic manufacturing, has now become the most competitive cross-border force in the energy storage track. The next battleground for the photovoltaic industry The collective cross-border of photovoltaic enterprises is releasing a clear signal: energy storage has become the next battleground for the photovoltaic industry. On the one hand, the reason is naturally the profit expectation of the energy storage sector. With the multiple pressures of low prices, structural overcapacity and intensified trade barriers in the industry chain, the photovoltaic industry, once a "money printing machine", has become a "money shredder". In 2025, the performance of the photovoltaic industry continued to be almost full loss. The 2025 performance forecast disclosed by 15 A-share photovoltaic companies, such as Longji Green Energy, Trina Solar Energy and Jingke Energy, shows that the total net profit loss limit has exceeded 60 billion yuan. So far, there is still no obvious bottom reversal signal for the industry in 2026. In sharp contrast, the listed companies of energy storage have made large profits. In 2025, China's energy storage industry completed the key transformation from "policy-driven" to "market-oriented profit", and the industrial chain entered the rising channel of high total volume and profit restoration. At the same time, the overseas energy storage market has also achieved a rapid increase in demand. Benefiting from this, the annual net profit of Ningde Times alone exceeded 70 billion yuan, and many energy storage enterprises also witnessed a two-digit year-on-year growth in 2025. On the other hand, it also conforms to the necessity of further development of photovoltaic industry. With the explosive growth of the construction scale of photovoltaic and wind power new energy projects in recent years, the unstable and intermittent "congenital deficiency" of new energy power generation has become increasingly prominent, and the rate of wind and light abandonment has been rising. The problem of absorption is one of the important reasons that restrict the further expansion of photovoltaic installed capacity and the photovoltaic power generation capacity can not be effectively converted into economic benefits. Next, if the photovoltaic industry wants to achieve further development, it must solve the biggest core problem facing the current situation, that is, the problem of absorption. "Photovoltaic + energy storage" has changed from an optional question in the industry to a required question. Energy storage track logic has changed , but the industry's long-term supply and demand mismatch, extreme involution may have left a shadow in the hearts of photovoltaic enterprises, such a painful experience seems to be repeated in the energy storage industry, the collective influx of cross-border, the accelerated expansion of traditional enterprises, and the development of photovoltaic industry. Will it enter the dead end of "crazy expansion-serious excess-serious involution" ? However, the report of the International Energy Agency is more optimistic. Recently, the International Energy Agency released the 2026 Global Power Report, which predicts that the energy storage industry is ushering in a new super cycle! The report shows that in the next few years, global electricity demand will soar as industrial electricity consumption rises, electric vehicle continue to spread, residential electricity consumption increases, and data centers and artificial intelligence industries expand. By 2030, the growth rate of electricity demand will reach at least 2% of the overall growth rate of energy demand. However, the lack of grid capacity has become the most critical bottleneck in the development of the current power system. The report shows that more than 2500 GW of projects around the world (including large load projects such as renewable energy, energy storage and data centers) have stalled due to queuing for grid connection, and the scale has reached the highest level in history. However, the scale of power grid, the speed of planning and construction in most parts of the world do not match the growth of demand for power supply, data center and other projects. As a result, energy storage system has become the core source of short-term flexibility of the current power system, effectively alleviating the grid-connected problems caused by the lag of power grid construction. At the same time, with the acceleration of global energy transformation, the fluctuation of output and the imbalance between supply and demand brought about by the continuous growth of the proportion of new energy generation, the rapid surge of large-scale electricity demand such as AI data center, and so on, the application scenarios of energy storage will be mainly from supporting new energy. The market space will be fully opened by accelerating the expansion of independent energy storage, power grid support, capacity guarantee and energy arbitrage. It can be said that the growth of energy storage market comes from the rapid increase of multi-dimensional demand of power system. According to the IEA report, in the future, energy storage will no longer be a subsidiary of new energy, but will become a global " for photovoltaic enterprises that collectively rush to energy storage, and the layout of energy storage is no longer a simpl e business extension. It is a key strategic choice to cross the industry cycle and rebuild competitiveness. At a time when the photovoltaic industry chain is deeply under price war and profit pressure, energy storage is not only a necessary answer to solve the problem of new energy consumption and ensure the sustained growth of the main industry, but also a new engine to open the second growth curve and achieve high-quality development. By virtue of its innate advantages, it is not only the integration of products and scenarios, but also the inevitable path for the photovoltaic industry to break through the cyclical fluctuations and move towards the core of the new power system. Perhaps, whether we can gain a firm foothold in the new track of energy storage will directly determine the long-term living space and industry status of photovoltaic enterprises, and will also become the core winner or loser in the second half of the competition in the photovoltaic industry.
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