As solar and wind power have become China’s largest sources of installed capacity, energy storage is quietly building “warehouses” for the power grid. These massive facilities store surplus green electricity generated during the day and deliver it to factories, shopping malls and millions of households at night.
This time-shifting magic has found its grandest stage in North China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region. Driven by the massive deployment of new-type battery facilities designed to support its vast wind and solar power bases, Inner Mongolia has overtaken California to become the world’s largest energy storage region.
As of the end of 2025, the region’s cumulative installed capacity of new-type energy storage exceeded 25 million kilowatts, ranking first in the nation. Under the blueprint of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30), this figure is projected to break the 50 million kW mark, cementing the region’s role as the most critical power “reservoir” for the country’s renewable mega-bases in the Gobi Desert and other arid areas.
The sheer scale of this deployment has triggered a profound industrial metamorphosis. In the past, Inner Mongolia’s vast Gobi Desert served merely as an application ground for energy storage, with complete sets of equipment largely purchased from manufacturing clusters in China’s eastern provinces.
Source: China Daily, Oct 20, 2026. https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202610/20/WS6ad6c0d2e4b06d4aa0563ab9.html
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