Leading energy storage companies discuss price trends: short-term increase, long-term gradual decline, industry shifting toward value competition

On April 4, during the 14th International Energy Storage Summit and Exhibition, Ren Hongguang, Senior Product Manager of the Solution Center at Sungrow Power Supply, said in an interview about the market price trend. He stated that starting from last Q4, the prices in the energy storage industry—from batteries to energy storage systems—have stabilized and then rebounded. Taking a 2-hour system as an example, the price has increased by about 0.1 yuan/Wh. Behind this, in fact, is the fact that supply and demand determine the outcome. Due to a surge in demand in China’s energy storage market, while capacity expansion at battery cell companies has lagged, supply has not been able to meet demand in the short term, and the full-chain prices—from raw materials, to cells, to systems—will rise.

But he acknowledged that this situation is short-term; in the long run, prices will still gradually decline. “From the supply-demand perspective, leading manufacturers all have new capacity expansion plans, and production is basically expected to ramp up around the second half of this year. New capacity will come online immediately and quickly reverse the situation of supply not meeting demand. From the demand side, whether at the national level or the industry level, for energy storage to develop on a large scale in the future, from an economic returns standpoint, it also needs to further reduce the energy storage cost per unit of capacity. Therefore, a decline in energy storage system prices is a major trend.”

“Going forward, everyone will definitely pursue high-quality development. For example, in the case of independent frequency regulation energy storage power stations, the owner will no longer one-sidedly pursue the lowest initial procurement cost, but will comprehensively consider operating and maintenance costs and frequency regulation revenue, aiming for the best value for money over the full lifecycle,” he said. “If the reliability and regulation performance of energy storage do not meet requirements, even if the price is lower, it will still be a cost. So in the future, the energy storage industry will shift from being driven by price to being driven by value. The average system price will decline, but the value-creation attributes will increase. Leading companies reduce costs and improve efficiency through technological innovation and scale effects. Overall profits will not decline but will increase. They will continue to invest in areas such as innovation R&D, employee incentives, smart manufacturing, and user service capabilities, taking the lead in breaking the vicious cycle of low-price competition (price wars), and reshaping a virtuous cycle for high-quality, sustainable development in the industry.”

Regarding Sungrow’s market layout, Ren Hongguang said that on the one hand, Sungrow focuses in China on high-value segments and top-tier customers, such as large-base battery storage paired with generation, independent energy storage, grid-forming storage, frequency regulation storage, and so on. On the other hand, it focuses on advancing the overseas strategy to continuously enhance its brand’s international influence, overseas shipment volume, and profit levels, forming a dual-core high-efficiency driving pattern of both domestic and overseas. It is expected that at the earliest by the end of 2027, revenue from overseas markets can be on par with domestic markets; and after that, the share of overseas markets will exceed that of domestic markets. (Liu Lili)

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Editor: Shi Xiuzhen SF183