CATL Expects Energy Storage Sales to Double to 50% of Revenue by 2030
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CATL's European storage chief says energy-storage sales will double from 25% to 50% of total revenue by 2030, driven by structural battery demand as global renewable capacity scales up.
From a quarter to half of revenue — what's the case?
Kevin Tang, CATL's head of European energy-storage systems, told Reuters that storage sales will rise from 25% to 50% of total revenue by 2030.
This means → storage is set to shift from a side business to a co-equal second pillar alongside EV batteries.
The logic is straightforward: wind and solar generate power on nature's schedule, not the grid's. Battery storage is the only tool that bridges the gap.
How bad is curtailment — and why does it make storage non-negotiable?
In Germany, solar curtailment hit 3.1% in 2024; combined wind-and-solar curtailment reached 9.6 terawatt-hours.
In plain terms = that is clean electricity generated and then thrown away — roughly the annual consumption of a mid-sized city, wasted every year.
This reflects a widening tension: the more renewables a grid installs, the worse the "generate-but-can't-use" mismatch becomes. Storage is not a nice-to-have — it is infrastructure-grade necessity.
What's Europe doing about it — and how is CATL positioned?
European regulators now mandate battery storage as a condition for new wind and solar projects, aiming to cut curtailment.
This means → storage demand has shifted from market-driven to policy-mandated, giving CATL an institutional order floor.
CATL already operates one plant each in Germany and Hungary; a third is under construction in Spain — capacity expansion roughly tracking European demand growth.
Commodity trading giants are betting too — what does that signal?
Vitol, Trafigura, and other major commodity traders are investing in battery-storage projects across Western Europe.
Their angle: as wind and solar penetration rises, intraday power-price swings widen, creating larger buy-low-sell-high arbitrage windows.
This reflects that storage assets have passed the commercial-viability test with the smartest money in the room — the case is not policy alone, but market economics.
Where is the biggest uncertainty?
Tang acknowledged that supply-chain disruptions linked to Middle East industrial instability are pressuring raw-material costs — the main short-term drag on storage economics.
He expects CATL's maturing in-house supply chain to ease that pressure over the medium term.
In plain terms = whether storage hits the 50% target by 2030 hinges on two things: how fast the supply chain integrates and how firmly Europe enforces its mandates — both must deliver.
Content is for reference only, not financial advice.