China sets out energy storage development plan

Government calls for commercialisation of diverse technologies and deployment at scale by middle of decade as renewables proliferate

China will explore and promote a diverse range of novel energy storage technologies over the next four years as policymakers look to cut capacity costs and ensure sufficient storage to support growing renewables generation as part of a new plan issued by the government. Beijing has called on industry to commercialise new storage technologies and then deploy them at scale by the middle of this decade in its 2021-25 industry development plan released this week. Affordable energy storage capacity will be needed in China as the proportion of renewables rises in the power generation mix. Storage technologies such as batteries are expected to help bridge the widening gap between power output and b