China’s Clean Energy Dominance May Face Challenge in Batteries

(Bloomberg) -- China’s solar and wind power manufacturing sectors will likely become even more dominant, but other countries still have time to make inroads in batteries and energy storage, Wood Mackenzie Ltd. said in a report.

While China controls about 90% of battery storage manufacturing capacity, the market is still relatively new, so there’s room for U.S., European and other producers to gain market share, said Alex Whitworth, a Shanghai-based analyst at the consultancy. They can do this by improving the technology, becoming more efficient and securing safe and sustainable supply chains, he said. 

“In energy storage there’s still a lot up for play,” Whitworth said in an interview before the report was released on Thursday. “China is leading in terms of capacity, but everyone wants a piece of the pie.”

The U.S., the European Union and others have been trying to catch up to China in building industries and creating jobs from the energy transition as governments worldwide put more money into low-carbon power sources to try to ward off the worst impacts of climate change.

It may be too late for solar power, however. China exported more than $28 billion worth of panels and other equipment last year, up about 42% from the year before, according to BloombergNEF. That’s benefiting the rest of the world, as China’s production capacity is rising faster than global demand, allowing it to meet domestic and international needs, Wood Mackenzie said.

Chinese firms dominate solar, and the technology is relatively mature so there’s little hope of others leapfrogging them, Whitworth said. “The energy transition we see today would not have happened without China’s solar manufacturers and the low costs they’ve been able to achieve.” 

China’s wind turbine manufacturers account for about half of global capacity, according to Wood Mackenzie. They have mostly focused on the domestic market, but are likely to compete more internationally in the coming years as they’ve been able to lower prices while European and U.S. manufacturers struggle with rising material costs, Whitworth said.

Wood Mackenzie also sees opportunities for other countries to compete with China in energy transition technologies such as carbon capture, green hydrogen and next-generation clean fuels.

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