From sporadic acquisitions to industrial integration, mergers and acquisitions in the energy storage sector are beginning to accelerate.

From a temporal perspective, M&A activities in the energy storage industry are clearly speeding up.

In early 2026, the special equipment company HANDLER announced plans to acquire 51% of the equity of the energy storage safety company and AnDun Fire Protection for approximately 740 million yuan. Although this transaction is not large in scale, its significance lies in the company's entry into the niche field of energy storage safety through acquisition.

At the same time, M&A activities at the asset level of energy storage power stations are also active. In February 2026, China Nuclear Energy Technology acquired 100% of Ningxia Tianping Boguan New Energy for approximately 80.38 million yuan. The target company holds a shared energy storage power station located in Wuzhong City, Ningxia (200MW/400MWh).

Almost simultaneously, CN ANCHU ENERGY also acquired 100% of Wuzhong City Ruichu Technology for 64 million yuan, securing another 100MW/200MWh energy storage power station.

Within just one month, the two companies acquired energy storage power station assets in the same region of Ningxia, reflecting the capital's enthusiasm for acquiring already grid-connected and revenue-generating energy storage projects.

If we extend the timeline further back, we can see that M&A transactions in the energy storage industry have already unfolded globally, covering multiple links such as battery technology, system integration, energy management software, and energy storage power station assets.

An earlier representative case comes from the battery technology field. In 2019, electric vehicle and energy storage system manufacturer Tesla acquired supercapacitor company Maxwell for approximately $218 million.

The core purpose of this transaction was to absorb external technical teams to lay out future battery technology strategies and effectively supplement Tesla's performance shortcomings in its product line at that time.

In the Chinese market, industrial chain integration occurs more in the system integration and power equipment sectors. In 2023, Midea Group entered the energy storage system and power automation field by holding a controlling stake in Kelu Electronics, thereby entering the grid-side energy storage market and building new energy management capabilities.

Leading photovoltaic companies are also enhancing their energy storage capabilities through acquisitions. In 2024, LONGi Green Energy obtained control of energy storage system company Jingkong Energy through capital increase and acquisition, thereby incorporating energy storage into the "photovoltaic + energy storage" energy solution system.

In overseas markets, the integration among energy storage companies is also accelerating. In 2025, American energy storage software company FlexGen acquired part of the assets of energy storage system integrator Powin for approximately $36 million, hoping to enhance the competitiveness of overall solutions by integrating software platforms and hardware system capabilities.

Transactions involving energy storage power station assets are also becoming increasingly active. In 2026, Recurrent Energy, a development company under Canadian Solar, sold a 200MWh energy storage power station located in Texas, USA, to Hunt Energy Network. Such project-level transactions are becoming an important way for capital operations in energy storage.

When observing these transactions together, it can be found that energy storage M&A has gradually evolved from single technology acquisitions to a comprehensive industrial chain integration covering "energy storage technology - system integration - power station operation." As the market scale continues to expand, mergers and acquisitions are gradually becoming an important path for different companies in the new round of development in the energy storage industry.

It can be seen that this round of energy storage mergers and acquisitions presents three types of paths: cross-industry companies complete their entry through controlling acquisitions, industry leaders achieve "supply chain supplementation and extension" through mergers and acquisitions, and overseas companies realize reconstruction and upgrading through the integration of bankrupt or pressured assets.

With expectations of a trillion-level market, the time window is narrowing; being a step slower may mean missing the initiative in global layout.

02

Under the explosive demand, the energy storage industry chain enters an expansion cycle

The increase in energy storage merger and acquisition transactions is closely related to the rapid growth of industry demand.

As the global energy transition accelerates, the importance of energy storage in the power system continues to rise.

New energy generation is intermittent and volatile, while energy storage systems can solve the problem of new energy consumption and improve grid operation stability through peak shaving, frequency regulation, power backup, and load management. Therefore, against the backdrop of continuous growth in wind and solar installations, the demand for energy storage is also expanding simultaneously.

Industry data reflects this change. According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the global newly installed capacity of energy storage is expected to reach about 92GW/247GWh by 2025, an increase of 22.7% compared to 2024.

Guojin Securities has provided a more optimistic forecast, expecting that the global newly installed capacity of energy storage will reach 438GWh in 2026, a year-on-year increase of 62%. The growth drivers have shifted from solely new energy consumption to a threefold drive of "AI computing infrastructure + energy transition necessity + grid congestion."

At the same time, data from GGII of High-tech Research Institute shows that the shipment volume of lithium batteries for energy storage in China is expected to reach about 630GWh by 2025, a year-on-year increase of nearly 85%.

Source: China Energy Network

From the perspective of market scale, the energy storage industry is also rapidly expanding.

According to forecasts from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) and the International Energy Agency (IEA), the global new energy storage installed capacity is expected to maintain a compound annual growth rate of 30%-40% before 2030, with the total scale of global new energy storage installations expected to reach 358-585GW by 2030, and the total scale of global energy storage investment expected to reach up to $326 billion.

In the Chinese market, policies are also providing strong support for energy storage development. The "Special Action Plan for the Large-Scale Construction of New Energy Storage (2025-2027)" proposes to promote the large-scale development of new energy storage and encourages technological innovation and exploration of business models, aiming for a target of over 180 million kilowatts of new energy storage installations nationwide by 2027.


At the same time, the State Grid and the Southern Power Grid regard energy storage as one of the key infrastructures in the planning of the new power system construction. The State Grid's fixed asset investment during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period is expected to reach 4 trillion yuan, a 40% increase compared to the "13th Five-Year Plan," setting a historical high.

Against the backdrop of highly certain demand, the energy storage industry is gradually forming a global market. From battery manufacturing to system integration, and then to software platforms and operation and maintenance services, the industrial chain is becoming increasingly complex.

If companies rely solely on a single product or market, it is difficult to establish a long-term competitive advantage. Therefore, mergers and acquisitions to integrate capabilities and expand markets have become an important choice for more and more companies.

In this trend, the overseas capital operations of Chinese energy storage companies have also begun to gradually increase.

In recent years, Chinese companies have formed scale advantages in battery manufacturing and system integration, but there are still certain gaps in overseas project development, electricity trading, and energy management software.

As a result, some companies have begun to accelerate their entry into local markets by investing in or acquiring overseas project companies, system integrators, or energy platform companies. In addition to mergers and acquisitions, Chinese companies are also accelerating their overseas layout through localized manufacturing.

In February 2026, global solar storage giant Sungrow plans to produce 12.5GWh of energy storage systems annually at its manufacturing base in Poland, while launching a supporting 10GWh energy storage manufacturing plant in Egypt to build a local manufacturing supply chain for local projects.

As the demand for energy storage continues to grow in Europe, North America, and the Middle East, cross-border mergers and acquisitions are likely to become an important path for the globalization of Chinese energy storage companies.

03

Three Major Trends Behind Energy Storage Mergers and Acquisitions

From the perspective of the industrial chain structure, this round of energy storage mergers and acquisitions mainly focuses on several key links: battery and material technology, energy storage system integration, energy management software and platforms, as well as the development and operation of energy storage power station assets.

Different types of companies are integrating around these links, gradually building a complete energy storage industry ecosystem by acquiring to fill in technological capabilities, channel resources, or project reserves.

The increase in merger and acquisition transactions not only indicates active capital but also reflects that the energy storage industry is entering a new stage of development.

Firstly, the integration of the industrial chain is accelerating, and energy storage systems have gradually evolved from single battery products to complex energy infrastructures.

This includes not only battery manufacturing but also involves multiple links such as system integration, energy management software, fire safety, and operation and maintenance services.

In this case, it is difficult for a single company to independently complete all capability construction, so integrating industrial chain resources through mergers and acquisitions has become an important path for many companies to enhance their competitiveness.

Secondly, cross-industry capital continues to enter the energy storage industry.

In recent years, companies entering the energy storage sector include not only new energy companies but also traditional manufacturing, home appliance companies, and some internet and technology companies.

These companies often quickly establish technology and product systems by investing in or acquiring mature enterprises, thereby shortening the technology accumulation and market expansion cycle. As the scale of the energy storage market continues to expand, the trend of cross-industry capital entering the industrial chain through mergers and acquisitions is expected to continue Third, the industry concentration is gradually increasing.

During the early rapid expansion phase of the industry, a large number of companies quickly entered the market during the demand explosion phase. However, as technical requirements, capital scale, and project operation capabilities continue to improve, some companies lacking competitive advantages have begun to be eliminated, while leading companies further expand their scale through mergers and acquisitions.

In the long run, the energy storage industry may gradually form a market pattern dominated by a few leading enterprises, similar to the photovoltaic and power battery industries.

Therefore, from a more macro perspective, the wave of mergers and acquisitions in energy storage is actually an important signal of the industry's transition from a phase of rapid expansion to a mature phase. When the competitive dimension shifts from "whether to enter the market" to "who can provide more reliable system solutions," the resource integration among enterprises will also accelerate.

04

Epilogue

Behind the wave of mergers and acquisitions in energy storage is a critical juncture for the industry as it transitions from rapid expansion to structural reshaping.

In the past few years, the industry has achieved scale leaps through demand explosions and capital influx. As the market gradually returns to rationality, what truly determines the outcome of competition will no longer be a single game of production capacity scale, but a more comprehensive consideration of system efficiency, operational capability, and global layout.

It is foreseeable that the consolidation of the energy storage industry will continue in the coming years.

Some companies will quickly expand their competitive advantages through mergers and acquisitions to fill technological and market gaps; while others may gradually exit in the midst of price wars and technological iterations. As the concentration of the industrial chain increases, the ecological advantages of leading companies will become increasingly apparent.

For the capital market, mergers and acquisitions are just the beginning; the real test lies in the synergy capability after integration.

Those companies that can successfully integrate technology, supply chains, and markets may become the core players in the next cycle of the energy storage industry.

When this wave of mergers and acquisitions finally settles, a new energy storage industry landscape will emerge