Price wars, technology wars, policy wars: The life-or-death struggle behind the cross-border integration of photovoltaic and energy storage

China Energy Storage Network News: When the industrial and commercial information of LONGi Green Energy's wholly-owned subsidiary, Wuwei Chuwei New Energy Co., Ltd., was quietly updated on Qichacha, a storage energy industry revolution initiated by the photovoltaic leader has entered a fever pitch. This company, which dominates the global market with its photovoltaic components, is extending its tentacles into core areas such as energy storage services and research and development of new energy technologies, marking the official sounding of the horn for the Chinese photovoltaic army's full-scale attack on the energy storage track.
 

Driven by both the carbon neutrality goal and global energy transformation, the energy storage track is becoming the "second battlefield" for photovoltaic companies to break through cyclical bottlenecks. Trina Solar's 8.43 billion yuan investment in a 12GWh energy storage project, the commissioning of LONGi Green Energy's 24GWh "super factory" in Chuzhou, and JA Solar's 91GWh order backlog—behind these numbers is the explosive growth of capacity by leading companies, measured in GWh.

Image source: Screenshot from the video "Two major bases are operating at full capacity, setting off a wave of GWh-level deliveries in October" by LONGi Green Energy

Even more impressive is that GCL-SI has completed a full industrial chain closed-loop, from lithium mine resource development to system integration, while JA Solar's AI energy management system is transforming energy storage equipment into a "thinking energy brain."

This cross-border storm is far more than just capacity expansion. With the penetration rate of N-type TOPCon battery technology exceeding 70%, commercial and industrial energy storage achieving a system comprehensive efficiency of 87.1% and a DC-side efficiency of 95.2%, and the overseas market revenue share of Sungrow exceeding 60%, one fact is becoming increasingly clear: the deep integration of photovoltaics and energy storage is restructuring the DNA of the global energy system, and LONGi Green Energy's latest layout is merely the prologue to this industrial revolution.

Photovoltaic giants battle for the energy storage track

As the photovoltaic industry faces cyclical fluctuations, the energy storage track is becoming a key battlefield for leading companies to break through. From Trina Solar to GCL-SI, a capacity arms race measured in GWh is already underway, and the deep integration of technological breakthroughs and market layout is outlining a three-dimensional war map of photovoltaic companies' cross-border energy storage.

Trina Solar: A "photovoltaic and energy storage synergy" breakthrough battle through vertical integration

As the global photovoltaic leader with six consecutive years of leading component shipments, Trina Solar's layout in the energy storage field demonstrates amazing execution. In July 2023, its 8.43 billion yuan investment in a 12GWh energy storage system and battery project in Haining, Zhejiang Province, not only achieved full-chain integration from cells, EMS, and BMS to systems, but also formed an actual production capacity of 5GWh in 2024, with shipments exceeding 1GWh.

Trina Solar Chairman Li Xiand and the Managing Director of the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, jointly witnessed the signing ceremony.

This "photovoltaic and energy storage synergy" strategy is particularly thorough in distributed photovoltaic projects—by standardizing energy storage systems, Trina Solar is replicating its scenario-based bundled model to the global market. Behind the 6GWh+ shipment target for 2025 is the gradual implementation of its 10GW battery component project in cooperation with Saudi Arabia, and the Middle East market will serve as a touchstone for testing its integrated photovoltaic and energy storage strategy.

LONGi Green Energy: A "super factory" revolution through vertical integration

The rise of LONGi Green Energy's energy storage business can be considered a model of industry efficiency revolution. Of the planned 24GWh capacity at its Jiangsu Chuzhou base, the first phase of 12GWh has achieved an actual delivery capacity of 25GWh. This "planning is already outdated" expansion speed stems from its unique integrated cell-Pack-system integration model. Through real-time optimization of 21 processes using the MES system, LONGi Green Energy has reduced production costs by 15% while increasing the efficiency of commercial and industrial energy storage systems to 89.5%.

Potentia Blue Sea 2

More noteworthy is its product matrix, ranging from 5MWh flexible liquid-cooled battery cabins to the Potentia Blue Sea commercial and industrial energy storage new product, covering a full-scenario layout from the source and grid side to the user side, enabling its energy storage business revenue to exceed 2.3 billion yuan in 2024, with a gross profit margin of 12.95%, far exceeding traditional photovoltaic products.

JA Solar: Order-driven "capacity explosion" logic

JA Solar's energy storage business shows exponential growth. As of March 2025, its 91GWh order backlog is equivalent to 1/10 of the global energy storage installations in 2024. This "futures-style" sales model has forced a frenzy of capacity expansion, with SolBank system manufacturing capacity soaring from 20GWh to 30GWh, and cell capacity simultaneously increasing to 3GWh.

Its growth logic is evident in its financial reports—in 2024, energy storage business revenue surged by 420.76%, shipments increased by 500% year-on-year to 6.5GWh, and the gross profit margin reached 30.84%. This leapfrog development benefits from its global project reserves, with 76GWh of energy storage projects spread across six continents, including North America, EMEA, and Latin America, among which the 1.9GW photovoltaic power station and 9.8GWh energy storage project under construction form a perfect synergy.

GCL-SI: Building a "vertical empire" by controlling resource ends

GCL-SI's energy storage layout demonstrates the strategic depth of a resource-based enterprise. From the Zhuhai 40GWh energy storage cell project to the Sichuan 360,000-ton lithium iron phosphate material base, it achieves absolute control over costs by controlling upstream resources. The Sichuan project uses the GCL-PHY dry method, which reduces costs by 46% and energy consumption by 50% compared to the traditional wet method. This technological breakthrough has led to its cathode materials being locked in advance by multiple battery factories.

Even more noteworthy is its full industrial chain closed-loop, with vertical integration from lithium mines to cells, PACKs, and system integration, enabling it to achieve a 30.84% gross profit margin in its energy storage business in 2024, far exceeding the industry average.

Three-way competition in energy storage technology

Beneath the surface of the explosive growth in energy storage capacity, a technology iteration-driven arms race is reshaping the underlying logic of the industry. The competitive barriers built by leading companies through three major technological paths are redefining the technological red line of the energy storage industry.

Cell technology breakthroughs have become the most intense battlefield. Trina Solar and LONGi Green Energy have taken the lead in increasing the energy density of energy storage cells to over 180Wh/kg, coupled with a cycle life of over 8000 times, directly benchmarking the performance indicators of power batteries. The technological revolution at LONGi Green Energy's Chuzhou base is even more exemplary. By introducing dry electrode technology to replace the traditional wet process, coupled with pre-lithiation technology to improve initial efficiency, its cell production cost has been reduced to 0.35 yuan/Wh, a 25% decrease compared to the industry average. This technological breakthrough not only increases single-line production capacity by three times but also reduces cell production energy consumption by 40%, creating an unparalleled cost advantage.

The iteration of intelligent management systems is equally rapid. Risen Cloud, the energy management system launched by Oriental Risen, uses deep reinforcement learning algorithms to achieve real-time optimization of power dispatch strategies. In a commercial and industrial energy storage project in Zhejiang, it set a record of completing load forecasting and charge/discharge decisions within 0.5 seconds. The system supports operation in a wide temperature range of -40℃ to 70℃. Combined with an edge computing architecture, it allows the energy storage system to evolve from a passive "power bank" to an active participant in grid scheduling, a "energy router," achieving a 40% improvement in peak shaving and valley filling efficiency in a Jiangsu virtual power plant project.

Image source: JA Solar

Scenario-based innovation is opening up new value spaces. JA Solar's household photovoltaic and storage system for villas uses an all-in-one design to highly integrate the PCS, battery, and EMS, reducing the size by 60% compared to split-type solutions and compressing installation time to 4 hours. Its commercial and industrial solutions further integrate liquid cooling and intelligent temperature control technology, achieving a system efficiency exceeding 89.5% in a manufacturing park in Guangdong, with an annual cost savings rate of 28%. This "scenario-defining product" thinking transforms energy storage systems from standardized equipment into customized energy solutions, creating differentiated competitiveness in niche markets.

Global Layout and Localized Operation

Driven by both policy and market forces, Chinese energy storage companies are opening up new growth poles with a "dual circulation" strategy. The domestic market shows a clear characteristic of government-enterprise collaborative innovation. The Nanchong virtual power plant project, through a three-dimensional model of "distributed photovoltaic + energy storage + demand response," reduces enterprise electricity costs by 25%. This solution, which deeply integrates clean energy, energy storage systems, and grid scheduling, is being rapidly replicated in major industrial provinces such as Jiangsu and Zhejiang. JA Solar's integrated "photovoltaic, storage, charging, and discharging" project in Jiangsu achieves arbitrage profits through peak and valley electricity price differences, shortening the investment payback period to 5.8 years and verifying the commercial viability of commercial and industrial energy storage.

Overseas market expansion shows a three-dimensional breakthrough. Deye has established channel dominance in the Southeast Asian market, with a 37% market share for its microinverters in Thailand; while Junhe has cultivated the African market, building a 50MWh photovoltaic and storage diesel microgrid project in Kenya to solve the long-term power shortage problem.

More noteworthy is the wave of overseas production capacity. After achieving localized production at its Malaysian base, Trina Solar has reduced its product delivery cycle from 90 days to 30 days, and its comprehensive cost has decreased by 18%; Longi Green Energy's Vietnamese factory uses a "two-shift" production model, increasing its response speed to the European market by 3 times and successfully avoiding EU carbon tariffs. This "global manufacturing, local service" model is reshaping the global energy storage industry value chain.

Order backlog has become a strategic high ground. Canadian Solar's order backlog of 91 GWh is equivalent to 1/10 of the global energy storage installed capacity in 2024. This "futures-style" sales model not only locks in profit margins in advance but also creates a rigid constraint on capacity expansion. Longi Green Energy's signed energy storage business volume exceeded 5 GWh in 2025, and its framework agreement with DBS Bank in Singapore for 3.2 GWh set a record for the largest single energy storage order in Southeast Asia.

This investment logic, driven by orders, keeps the company's debt-to-asset ratio within a reasonable range. Trina Solar's energy storage business debt-to-asset ratio is only 38%, significantly lower than the industry average, leaving ample ammunition for subsequent technological iterations.

Finding the Blue Ocean in the Red Ocean

Behind the rapid development of the energy storage industry, three major challenges loom large, constituting a pressure test for the survival and development of enterprises.

The field of technological iteration is undergoing revolutionary upheaval. The penetration rate of N-type TOPCon battery technology has exceeded 80%, and BC components and HJT technology are accelerating penetration, forming a competitive landscape with multiple technological routes. Trina Solar's R&D expenses account for 5.7% of its revenue, and Longi Green Energy's patent applications increased by 63% year-on-year, reflecting the ultra-high R&D investment intensity that companies are forced to maintain to stay technologically ahead. The cruelty of this technological leap is that any lag in R&D pace can lead to product generational backwardness. A second-tier manufacturer's delayed TOPCon mass production resulted in a 40% drop in product pricing power, demonstrating the survival rules in the technology race.

Price competition has evolved into a brutal cost war. The average bid price for energy storage systems in 2024 plummeted by 25% year-on-year, with some companies' bids approaching the life-or-death line of 0.5 yuan/Wh, down 38% from 2023. Although GCL-Poly achieved cost optimization through a closed-loop layout of lithium mines, battery cells, and systems, the gross profit margin of its energy storage business still decreased by 5 percentage points year-on-year, revealing the erosion of profits by the price war on the entire industry.

Even more serious is that this price decline has not yet bottomed out. Sungrow predicts that system prices will fluctuate in the 0.4-0.6 yuan/Wh range for a long time, forcing companies to explore every penny of cost reduction in manufacturing.

Policy risks are reshaping the global energy storage industry landscape. The US IRA Act sets thresholds for localized manufacturing, and the EU carbon tax builds green trade barriers. These policy combinations are forcing companies to restructure their global supply chains. The localized investments of LONGi Green Energy's Wuwei base and Trina Solar's Haining base are both a strategic breakthrough in response to trade protectionism and a key move in deploying the global market.

This policy-driven restructuring of production capacity has increased the intensity of fixed asset investment by 2-3 times, testing the balance between capital operation and risk control. Under the triple pressure of technological iteration, cost competition, and policy compliance, the energy storage industry is undergoing a fundamental transformation.

From Cross-border to Borderless

In the industrial transformation of deep integration of photovoltaics and energy storage, three major trends are reshaping the future landscape of the energy industry. Photovoltaic and storage integration has become an irreversible technological trend. Trina Solar's practice of standardizing energy storage systems in distributed photovoltaic projects marks the evolution of modules and energy storage systems from physical connection to chemical coupling. This deep integration is not only reflected in the standardization of product forms but also in the collaborative optimization of energy management algorithms. The case of Longi Green Energy's commercial and industrial energy storage system exceeding 89.5% efficiency is a direct reflection of the synergistic effect of photovoltaic and storage integration.

Digital twin technology is restructuring the operation and maintenance paradigm of energy storage systems. Oriental Risen's Risen Cloud system uses AI algorithms to achieve second-level optimization of power distribution strategies. Its predictive maintenance model can predict cell status deviations 48 hours in advance, reducing equipment failure rates by 60%. This digital twin technology not only extends equipment life but also allows energy storage systems to shift from passive response to active participation in grid scheduling. In the Jiangsu virtual power plant project, the AI scheduling system achieved millisecond-level power response, verifying the practical value of digital twin technology.

The rise of the energy Internet of Things (IoT) has given energy storage systems a new positioning. When the Nanchong virtual power plant reduced enterprise electricity costs by 25% through a "distributed photovoltaic + energy storage + demand response" model, energy storage systems have evolved into the "smart neurons" of the power grid. The 5GWh virtual power plant cluster currently being tested by Trina Solar, uses blockchain technology to aggregate cross-regional energy storage resources. This decentralized energy trading model is dismantling the centralized architecture of traditional power grids.

The establishment of LONGi Green Energy's Wuwei Chuwei is merely the prelude to this energy revolution. Under the ultimate goal of carbon neutrality, the two-way rush of photovoltaics and energy storage is rewriting global energy rules. Companies that can both manage the economies of scale of GW-level production expansion, break through technological generational changes such as TOPCon and HJT, and build global footholds amidst policy uncertainties such as the IRA Act and carbon tariffs, will ultimately occupy the commanding heights of the energy revolution's marathon.