
A battery energy storage system (BESS) or battery storage power station is a type of technology that uses a group of to store . Battery storage is the fastest responding on , and it is used to stabilise those grids, as battery storage can transition from standby to full power in under a second to deal with . The Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility, the world’s largest lithium-ion battery energy storage system, has been expanded to 750 MW/3,000 MWh. [pdf]
1. The Gateway Energy Storage project is located in San Diego County, California. At 230 MW of generation capacity, and soon to be at 250 MW, it is currently the largest battery energy storage project in the world. Courtesy: McCarthy Building Companies
Battery storage power plants and uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) are comparable in technology and function. However, battery storage power plants are larger. For safety and security, the actual batteries are housed in their own structures, like warehouses or containers.
The Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility, the world’s largest lithium-ion battery energy storage system, has been expanded to 750 MW/3,000 MWh. Moss Landing is in Monterey County, California, on the site of a gas-powered plant.
Meet the 1,200 MWh/300 MW Vistra's Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility, which easily beats the nearby Tesla installation (730 MWh/182.5 MW) and the previous largest Hornsdale Power Reserve in South Australia - 150 MW / 193.5 MWh after expansion.
The Gateway and Moss Landing projects are just two of the battery energy storage installations being developed across California, a state that has ramped up its use of renewable energy in recent years while phasing out electricity from coal, nuclear, and natural gas-fired power plants.
Gateway Energy Storage is currently energized at 230 MW and is on track to reach 250 MW this month, according to McCarthy. The project was launched and connected to CAISO’s grid in June, with an initial 62.5 MW of storage. LS Power said the project reached 200 MW of capacity on Aug. 1, with an additional 30 MW added on Aug. 17.

China's largest battery energy storage is the Fulin Sodium-ion Battery Energy Storage Station in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. Its initial storage capacity is 10 megawatt hours (MWh), and it is expected to reach a total capacity of 100 MWh1. The world's largest lithium-ion battery energy storage system is the Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility, which has been expanded to 750 MW/3,000 MWh2. [pdf]
In an interview with China Central Television, Gao Like, a manager at the Guangxi branch of China Southern Power Grid, said that the energy conversion efficiency of its sodium-ion battery energy storage system exceeds 92%. It’s comparable to the efficiency of common lithium-ion battery storage systems, at 85-95%.
The year 2023 saw 21.5 gigawatts (GW) of energy storage systems brought into operation in China, exceeding the previous year by 194%, according to the China Energy Storage Alliance (CNESA).
China’s first major sodium-ion battery energy storage station is now online, according to state-owned utility China Southern Power Grid Energy Storage. The Fulin Sodium-ion Battery Energy Storage Station entered operation on May 11 in Nanning, the capital of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region in southern China.
In addition to lithium-ion batteries, China is commercialising other types of energy storage systems. This includes the compressed air energy storage (CAES) technology, which consists of two stages.
According to the NEA, lithium-ion battery energy storage accounted for 97 per cent of China’s operational energy storage capacity by the end of 2023, with other emerging technologies accounting for the rest.
A Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) secures electrical energy from renewable and non-renewable sources and collects and saves it in rechargeable batteries for use at a later date. When energy is needed, it is released from the BESS to power demand to lessen any disparity between energy demand and energy generation.

The largest energy storage mine in China is the compressed air energy storage project by Zhongchu Guoneng Technology Co., Ltd. (ZCGN). It has a capacity of 300 MW/1,800 MWh and uses an underground salt cave1. Another large energy storage project in China, with 600 megawatts of molten salt thermal storage capacity, will be located in the CGD Group Golmud City solar thermal plant in 20232. Additionally, the Hubei Yingchang project, a 300MW/1,500MWh compressed air energy storage project, was built using abandoned salt mines in Hubei, China3. [pdf]
The facility can store more than 132 million kWh of electricity per year. The country's largest operational CAES system is currently a 60 MW plant built by Chinese state-owned energy group Huaneng, Tsinghua University, and China National Salt Industry Group in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province.
Chinese state-owned energy group Huaneng, Tsinghua University, and China National Salt Industry Group have commissioned the first salt cavern for compressed air energy storage in China. The Jiangsu Jintan Salt Cavern Compressed Air Energy Storage Project is located in Changzhou, Jiangsu province.
The Jiangsu Jintan Salt Cavern Compressed Air Energy Storage Project is located in Changzhou, Jiangsu province. It has a storage capacity of 300 MWh and a power generating capacity of 60 MW. The facility features a salt cavern, situated 1,000 meters underground and owned by China National Salt Industry Group.
But according to Asia Times, China is planning to lean heavily on compressed air energy storage (CAES) as well, to handle nearly a quarter of all the country's energy storage by 2030.
China does dominate the supply chain today, both in terms of battery manufacturing and lithium refining, but HiNa’s announcement pointed out that it only has about 6% of the world’s lithium reserves for mining, whereas it has abundant reserves of the minerals for sodium-ion batteries.
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