By Sudarshan Varadhan and Colleen Howe
SHANGHAI, June 5 (Reuters) - China's major solar panel manufacturers are ramping up higher-margin battery exports to boost revenue as growth in photovoltaic (PV) sales slows, betting on rising global demand for renewable energy storage to cut reliance on fossil fuels.
The sector has been hit by weaker domestic installations, slowing exports and record-low prices, with executives expecting global demand to decline in 2026.
That has pushed players including JinkoSolar,
JA Solar, LONGi Green Energy and Trina Solar to accelerate expansion into battery storage, company executives told Reuters.
JinkoSolar plans to nearly triple its battery manufacturing capacity from 5 gigawatt-hours (GWh) to 13-14 GWh by the end of this year, as developers seek to address the intermittency of renewables, a company official said at SNEC - a solar industry gathering attended by over half a million people.
"We are seeing some goodwill from our company's directors' point of view, in that we are having massive investments," Titus Koech, a regional technical head for energy storage systems, told Reuters.
Countries with high renewable penetration - including Japan, Vietnam and India, as well as Germany, the Netherlands, the U.S. and Australia - were among the largest importers of batteries from China in 2025, according to energy think tank Ember.
At JA Solar's booth, energy storage products took centre stage, marking a shift from PV-focused displays in previous conferences, said Gloria Gao, marketing director of its storage unit.
"If you only own a solar business, it's not helping your business grow because the margins are really small. That's why we started our energy storage business, because we foresee the future," Gao told Reuters.
Solar panels exports, which typically carry better margins than domestic sales, grew 4.7% in 2025 - the slowest pace since 2018, Ember data showed. Growth from May to December is expected to lag that seen in the first four months of the year, Rystad Energy analyst Fei Chen said.
By contrast, battery exports for energy storage are forecast to jump 30% to 150 GWh in 2026, Rystad said.
ONE-STOP-SHOP VERSUS BATTERY MANUFACTURING GIANTS
China's solar manufacturers are entering a market dominated by battery giants such as CATL and BYD, but are betting on their supply-chain expertise and ability to offer integrated solar-plus-storage solutions.
Such integration has made energy storage "the second growth curve" after photovoltaics, a Trina Solar official said.
The company's energy storage shipments in the March quarter - about 90% exported - more than quadrupled year-on-year, added the official, who declined to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media.
CATL, the world's biggest battery maker, expects energy storage to account for half of its global sales by 2030, up from 25% now, driven by the need to support intermittent renewable power.
LONGi's solar-plus-storage integration initiative was advertised on a giant, curved LED screen that cut across the breadth of nearly its entire stall, taking precedence over standalone PV products at SNEC.
Consultancy Wood Mackenzie said the trend reflects a shift in buying patterns.
"When you're buying solar and storage, you're getting married to these companies for the next 20 years," said Yana Hryshko, head of solar supply chain research.
"LONGi and JA just joined (the energy storage business) because you don't buy your solar from one manufacturer and your storage from another. In the next two years, we're not going to talk about solar without storage."
(Reporting by Sudarshan Varadhan and Colleen Howe. Editing by Mark Potter)
