Chinese solar equipment producers are shifting from panels to battery storage to tackle a chronic oversupply in the panel and equipment market that has crashed many sector players’ bottom lines.
The latest to make the move was one of the largest in the sector, Longi Green Energy Technology. Bloomberg cited a security filing by the company showing that it was planning to buy a majority stake of 62% in local battery storage maker PotisEdge.
The surge in EVs and solar and wind power installations has resulted in excessive manufacturing capacity in these key non-hydrocarbon energy industries, igniting price wars that have hurt most companies in the sector, including the biggest solar panel manufacturers. Chinese authorities realized last year that cutthroat competition, overcapacity, and low-quality manufacturing are hurting enterprises.
Meanwhile, the companies rushed to cut costs, with the biggest solar players in the country slashing close to a third of their workforce in 2024 alone. Longi Green Energy, Jinko Solar, Trina Solar, JA Solar, and Tongwei together cut as many as 87,000 jobs last year, according to Reuters calculations based on security filings.
Now, they are looking for a turnaround amid continued losses despite the government crackdown on overcapacity. The combined losses of the country’s six biggest solar panel and cell manufacturers doubled in the first half of 2025, to $2.8 billion. Longi, however, managed to trim the loss in the third quarter thanks to cost-cutting efforts, and its leadership is confident the company will return to the black in the current quarter.
Energy storage is a growth market globally as the countries with the highest density of wind and solar installations realize those sources of electricity need backup to reduce the waste of output commonly called curtailment, which becomes necessary when panels and turbines generate more electricity than the grid needs because they cannot respond to demand fluctuations the way baseload capacity can.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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