/daily ·24 AUG 2026 ·MONDAY ·2 MIN READ ·7 STORIES

Chinese cells, an Australian megabattery, and standards for a chemistry that isn't shipping yet

CATL wins another 1.2 GWh order in Queensland. Beijing publishes the first national solid-state battery standards before the cells exist. Saft and a Colorado startup take anode-free sodium-ion toward commercial pack costs. Manufacturing and chemistry set the day's pace; policy plays catch-up.

01 / The Day

MONDAY 24 AUG 2026, ranked

Quinbrook taps CATL and GE Vernova for 1,216 MWh Supernode Stage 3 in Queensland

Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners contracted CATL for cells and GE Vernova for grid-forming inverters on the 1,216 MWh third stage of the Supernode project, keeping it Australia's largest battery storage system.

Stage 3 lifts total Supernode capacity beyond 2 GWh, most of it configured as a 4-hour LFP system stacked into GE Vernova FLEXRESERVOIR skids
CATL wins another export gigafactory order at a moment when US tariffs are pushing rival LFP buyers toward BYD, EVE and Hithium
Grid-forming inverters — not batteries — are the constraint now on multi-GWh system commissioning schedules

Why it mattersA single 1.2 GWh order routed to CATL says more about global LFP supply reality than any policy announcement — the Chinese cell majors are still the only vendors quoting delivery inside 18 months at this scale.

01 energy-storage.news↗

China issues first national solid-state battery standards framework

China's State Administration for Market Regulation published a national standards framework for all-solid-state automotive cells covering test procedures, environmental limits and characterization — the first such framework anywhere.

Standards cover sulfide, oxide and polymer electrolytes with a common safety test protocol including nail penetration and thermal propagation limits
Framework precedes mass production: CATL and BYD have both guided to 2027 pilot lines, with GWh-scale output not before 2028
By publishing the test bench before the cells ship, Beijing effectively sets the global reference — the same play China used in LFP and sodium-ion

Why it mattersStandards decide who gets to sell into which market. A Chinese solid-state benchmark landing first pulls Japanese and Korean rivals into a testing regime tuned to Chinese chemistry choices.

02 news.metal.com↗

Saft and Mana Battery sign JDA to commercialize anode-free sodium-ion cells

TotalEnergies-owned Saft signed a joint development agreement with Colorado-based Mana Battery to scale anode-free sodium-ion cells for defense, cold-climate stationary storage and data-center UPS duties.

Anode-free architecture removes the graphite or hard-carbon layer, plating sodium directly on a copper current collector — a step up in energy density but a hard cycling problem
Mana's cells are targeting sub-$60/kWh at pack level once volumes clear 1 GWh/year, undercutting current LFP by roughly a third
Saft brings defense-qualified manufacturing lines; Mana brings the chemistry — a template for how US battery startups can reach scale without building a gigafactory from zero

Why it mattersAnode-free sodium-ion is the chemistry closest to structural cost parity with lead-acid at long duration. A Saft distribution deal is what turns a lab claim into a procurement conversation.

03 ess-news.com↗

Italy's CNR unveils bifacial PV tile using spectral splitting

Italy's National Research Council presented a rooftop-integrated bifacial photovoltaic tile that uses a spectral-splitting optical layer to route different wavelengths to separate front and rear cells.

Spectral splitting sidesteps the current-matching penalty that limits conventional tandem cells, at the cost of a more complex optical stack
CNR reports laboratory efficiency in the mid-20% range with a manufacturing route compatible with standard PV encapsulation
The building-integrated form factor targets a segment where premium efficiency, not $/W, drives buying decisions

Why it mattersSpectral splitting has been a research curiosity for a decade. A tile-form prototype from a national lab is the first plausible route from paper to a roof.

04 pv-magazine.com↗

Allegro Energy partners with Jena Batteries to scale microemulsion flow battery manufacturing

Australia's Allegro Energy and Germany's Jena Batteries agreed to co-develop manufacturing lines for microemulsion flow batteries, aiming to move a novel long-duration chemistry from single-digit-MWh pilots toward hundreds of MWh.

Microemulsion chemistry uses water-based electrolytes with organic active species, avoiding vanadium supply risk and heavy-metal handling
The partners are targeting 8-12 hour duration systems for firming solar and wind at prices they claim can beat lithium below a six-hour duration
Jena Batteries brings an existing German pilot line; Allegro brings its Australian project pipeline — again the manufacturing bottleneck, not the science, sets the pace

Why it mattersLong-duration storage has spent five years short on chemistries that actually manufacture. A cross-border JV pooling a pilot line with a project book is the operating pattern that gets to first GWh.

05 energy-storage.news↗

India BESS supply chain: cell self-sufficiency a decade away, says industry report

An industry report on India's stationary storage supply chain concludes that domestic cell self-sufficiency will not arrive before the mid-2030s, despite production-linked incentives supporting more than 50 GWh of announced capacity.

Announced Indian cell capacity is dominated by Reliance, Ola and Amara Raja, but active cathode material and separator supply remain fully import-dependent
PLI-funded lines are running at low utilization as domestic BESS orders continue to source Chinese LFP at 20-30% cost advantage
Report frames the gap as operational rather than policy: permitting, land, skilled labour and precursor chemistry — not subsidy — are the limiters

Why it mattersIndia is the second-largest planned BESS market this decade. If its domestic cell industry stays on the timeline this report describes, Chinese LFP dependence persists through the 2030 grid buildout.

06 energy-storage.news↗

China's 'new-type' grid storage crosses 136 GW

China's National Energy Administration reported that installed 'new-type' (non-pumped-hydro) grid storage passed 136 GW, with total sector storage now above 213 GW and more than 440 commercial battery projects in the pipeline.

The 136 GW figure is roughly half of global installed new-type storage; a year ago it was below 40 GW
Average project duration is drifting toward 3-4 hours as sodium-ion and LFP compete for the same tender specifications
Reported cumulative capex is above $55 billion, suggesting realized system costs are approaching $400/kWh at four-hour duration

Why it mattersThe gap between Chinese and non-Chinese storage build rates is the single biggest variable for global battery demand — and it just widened again.

07 industrialinfo.com↗

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/MON 24 AUGChinese cells, an Australian megabattery, and standards for a chemistry that isn't shipping yet /SUN 23 AUGChina's solar province, America's grid math, and electric aviation's first lap /SAT 22 AUGSaturday Spark /FRI 21 AUGBring your own electrons /THU 20 AUGFactories going live /WED 19 AUGForm's $750M, CATL's carbon decree, and what 4.3 cents means /TUE 18 AUGTuesday: the cheap-cell era, revised /MON 17 AUGCells Back Online /SAT 15 AUGScale, tangibly /FRI 14 AUGThe Quarter the Consumer Took Over /THU 13 AUGScotland gets a big battery, China gets the biggest /WED 12 AUGThe grid doubles, the river runs hot, and Amazon builds America's biggest gas plant /TUE 11 AUGMaking It Here /MON 10 AUGA gigawatt-hour in Rajasthan, a Joby milestone, and the cheddar test /SUN 09 AUG12.8 GWh in China, solar tariff shock, and RWE's billion-dollar exit /FRI 07 AUGUS hits polysilicon; Ørsted stacks 500 MWh in Texas /THU 06 AUGGrid delays, grid storage, and grid-scale bets /WED 05 AUGHome batteries scale up, microreactors raise $1B, and China ends the solar price war /MON 03 AUGFusion gets its billion; perovskite breaks 28%/SUN 02 AUGSurplus signals /SAT 01 AUGThe Heat Is the Story