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/daily ·30 AUG 2026 ·SUNDAY ·2 MIN READ ·7 STORIES

Earnings and Exits

CATL reported storage revenue up 87% as China's module makers bled at -11% margins and Shell quietly handed off its residential battery business -- a weekend where the energy transition's balance sheet sorted itself out.

01 / The Day

SUNDAY 30 AUG 2026, ranked

07

CATL storage revenue surges 87% in blowout H1 2026 results

CATL posted RMB 276.9 billion in H1 revenue (+54.8% YoY), with grid storage the standout at +87.5% growth and a 23.96% gross margin. Second-tier players EVE, Gotion, and Great Power also beat expectations, with Great Power swinging from an RMB 88M loss to RMB 800M+ profit.

  • CATL storage now 19.23% of total revenue; 94.86% capacity utilization across 498 GWh output
  • EVE Energy storage shipments +54.88% to 44.46 GWh; net profit doubled to RMB 3.3B
  • Great Power reversed RMB 88M loss to >RMB 800M profit on 202% storage shipment growth
Why it mattersThe largest battery maker's storage-led earnings surge confirms grid-scale is now the industry's primary growth engine, not EVs.
01 energy-storage.news↗

Chile on track for 6 GW of battery storage by end of 2026

A 2024 Chilean law pairing capacity payments with arbitrage revenue has made hybrid solar-plus-storage projects financially viable, pushing the country toward 6+ GW of BESS by year-end. Transmission lines connecting Atacama solar resources to Santiago demand centers are also under construction.

  • Dual revenue model (capacity payment + arbitrage) is the policy lever driving rapid project announcements
  • Transmission buildout links northern desert solar zones to central Chile population centers
  • Chile leads a regional wave; Wood Mackenzie raised Latin America total forecast to 34 GW by 2035
Why it mattersChile's hybrid revenue model is emerging as a replicable template for high-solar markets that need to solve evening demand without gas peakers.
02 pv-magazine.com↗

Wood Mackenzie raises Latin America storage forecast 47% to 34 GW

Wood Mackenzie revised its Latin America storage outlook from 23 GW to 34 GW by 2035 -- a 13.6-fold increase from 2025's 2.5 GW installed base -- driven by first-of-kind auctions in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and the Dominican Republic.

  • Mexico: 3+ GW potentially awarded by 2030 via strategic project calls with 3-hour duration requirements
  • Brazil: first capacity reserve storage auctions set December 2026 on 15-year contracts from August 2028
  • Dominican Republic requires storage equal to 50% of capacity for all new solar projects above 20 MWac
Why it mattersA 47% forecast revision in one cycle signals Latin America has crossed from speculative pipeline to institutionalized procurement.
03 pv-magazine.com↗

China PV consolidation stalls as top-5 module makers post -11% margins

China's leading solar manufacturers collectively posted -11% aggregate profit margins, yet capacity keeps expanding because local governments prop up private firms to prevent layoffs. A 2-3 year technology refresh cycle also keeps older capacity viable for export rather than retired.

  • Top-5 Chinese PV firms: -11% aggregate margin vs 8-12% in 2019-2023 boom years
  • Private ownership fragments coordination; no state-driven closure mechanism as in steel or cement
  • Global tariff walls (US, EU, India) are secondary to domestic overcapacity as the core pressure point
Why it mattersUnlike the 2011-2014 shake-out, today's glut is structurally stickier -- meaning cheap modules persist, but so does the financial damage to makers.
04 pv-magazine.com↗

Shell offloads Sonnen after 7 years, exits home battery market

Shell sold Sonnen, the German-US residential battery and VPP aggregator acquired in 2019, to Malta-based family office TIVEN on undisclosed terms well below the 1.35-1.8B euro valuation sought in 2023. Shell cited focus on power trading as its reason for exit.

  • Shell acquired Sonnen in 2019 as an energy-transition residential play; seven years later it is out
  • 2023 valuation target was 1.35-1.8B euros; sale price undisclosed, suggesting significant markdown
  • Signals residential VPP aggregation has not yet generated acceptable returns for oil-major balance sheets
Why it mattersAn oil major exiting residential storage after a full investment cycle raises pointed questions about whether distributed home batteries can attract institutional capital at scale.
05 energy-storage.news↗

Nano One's sulphate-free LFP process targets non-China cathode supply

Canadian startup Nano One is 85% through detailed engineering on an 800-tonne/year LFP cathode line targeting H1 2027 commissioning, using a One-Pot process that eliminates Chinese sulphate precursor dependency. The company plans joint-venture DevCo licensing rather than solo capital raises to scale.

  • One-Pot process makes LFP cathode from non-sulphate metals or oxides, cutting Chinese precursor links
  • Outside-China LFP demand forecast at 2.1 TWh by 2035, a roughly 40B USD addressable market
  • DevCo JV model: Nano One contributes technology, regional partners contribute capital and offtake
Why it mattersEx-China LFP cathode manufacturing is the missing link for Western gigafactories seeking genuine supply-chain independence.
06 energy-storage.news↗

Invinity wins EPC deal for world-record 2.1 GWh vanadium flow battery

FlexBase and Invinity Energy Systems confirmed an EPC contract with Equans Switzerland for a 1.5 GWh vanadium redox flow battery expandable to 2.1 GWh at the Laufenberg Technology Center data campus -- set to be the world's largest flow battery on completion.

  • 1.5 GWh initially, expandable to 2.1 GWh; vanadium redox chemistry has no thermal runaway risk
  • Equans Switzerland is EPC contractor; engineering and design well advanced and on schedule
  • Data center co-location chosen specifically for flow battery durability and non-flammability
Why it mattersAt 2.1 GWh, this project tests whether vanadium flow can compete with LFP at meaningful scale in a high-cost European environment.
07 energy-storage.news↗
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