The West has a historic opportunity in the clean energy sector: the rapid growth in demand for long-duration energy storage (LDES) systems is allowing American and European companies to challenge China’s dominance, which is overwhelming in traditional lithium batteries.
While China controls almost the entire short-discharge battery market, technologies for storing energy for hours or even days lend themselves to more open competition, thanks to different solutions in materials, design, and local applications.
A Bloomberg deep dive goes into detail about the opportunities opening up for Western markets, and the difficulties China will face in keeping pace.
Boom in long-duration storage installations
Installations of LDES systems—defined as “super-batteries” capable of delivering energy for many hours or entire days—are growing at dizzying rates.
According to BloombergNEF, after a record in 2025, installations this year are expected to nearly quadruple. This increase is driven by the need to make the most of variable renewables like solar and wind that produce energy intermittently.
Long-duration storage becomes essential not only to shift solar energy from day to evening but especially to manage prolonged periods of low renewable production or to ensure grid stability during extreme weather events.
Why China dominates short batteries but not long ones
As Bloomberg reminds us, China has built a huge advantage in lithium batteries, which typically cover up to four hours of discharge and represent the vast majority of current installations.
However, for very long-duration storage, from 10 to 100 hours and beyond, the landscape changes radically. These technologies require a broader mix of alternative metals or completely different solutions, such as heated bricks, gravity systems, or compressed air.
Frederic Godemel, executive vice president of Schneider Electric, sums it up well: “The race is still wide open and there is no one-size-fits-all solution.” This opens real space for non-Chinese companies to compete on innovation and local adaptation.
Unlike standard lithium batteries, LDES embraces a range of heterogeneous technologies: batteries with less common metals, hot brick thermal systems, gravitational storage, and compressed air in natural caverns.
This variety makes the sector less subject to a technological monopoly. According to Yiyi Zhou, analyst at BloombergNEF, “the United States has the largest number of technologies under development,” while China, although a leader in scale, focuses on a narrower set of solutions.
This means the market remains fluid and it is not yet decided who will win the various niches.
China’s current position and projections for the US and Europe
Currently, China holds about 72% of the cumulative long-duration storage capacity and has completed practically all installations last year.
Yet, the United States is already the second-largest market and is preparing for strong acceleration in the second half of the decade, along with Germany, India, and Japan.
A key factor for the US is the boom in data centers, which require constant and reliable energy: the shortage of natural gas turbines makes LDES even more attractive as a complement to renewables.
Gabriel Kra of Prelude Ventures, who has invested in American startups, is clear: “I don’t see any data suggesting a Chinese advantage at this time.”
Why it is not easily exported
Unlike solar panels or traditional lithium batteries, long-duration storage systems are not standardized products. They require site-specific design, local knowledge, and often existing infrastructure such as caverns or particular terrain.
Yiyi Zhou explains it clearly: “LDES is not a commodity like solar panels. I don’t expect it to be easily exported on a large scale.”
This characteristic protects national supply chains and pushes countries like the United Kingdom and Italy to introduce incentive policies.
The International Energy Agency has defined the development of effective and affordable methods for 10-100 hours of storage as “a priority for governments preparing for high shares of variable renewables or climate-related hydropower disruptions.”
Concrete cases
The Bloomberg article provides practical examples of how Western startups are already signing important contracts.
Form Energy, a Massachusetts startup using iron-air batteries capable of delivering energy for 100 hours, has closed a deal with a major data center developer and another with utility Xcel Energy for a Google site in Minnesota.
In California, Hydrostor, a Canadian company, is building one of the world’s largest compressed air energy projects in Kern County.
CEO Curtis VanWalleghem highlights the local advantage: “We know this market perfectly, we know where to place things, and we have a unique technology. When we optimize around it, we win.” The combination of technical expertise and local knowledge makes it difficult for a Chinese operator to compete “in our backyard,” VanWalleghem concludes.
The role of China
Although it will remain the most important market, China is not dominating LDES with its giants like CATL.
The current leaders are more specialized companies: Zhongchu Guoneng Technology, a spin-off of the Chinese Academy of Sciences that uses compressed air, and Dalian Rongke Energy Storage, which produces vanadium flow batteries.
The Chinese government is nevertheless funding dozens of pilot projects to test alternatives to lithium. Kostantsa Rangelova of Ember defines LDES as “one of the critical missing pieces for deeply decarbonized power systems.”
