Chinese Industrial Manufacturers Repurpose Infrastructure for Energy Storage

China's rapid expansion of renewable power—with wind and solar capacity reaching 1.84 billion kilowatts in 2025—is accelerating a transition among traditional industrial enterprises from pure power consumers into active grid regulators. Major industrial players are deploying advanced long-duration energy storage systems, such as electric molten salt thermal storage for heavy manufacturing and utility-scale compressed air storage in underground salt caverns. Meanwhile, traditional boiler and power equipment manufacturers are pivoting toward manufacturing storage components, capitalizing on domestic energy storage deployment that now accounts for roughly half of the global total.

Grid stability and renewable curtailment remain significant hurdles as variable wind and solar capacity outpaces coal. Converting heavy industrial plants into flexible balancing assets and repurposing geological formations allows China to absorb surplus green power directly at consumption hubs while generating new growth sectors for legacy heavy-machinery manufacturers.

As China's combined wind and solar capacity reached 1.84 billion kilowatts in 2025, surpassing coal power, the challenge of managing intermittent green electricity has prompted heavy industrial enterprises to transition from passive energy consumers into grid regulators, according to reports by People's Daily. Traditional manufacturing sectors, which depend on uninterrupted power and industrial steam, are turning to thermal storage to manage renewable intermittency. In Shandong, Weiqiao Pioneering Group commissioned an electric heating molten salt energy storage project designed to convert fluctuating photovoltaic power into continuous industrial steam. The installation absorbs 810 million kilowatt-hours of green electricity annually to produce approximately 1.028 million tons of green steam for an eight-million-ton alumina production complex. At the grid level, long-duration energy storage is increasingly utilizing geological assets to balance inter-day and seasonal fluctuations. In Huai'an, Jiangsu, the Guoxin Suyan compressed air energy storage project began commercial operations earlier this year, utilizing deep underground salt caverns. According to Zhong Zhikun, deputy general manager of the operating unit, the abandoned salt caverns provide high pressure containment and natural structural self-healing through crystallization. The facility is designed to generate 792 million kilowatt-hours annually, providing enough balancing power for an estimated 600,000 households. This rapid expansion of new-type energy storage—which grew 61 percent year-on-year to 153 million kilowatts and 396 million kilowatt-hours by the end of June—is generating cross-sector demand for legacy industrial equipment makers. In Suzhou, Anhui, the core equipment for a major integrated thermal power and molten salt storage project was manufactured by Dongfang Boiler, a long-established industrial boiler producer. The company has since diversified into integrated solutions covering coal-fired unit decoupling, steel plant peak shaving, and compressed air energy storage systems, illustrating how legacy manufacturing capacity is being repurposed for grid-balancing technologies.