4 ms·

In numbers (cell production capacity, 2025): [1] USA 70 GWh [2] China 1755 GWh [3] Europe 252 GWh That's excluding small battery p

In numbers (cell production capacity, 2025): [1] USA 70 GWh [2] China 1755 GWh [3] Europe 252 GWh That's excluding small battery production for electronics etc. [1] https://reasonstobecheerful.world/us-grid-battery-storage/ https://reasonstobecheerful.world/us-grid-battery-storage/ [2] https://english.news18a.com/news/english_224842.html https://english.news18a.com/news/english_224842.html [3] https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/europes-swelling-wave-battery-installations-set-hit-barriers--reeii-2026-02-26/ https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/europes-swelling-wav...

causal 4mo ago
Okay then makes me wonder if this recent trend is just one particularly large manufacturer ramping up production? Tesla?
- toomuchtodo 4mo ago
  Ford in partnership with LG is one example. Stationary storage replacing EV demand that did not materialize. Gigafactories intended for EV batteries are now for stationary storage. U.S. battery industry cuts losses, shifts to new ventures amid EV bust - https://www.dallasfed.org/research/economics/2026/0303 https://www.dallasfed.org/research/economics/2026/0303 - March 3rd, 2026
paulmist 4mo ago
According to IEA[1] most capacity in Europe is from South Korean companies. [1] https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/charts/share-of-manufacturing-capacity-by-battery-producers-domicile-2024-2030 https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/charts/share-of-manu...
- JumpCrisscross 4mo ago
  Still physically in Europe. That’s mostly what counts.
  - throwaway85825 4mo ago
    Not exactly. Most of the people who work on site at semi conductor fabs actually work in the office building next door. Batteries are similar.
    - JumpCrisscross 4mo ago
      That doesn’t change that the fab is physically in Europe. Not Korea. That’s what matters. Not whose name is on the paperwork.
      - usrnm 4mo ago
        Not really? The questin is, if South Korea stops all cooperation with the EU tomorrow, will that fab continue to be operational? If the answer is "no", then it matters. It matters a lot
        toomuchtodo 4mo ago
        You walk in, as the EU, and assume control of the facility, by force if needed. The value is that the capacity exists within the bounds of your nation state control. China knows this, developed countries that lost their manufacturing capacity are relearning this.
        to11mtm 4mo ago
        ...errrr.... I think the EU performing such an action is outside the Overton window, at least for now... China does know that but they knew how to make the deal palatable enough for auto manufacturers (other companies too, but this one IMO is a big factor in the grand scheme[0]) to all sell out one way or another for a stake in the pie, be it cheaper manufacturing or accessing that market. Developed countries are re-learning it but are struggling with paying the piper. By that I mean, a lot of manufacturing, especially technology based, can be dirty as heck. Doing certain widgets results in environmental costs that have to be managed or externalized[1]. [0] - I posit, that Auto manufacturers probably keep a lot of documentation around, but also have a lot of history of 'good ideas' being killed by business politics one way or another. You can glean a -lot- of manufacturing tribal knowledge being able to access any existing or new incoming data on that set of signals. [1] - No, we should not externalize, to be clear.
- llm_nerd 4mo ago
  [flagged]
  - nozzlegear 4mo ago
    What made you jump to American exceptionalism? Their comment doesn't even mention the US. It could've been Chinese exceptionalism for all you know, which would've been more plausible since China has such crazy numbers. But honestly, why can't it just be a comment about the EU numbers without this weird jingoism attached?
bogwog 4mo ago
Source?
jweir 4mo ago
According to projections this year will hit 300 GWh in the US https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/clean-energy-manufacturing/us-capacity-storage-cell-factories https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/clean-energy-manufactur...
- lysace 4mo ago
  Not according to this article.
- embedding-shape 4mo ago
  That article claims: > As for the underlying cells, it’s a similar story with a slight delay. By the end of 2025, 20 gigawatt-hours of dedicated storage cell lines had opened, and the industry is on pace to hit 96 gigawatt-hours by the end of this year. Not sure where you're getting 300 GWh from?
- epistasis 4mo ago
  Production and production capacity are getting swapped a lot in this thread. The top level numbers above, US 70 GWh, are straight production. Your 300GWh is likely production capacity but the number doesn't come from your article (which is excellent).
om8 4mo ago
Cool way to think about GWh/year: 1 GWh/year = (10 ** 9) / 24 / 365.25 / (10 ** 6) MW = 0.11 MW 70 GWh/year = 8 MW 1755 GWh/year = 200 MW 252 GWh/year = 29 MW
- amalcon 4mo ago
  Haha. Reminds me of how volt-amperes are technically the same unit as watts, but if you see VA in an electrical specification you know it means a different thing than it would if you saw W.
  - om8 4mo ago
    > volt-amperes are technically the same unit as watts volt-amperes are joules
    - gnabgib 4mo ago
      Volt-amperes are watts... watts/second are joules https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watt
      - lefra 4mo ago
        You got it backwards, Watts are Joules/second (or joules are Watt•second).
      - Skunkleton 4mo ago
        Watts * seconds are joules. Joules is a unit of energy. Watts are power.
      - om8 4mo ago
        Oh, yes, you are right about watts. My bad
    - deleted 4mo ago
      [deleted]
- epistasis 4mo ago
vinajuliette 4mo ago
The US is the bronze medalist meme
- DaSHacka 4mo ago
  I mean, I'd be more than happy to be in the top three. The issue is before we were even lower.
leonidasrup 4mo ago
How much battery storage would you need to cover 12h electric energy consumption on average for each of this regions? Let's look at electricity yearly production (2025 data) USA 4519790 GWh China 10583360 GWh Europe 4626240 GWh https://ourworldindata.org/profile/energy/united-states https://ourworldindata.org/profile/energy/united-states https://ourworldindata.org/profile/energy/china https://ourworldindata.org/profile/energy/china https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/electricity-prod-source-stacked?country=~OWID_EUR https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/electricity-prod-source-s... Average 12h consumption: USA 6187 GWh China 14487 GWh Europe 6332 GWh How many years of cell production capacity would be needed to cover 12h electric energy consumption on average for each of this regions? USA 88 years China 8 years Europe 25 years Currently electricity is only about 19.8% of primary energy consumption. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/electricity-as-a-share-of-primary-energy https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/electricity-as-a-share-of...
- crote 4mo ago
  Electricity consumption isn't linear (people use far less when they are sleeping), and production isn't zero at night (wind and hydro exist). Covering 12 hours is almost certainly overkill.
  - embedding-shape 4mo ago
    > Covering 12 hours is almost certainly overkill "640k ought to be enough for anybody" :) I'm sure with more electricity available, prices would drop, meaning people will use more electricity and so on. Just like desktop applications and available system RAM, I guess some things just consume what becomes available.
    - cogman10 4mo ago
      Maybe a business, certainly not the average person. And whether or not they use it will be determined by price more than anything. If the added batteries and renewables don't translate to appreciable decreases in energy prices then I don't see people using more electricity just because it's available. The other thing that prevents an individual from using more is that electricity usage creates heat.

causal 4mo ago

Okay then makes me wonder if this recent trend is just one particularly large manufacturer ramping up production? Tesla?

toomuchtodo 4mo ago
Ford in partnership with LG is one example. Stationary storage replacing EV demand that did not materialize. Gigafactories intended for EV batteries are now for stationary storage. U.S. battery industry cuts losses, shifts to new ventures amid EV bust - https://www.dallasfed.org/research/economics/2026/0303 https://www.dallasfed.org/research/economics/2026/0303 - March 3rd, 2026

paulmist 4mo ago

According to IEA[1] most capacity in Europe is from South Korean companies. [1] https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/charts/share-of-manufacturing-capacity-by-battery-producers-domicile-2024-2030 https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/charts/share-of-manu...

JumpCrisscross 4mo ago
Still physically in Europe. That’s mostly what counts.
- throwaway85825 4mo ago
  Not exactly. Most of the people who work on site at semi conductor fabs actually work in the office building next door. Batteries are similar.
  - JumpCrisscross 4mo ago
    That doesn’t change that the fab is physically in Europe. Not Korea. That’s what matters. Not whose name is on the paperwork.
    - usrnm 4mo ago
      Not really? The questin is, if South Korea stops all cooperation with the EU tomorrow, will that fab continue to be operational? If the answer is "no", then it matters. It matters a lot
      - toomuchtodo 4mo ago
        You walk in, as the EU, and assume control of the facility, by force if needed. The value is that the capacity exists within the bounds of your nation state control. China knows this, developed countries that lost their manufacturing capacity are relearning this.
        to11mtm 4mo ago
        ...errrr.... I think the EU performing such an action is outside the Overton window, at least for now... China does know that but they knew how to make the deal palatable enough for auto manufacturers (other companies too, but this one IMO is a big factor in the grand scheme[0]) to all sell out one way or another for a stake in the pie, be it cheaper manufacturing or accessing that market. Developed countries are re-learning it but are struggling with paying the piper. By that I mean, a lot of manufacturing, especially technology based, can be dirty as heck. Doing certain widgets results in environmental costs that have to be managed or externalized[1]. [0] - I posit, that Auto manufacturers probably keep a lot of documentation around, but also have a lot of history of 'good ideas' being killed by business politics one way or another. You can glean a -lot- of manufacturing tribal knowledge being able to access any existing or new incoming data on that set of signals. [1] - No, we should not externalize, to be clear.
llm_nerd 4mo ago
[flagged]
- nozzlegear 4mo ago
  What made you jump to American exceptionalism? Their comment doesn't even mention the US. It could've been Chinese exceptionalism for all you know, which would've been more plausible since China has such crazy numbers. But honestly, why can't it just be a comment about the EU numbers without this weird jingoism attached?

bogwog 4mo ago

Source?

jweir 4mo ago

According to projections this year will hit 300 GWh in the US https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/clean-energy-manufacturing/us-capacity-storage-cell-factories https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/clean-energy-manufactur...

lysace 4mo ago
Not according to this article.
embedding-shape 4mo ago
That article claims: > As for the underlying cells, it’s a similar story with a slight delay. By the end of 2025, 20 gigawatt-hours of dedicated storage cell lines had opened, and the industry is on pace to hit 96 gigawatt-hours by the end of this year. Not sure where you're getting 300 GWh from?
epistasis 4mo ago
Production and production capacity are getting swapped a lot in this thread. The top level numbers above, US 70 GWh, are straight production. Your 300GWh is likely production capacity but the number doesn't come from your article (which is excellent).

om8 4mo ago

Cool way to think about GWh/year: 1 GWh/year = (10 ** 9) / 24 / 365.25 / (10 ** 6) MW = 0.11 MW 70 GWh/year = 8 MW 1755 GWh/year = 200 MW 252 GWh/year = 29 MW

amalcon 4mo ago
Haha. Reminds me of how volt-amperes are technically the same unit as watts, but if you see VA in an electrical specification you know it means a different thing than it would if you saw W.
- om8 4mo ago
  > volt-amperes are technically the same unit as watts volt-amperes are joules
  - gnabgib 4mo ago
    Volt-amperes are watts... watts/second are joules https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watt
    - lefra 4mo ago
      You got it backwards, Watts are Joules/second (or joules are Watt•second).
    - Skunkleton 4mo ago
      Watts * seconds are joules. Joules is a unit of energy. Watts are power.
    - om8 4mo ago
      Oh, yes, you are right about watts. My bad
  - deleted 4mo ago
    [deleted]
epistasis 4mo ago

vinajuliette 4mo ago

The US is the bronze medalist meme

DaSHacka 4mo ago
I mean, I'd be more than happy to be in the top three. The issue is before we were even lower.

leonidasrup 4mo ago

How much battery storage would you need to cover 12h electric energy consumption on average for each of this regions? Let's look at electricity yearly production (2025 data) USA 4519790 GWh China 10583360 GWh Europe 4626240 GWh https://ourworldindata.org/profile/energy/united-states https://ourworldindata.org/profile/energy/united-states https://ourworldindata.org/profile/energy/china https://ourworldindata.org/profile/energy/china https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/electricity-prod-source-stacked?country=~OWID_EUR https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/electricity-prod-source-s... Average 12h consumption: USA 6187 GWh China 14487 GWh Europe 6332 GWh How many years of cell production capacity would be needed to cover 12h electric energy consumption on average for each of this regions? USA 88 years China 8 years Europe 25 years Currently electricity is only about 19.8% of primary energy consumption. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/electricity-as-a-share-of-primary-energy https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/electricity-as-a-share-of...

crote 4mo ago
Electricity consumption isn't linear (people use far less when they are sleeping), and production isn't zero at night (wind and hydro exist). Covering 12 hours is almost certainly overkill.
- embedding-shape 4mo ago
  > Covering 12 hours is almost certainly overkill "640k ought to be enough for anybody" :) I'm sure with more electricity available, prices would drop, meaning people will use more electricity and so on. Just like desktop applications and available system RAM, I guess some things just consume what becomes available.
  - cogman10 4mo ago
    Maybe a business, certainly not the average person. And whether or not they use it will be determined by price more than anything. If the added batteries and renewables don't translate to appreciable decreases in energy prices then I don't see people using more electricity just because it's available. The other thing that prevents an individual from using more is that electricity usage creates heat.