Five projects of 4GWh entered commercial operations in the month, all of which were in China and with 4-hour durations, Rho Motion said. A total of 20 projects of 1GWh or more came online, again all in China and all were lithium-ion bar two. One of those was a 1GWh flow battery, the largest ever deployed using that technology.
Regional breakdown
Europe finished the year strongly, putting 1,074MW/2,289MWh into commercial operation bringing the total for the year up to 4,972MW/10,884MWh. That annual figure is a 28% year-on-year increase. While the December figure may be surprising considering the Christmas break, it is based primarily on announcements to projects may have come online a bit earlier.
Notable projects we reported on include a 200MW/400MWh BESS in Romania from Nova Gas & Power and a 200MWh co-located project in Denmark from European Energy, covered in this roundup.
Africa, Asia excluding and North America also finished the year strongly, while the Middle East, Oceania including Australia, and South & Central America don’t have any projects coming online according to Rho Motion’s data. A trio of projects totalling 7.8GWh in Saudi were announced as connected to the grid, but this may not count as fully operational.
| Region | December MW | December MWh | Full-year MW | Full-year MWh |
| Africa | 76 | 180 | 271 | 569 |
| Asia (ex-China) | 499 | 834 | 941 | 2,168 |
| China | 18,119 | 65,429 | 55,039 | 161,855 |
| Europe | 1,074 | 2,289 | 4,972 | 10,884 |
| Middle East | 2,837 | 10,626 | ||
| North America | 759 | 2,328 | 15,033 | 46,544 |
| Oceania | 4,278 | 9,739 | ||
| South & Central America | 845 | 4,105 | ||
| Total | 20,527 | 71,060 | 84,216 | 246,490 |
Construction and durations
Meanwhile, 26GWh of BESS projects either had technology suppliers enlisted or started the construction phase. These two milestones can often go hand-in-hand. Five projects of 1GWh or more were in this section, four which in China and one in Queensland, all utilising LFP batteries, Rho Motion said.
Average project durations are also increasing, to 3.4-hours across operational projects in December 2025. Three LFP-based projects in China of 1.2GWh or more had six-hour durations, whilst a total of 60 projects comprising over 57GWh had durations of four hours or more.
See the other pieces in this series below:
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