China's CATL,the world's biggest battery maker,expects energy storage to account for half of its global sales by 2030,up from25%now,a company executive said on June 4.

Energy storage has already jumped fromonly 2%of battery sales five years ago,Kevin Tang,CATL's director of⁠energy storage systems for Europe,said.

Founded in 2011,CATL initially specialised in making lithium-ion batteries forelectric vehicles,which currently make up about three quarters of its sales.However,an increasing needto complement intermittent renewables is driving demand for batteries for storage,Tang said.

"Once we have more renewable energy,we need energy storage,"he said on the sidelines of the International Photovoltaic Power Generation and Smart Energy Conference&Exhibitionin Shanghai,the world's largest solar conference.

In Europe,CATL's third-largest energy storage market after China andthe U.S.,customers are investing in both renewables plus storage and grid-side storage,depending on where the congestion points‌in⁠local power grids are,he said.

CATL has manufacturing plants in Germany and Hungary,and has broken ground on a new plant in Spain in a joint venture with car maker Stellantis.