The Elena BESS in Chile, the largest in the world to come online during June. Image: Grenergy
Some 9.1GW/33.5GWh of large-scale BESS came online globally last month, with Saudi Arabia accounting for over one-third of the figure.
That’s according to the latest monthly data from Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, reported here as part of a regular series for ESN Premium.
It is the first time in the 18 months that we have been covering the figures that a region other than China accounted for the most capacity. China deployed 3,696MW/10,094MWh in June, 30.1% of the total GWh, while Saudi Arabia deployed 2.5GW/12.5GWh, 37.3% of the total.
That capacity in Saudi Arabia came entirely from five projects deployed by Saudi Electricity Company (SEC), for which the battery energy storage systems (BESS) were supplied by BYD, and built by EPC firm Alfanar. The supply deal was announced in February 2025.
