CATL ESS battery lasts 25 years in fewer containers to reduce land use

CATL has unveiled the Tener+, its next generation energy storage system (ESS) with lithium batteries that can last 25 years without significant capacity degradation. At the All Energy Australia 2026 expo in Melbourne, CATL detailed the ESS as offering 9 MWh of capacity per container and targeting long-term grid projects with energy density as the main selling point.

The Tener+ ESS can cut the number of containers a project needs by up to 40 percent compared with conventional solutions, significantly shrinking the overall footprint. Fewer boxes mean less land, less cabling, and a simpler deployment, which matters when developers are building at a GWh scale.

Longevity is the other notable feature, as CATL quotes a design life of 25 years, built on proprietary cells made to slow degradation. Buyers can choose between cell configurations tuned for high desert temperatures or one that promises three years of zero degradation, for instance, as the no-degradation option is not available on every Tener+ config.

CATL's ESS made for high environmental temperatures, like desert deployment, offers a top exhaust design that pushes hot air upward and away from neighboring equipment. This way power conversion systems keep their factory-designed output during harsh summers, too. An intelligent thermal management system further improves round-trip efficiency and lowers auxiliary power draw. Several units can also be commissioned at once with a single click.

The Tener+ follows the 6.25 MWh Tener from April 2024 and the 9 MWh Tener Stack from May 2025. CATL also showed the Tener Sodium in Australia for the first time, an ESS with sodium-ion battery chemistry that offers over 30 MWh of grid-level capacity and is rated for high ambient temperatures of up to 55°C (131°F) like the ones that can be found in local deserts.

In Australia, CATL's energy storage projects are now exceeding 17 GWh of installed capacity. The world's biggest EV battery maker also leads the global ESS market with a 27% share and is clearly trying to stay ahead of rivals like BYD with systems like the Tener+ that offer a much smaller footprint and an industry-leading warranty. Those ESS projects concerned about overreliance on Chinese technology, for instance, would now have a quarter of a century to sort their diversification out until the CATL cells hit their degradation threshold.