CATL, the world's largest battery maker, has opened what it describes as the most comprehensive energy storage validation facility ever built, investing around €370 million in a ten-hectare site in Xiamen, China, designed to test battery storage systems under real grid conditions at station level, going beyond the component and scenario testing that has until now been the industry norm.
BESS fire protection | 1: the groundwork
The Xiamen Energy Storage Validation Research Institute (ESVL) comprises five laboratories covering grid integration, high-voltage safety, thermal safety, environmental reliability and electromagnetic compatibility. The grid integration lab runs a 35 kV/100 MVA network simulator capable of testing more than ten large storage systems simultaneously and simulating grids with 1,000 nodes across a frequency range of 15 to 60 Hz, which is 14 times larger than the NREL platform in the US, according to CATL. The thermal safety lab is a 100,000 m³ indoor fire facility with a 20 MW calorimeter, capable of running explosion tests on nine large storage containers at once.
CATL's own data indicates that nearly one in five large-scale storage installations globally underperforms against expectations, and 46.5 percent of systems experience grid connection delays of more than two months. The company attributes this partly to the industry's reliance on component-level testing rather than full system validation. The facility is open to third parties, with TÜV SÜD, TÜV Rheinland, CGC and CSA among the certification bodies involved.
BESS fire protection | 2: detection, suppression, response
"As storage becomes critical infrastructure, independent and traceable validation data matters – for regulators, insurers and financiers looking to treat it as a bankable asset," said Dr Chen Xiaobo, head of the ESVL. Accordingly, the company's own quality standards are being raised to power-plant level, with validation moved to the pre-delivery phase.
CATL shipped 121 GWh of storage batteries in 2025, holding a 30.4 percent global market share for the fifth consecutive year. (TF)
