Chinese battery maker Gotion High-Tech will supply 6GWh of storage to three sites in Saudi Arabia’s first utility-scale battery storage tender, taking about three-quarters of the capacity awarded.
Gotion High-Tech has been confirmed as the technology supplier for three projects in Saudi Arabia’s first utility-scale battery storage tender. The sites total 6GWh and went to a consortium led by ACWA Power. It’s the first large international deployment of Gotion Grid, the company’s utility-scale storage system.
The three sites are Al Muwayah, Haden and Al Kahafa, and each is configured at 500MW/2GWh. That means each site can discharge at full power for four hours. Together they give Gotion roughly 75% of the tender’s total capacity of 2GW/8GWh.
A first round of build-own-operate deals
The Saudi Power Procurement Company awarded the contracts in August. They are the kingdom’s first build-own-operate agreements for battery storage. A consortium of Saudi Energy, ACWA Power and Al Sharif Contracting and Commercial Development Company won three of the projects.
Under a build-own-operate model, private developers finance, build and run the assets, then sell services to the state buyer. That shifts construction and performance risk away from the government. It also puts supplier choice, and so battery quality, in the hands of the developers.
The fourth project, Al-Khushaybi in Qassim province, went to Engie and Haji Abdullah Alireza & Co. All three Gotion sites will connect to Saudi Arabia’s 380kV transmission backbone.
Built for desert heat
Gotion says its systems operate between -30°C and 55°C. Their thermal management is designed to keep output steady during sandstorms. The company also claims it cuts high-temperature degradation by 40% compared with conventional systems.
In addition, the units carry a 25-year design life. That’s longer than the industry average of 15 to 20 years. A longer life spreads the upfront cost over more years of service.
Saudi Arabia leads global installations
Storage supports Saudi Arabia’s plan to take half its electricity from renewables by 2030. Large solar fleets produce most of their power at midday, so batteries shift that output into the evening peak. Batteries help the national grid manage that daily swing.
The kingdom is now one of the world’s busiest storage markets. In July, it led global utility-scale installations, commissioning 2.5GW/12.5GWh in a single month. Chinese maker BYD supplied all of those systems.
Then, in August, Saudi Arabia accounted for roughly one-fifth of the approximately 21GWh installed worldwide. Two further 500MW/2GWh projects came online that month at Tabuk and Ha’il, both supplied by Hithium.
Chinese suppliers have won the largest orders so far. BYD, Hithium and now Gotion have each won large Saudi orders within a few months. Each deal has brought a different Chinese supplier onto the kingdom’s grid.
More capacity is coming. The procurement company has already begun qualifying bidders for a second battery storage tender covering 3GW/12GWh. That round also implies four-hour systems, but at half as much again in power terms. So suppliers are competing for a pipeline that keeps growing, as solar-plus-storage investment hits records worldwide.
Gotion widens its Middle East footprint
Gotion says the Saudi award adds to roughly 9GWh of projects across the Middle East and North Africa. They include a 1.5GWh system in Egypt, paired with a planned 3GWh local manufacturing base. There’s also a 1.2GWh project in Morocco with ACWA Power. The Egypt factory would give Gotion local production close to its regional customers.
The company’s finances are growing fast too. Gotion reported first-half 2026 revenue of RMB27.77bn ($4.14bn), up 43.22% year on year. Net profit rose 278.05% to RMB1.386bn over the same period. Growth on that scale gives the company room to fund its overseas push.
For ACWA Power, the deal deepens a working relationship with Gotion that already spans Morocco. For Saudi Arabia, the first battery storage tender sets a template that the second round will now test at larger scale.
