A briefing on battery regulation, China's supply chain, and prices, for the people who buy and deploy the cells.
The EU battery passport registry is now live. We have flagged the 18 February 2027 battery-passport mandate for months; the on-ramp is now open. Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1778 of 16 July 2026 (in force 6 August) sets the operating rules for the EU digital product passport registry, and Article 2 puts the battery passport (Article 77 of Regulation 2023/1542) explicitly inside its scope. The production portal went live on 20 July 2026. To register you must first become a "verified economic operator" under eIDAS: an EU-established company needs a Qualified Electronic Seal (QES); sole traders and non-EU entities can instead use a qualified e-signature, high-assurance eID, or an electronic attestation of attributes.
Australia pulled seven NEOVOLT models off the rebate list. The Clean Energy Council suspended several battery models made by Bytewatt Technology Co., Ltd (brand NEOVOLT) from its Approved Products list, effective 15 September 2026. Suspended units are no longer eligible for small-scale technology certificates (STCs), the rebate that underwrites most Australian home-storage sales.
NFPA 855 gets a stricter 2026 edition. NFPA published the 2026 edition of NFPA 855, the install standard for stationary energy storage. It broadens the mandatory Hazard Mitigation Analysis and adds large-scale fire-testing, explosion-hazard and emergency-response-planning provisions for most BESS installs unless explicitly exempted.
| Date | What changes | Who should care |
|---|---|---|
| 15 Sep 2026 | CEC suspends NEOVOLT/Bytewatt models — STC rebate ineligible | Installers in Australia |
| Oct 2026 | Gotion Kenitra (Morocco) first LFP cell line starts | EU importers of Morocco-made cells |
| Nov 2026 | Gotion Kenitra second cell line starts | EU importers of Morocco-made cells |
| 18 Feb 2027 | EU digital battery passport mandatory (>2 kWh) — registry now live | Anyone selling into the EU |
BYD's new grid-forming block scales to 62 MWh per unit. On 15 September 2026, at the 2026 International Digital Energy Expo in Shenzhen, BYD unveiled its GW-class Grid-Forming Energy Storage Solution 2.0, built on a standardised "GC Block" using 1,980Ah Blade cells and paired with a GC Flux PCS 2.0 (rated 1.25–15.6 MW, up to 99.5% efficiency, 3× overload for 10 seconds). It is offered in 7.5 MW / 15.5 MWh (~2h), 7.5 MW / 31 MWh (4h) and 10 MW / 62 MWh (6h) configurations.
Africa's first battery gigafactory starts within weeks. Gotion's Kenitra plant in Morocco — billed as the continent's first battery gigafactory — is set to start its first LFP cell line in October 2026 and a second line in November 2026. The May-2025 guidance had targeted Q3 2026, so this is a modest slip, not a leap.
CALB brings another 25 GWh online. CALB's Hefei Phase III base — 25 GWh/year, serving both automotive and storage cells — officially went into operation on 9 September 2026.
China ends its second-life battery whitelist. MIIT Announcement No. 20 of 2026 (issued 30 July 2026) abolishes the prior "echelon utilization" (梯次利用, cascade/second-life) policy standards and removes all 100 previously-listed compliant echelon-utilization enterprises from the official registry.
| Vendor | What | Key numbers | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| BYD | GC Block grid-forming ESS 2.0 on 1,980Ah Blade cells | 10 MW / 62 MWh (6h) · PCS 1.25–15.6 MW · 99.5% | launched 15 Sep 2026 |
| Gotion | Kenitra, Morocco — Africa's first battery gigafactory (LFP) | line 1 Oct · line 2 Nov 2026 | starts Oct 2026 |
| CALB | Hefei Phase III base (automotive + storage cells) | 25 GWh/year designed capacity | online 9 Sep 2026 |
More lithium carbonate is coming in September. China's domestic lithium carbonate production is forecast to rise about 11% month-on-month in September 2026 as spodumene, lithium-mica and salt-lake plants finish maintenance and resume output.
Verify the batch when it arrives. The traceability code printed on a Chinese-made cell can only be read once the goods are in your hands. When a delivery lands, paste a code into the decoder: it returns the manufacturer, chemistry, spec and exact production date in seconds, enough to catch relabeled or aged stock before you sign off the batch.
Paste any code from a Chinese-made cell. The decoder reads the maker, the spec and the true factory date. Full tool at batterydays.com.
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