Two Pioneering Figures in China’s Energy Storage Sector Win Top National Science and Technology Honors at the 2025 National Science and Technology Awards
A landmark moment for China’s energy storage industry unfolded at the 2025 China National Science and Technology Awards Ceremony, held in Beijing on July 8, 2026. Two trailblazing scientists who have shaped the trajectory of China’s energy storage technology received the nation’s most prestigious scientific recognitions, marking a historic milestone for domestic long-duration energy storage and lithium-ion battery innovation.
Academician Chen Liquan, a researcher at the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the founding father of China’s lithium battery industry, was honored with the National Highest Science and Technology Award—the country’s supreme honor for scientific and technological contributions. As a pioneer and global leading authority on lithium battery technologies, Academician Chen Liquan laid the foundational framework for China’s lithium-ion battery industrial system, spearheading breakthroughs in basic materials, cell manufacturing and industrialization over decades of research. His lifelong work underpins the rapid growth of China’s electrochemical energy storage, power battery and new energy vehicle sectors, laying irreplaceable technical groundwork for the national dual carbon strategy and energy transition revolution.
Meanwhile, Prof. Chen Haisheng, Chairman of China Energy Storage Alliance (CNESA) and researcher at the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, led his research team to claim the Second Prize of the National Technology Invention Award for the landmark achievement Key Technologies for Large-Scale Advanced Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) Systems.
Energy storage stands as a core, indispensable supporting technology for China’s dual carbon goals and national energy revolution. Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) is widely recognized as one of the most promising long-duration bulk energy storage solutions worldwide, featuring large installation scale, low lifecycle cost, ultra-long service life and outstanding operational safety, and has become a strategically competitive technical field across all major economies. Traditional CAES systems have long been restrained by critical bottlenecks including fossil fuel dependency and low round-trip efficiency, severely limiting large-scale commercial rollout globally.
Supported by successive national key research programs including the National Basic Research Program (973), National High-Tech R&D Program (863) and National Key R&D Program, Prof. Chen Haisheng’s team dedicated 20 consecutive years to targeted research and iterative breakthroughs, delivering a full set of systematic original innovations that resolve historic pain points of conventional CAES technology:
1. Proposed the novel "storage-release correspondence & cycle matching" design theory for energy storage systems, and invented an advanced CAES architecture based on a homologous circulation principle;
2. Overcame the synergistic aerodynamic and structural design challenge for multi-stage compressors and expanders, developing ultra-high pressure ratio-compressors and ultra-high expansion ratio expanders with fully independent intellectual property rights;
3. Cracked core technical barriers for supercritical heat/cold storage heat exchangers, inventing high-efficiency compact heat exchange equipment for CAES systems.
The research team has completed the construction of the world’s first series of advanced CAES demonstration facilities covering 1.5MW, 10MW, 100MW and 300MW capacity levels. The round-trip efficiency of the flagship system exceeds 70%, repeatedly setting new global performance benchmarks and firmly establishing China’s world-leading position in advanced compressed air energy storage technology.
To date, the project has secured 162 authorized invention patents (including 9 international patents), ranking No.1 globally in CAES patent holdings and forming a high-value, tightly integrated patent portfolio. The team has published 267 SCI papers, which have accumulated over 13,700 SCI citations, demonstrating profound academic influence in the global energy storage research community. Industrial transformation of the core technologies has generated direct economic benefits exceeding 7 billion RMB, delivering tangible value for the large-scale commercialization of long-duration energy storage.
The National Science and Technology Awards consist of five major categories: the National Highest Science and Technology Award, National Natural Science Award, National Technology Invention Award, National Science and Technology Progress Award, and China International Science and Technology Cooperation Award, representing the highest official recognition of scientific innovation in China.
CNESA extends sincere congratulations to Academician Chen Liquan and Prof. Chen Haisheng’s research team on their extraordinary accomplishments. These top-tier national honors fully validate the core strategic value of energy storage technologies in advancing global low-carbon energy transition, and highlight the strength of sustained independent innovation among China’s energy storage scientific community. As energy storage evolves into a critical backbone of the global net-zero energy system, CNESA will continue to unite industrial, academic and research stakeholders to accelerate technology iteration, industrial standardization and global cooperation, further boosting the high-quality development of China’s energy storage industry and contributing Chinese solutions to worldwide energy transformation.
