Chinese battery giant CATL announced last week it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Australian energy infrastructure service provider Zinfra to “establish a strategic cooperation framework” to jointly pursue energy storage opportunities in Australia.
The two parties said that they have agreed on terms to deliver and maintain large-scale battery energy storage system projects in Australia, with CATL represented by CATA, its Australian subsidiary.
CATL said the agreement marks an “important step” as it implements its “integrated ‘product + service’ capabilities in overseas markets,” as it leans on Zinfra to offer projects and engineering delivery on operations and maintenance and service capacity for its projects. Zinfra noted it has an annual project portfolio exceeding $1.2 billion (USD 865 million).
Zinfra Managing Director Peter Iancov said the signing of the MOU will enable the Melbourne-headquartered company to continue growing its capabilities in energy storage infrastructure central to Australia’s energy transition.
The agreement with CATL is anticipated to support growth in utility-scale battery energy storage systems, EPC delivery, construction and commissioning expertise, long-term operations, maintenance and lifecycle services, capability building with class-leading battery platforms,” the company said.
“Every day, Zinfra is focused on driving innovation in energy infrastructure delivery. Forming partnerships with global and local leaders in new energy technologies is key to this,” Iancov said.
“Battery and energy storage infrastructure is a critical component in building and maintaining a future-ready network, and we are ensuring Zinfra is positioned to deliver solutions that support our customers and keep our communities connected.”
The partnership is a marked change to CATL’s approach. It is the most important company in the upstream battery supply chain, and offers ESS products as well as being one of the largest producers of battery cells, and also operates lithium mines. It also has its own energy storage products, such as the 9 MWh Tener Stack, which have been sold across the globe. However, it hasn’t tied itself to particular developers or operators or publicised large service agreements. According to CATL’s own data, its global market share in energy storage battery shipments reached 30.4% in 2025.
With the shift in approach having now happened in Australia, CATL looks set to branch out further, saying it “will continue to collaborate with local partners like Zinfra.”
“CATL is committed to supporting the global energy transition through innovative and high-quality energy storage solutions. We are pleased to partner with Zinfra to support the growth of energy storage infrastructure in Australia,” said Zane Zhou, general manager of CATA [CATL].
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.