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CATL says its 9 MWh Tener+ system needs 40% fewer containers and a 35% smaller footprint, per ESS News. It signed three Australian MoUs but named no Tener Sodium order.
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CATL's 9 MWh Tener+ made its global debut at All-Energy Australia 2026; the 40% container figure is CATL's claim, per ESS News.
Illustration (AI-generated)
CATL held the global reveal of its 9 MWh Tener+ battery energy storage system (BESS) at All-Energy Australia 2026 in Melbourne on Oct. 28, ESS News reported.
CATL says Tener+ needs 40% fewer containers and a 35% smaller project footprint, which it presents as a fit for sites short of land. The report gives no baseline for either percentage, so they are CATL's claims rather than a measured comparison. The company also lists a 25-year design life, liquid cooling, noise below 65 dBA and one-click commissioning of multiple units.
For developers, the container count matters because each container is a separate foundation, cable run and fire-safety zone. A larger block at 9 MWh means fewer of them per site, which also eases grid-connection layouts. The report does not state the system's power rating, so its duration cannot be calculated.
CATL signed three memoranda of understanding at the show. With Hitachi Energy, CATL's DC battery products and Hitachi's power conversion systems would form the basis of a proposed integrated offering for Australia and Asia Pacific, aimed at compatibility, standard project delivery and lower integration risk. With EPEC Group and the Xiamen Empirical Energy Storage Research Institute (ESVL), CATL will combine its technology with grid-integration engineering and full-scale system validation. With UNSW Sydney, it will develop a training centre in Western Sydney. None of the MoUs states a volume, price or timeline.
Tener Sodium is claimed at more than 30 MWh against 9 MWh for Tener+; all figures are CATL's, per ESS News.
Illustration (AI-generated)
CATL Australia and New Zealand General Manager Zane Zhou told pv magazine that interest in its sodium batteries is deep in the National Electricity Market and in off-grid applications. The company showed Tener Sodium, which it says delivers more than 30 MWh through modular cabinets, with 95% round-trip efficiency, operation at up to 55°C and more than 10,000 cycles at 45°C. It also claims EPC costs more than 10% below containerised lithium iron phosphate systems. All of these are vendor figures.
Melbourne-based investor Birdwood Energy selected CATL as technology partner for the Barandudua Electrical Energy Reserve, a 400 MW / 1,860 MWh battery near Wodonga, Victoria. That works out to about 4.65 hours of duration. ESS News says CATL has more than 3,000 storage projects worldwide and over 17 GWh installed in Australia, and a 30.4% share of 2025 global storage battery shipments, per SNE Research. In Europe, as Voltgrid reported, CATL is also engineering and maintaining Giga Storage's 1.4 GWh battery in Lower Saxony.
No Australian Tener Sodium order was named, and the MoUs are not supply contracts. Tener+ power rating, cell chemistry and delivery dates were not stated in the report. Watch for the first Australian project to name Tener Sodium or Tener+ in a contract.
