Dr. Robin Zeng, chairman and CEO of CATL, delivered a speech on February 3 at the World Laureate Summit and World Governments Summit in Dubai, highlighting the ongoing transformation of the global energy landscape.
He compared today’s shift from fossil fuels to renewable generation and battery storage to past energy revolutions that have driven human development.
Zeng noted that advances in science and technology have driven down costs by around 80% over the past decade for lithium iron phosphate batteries and solar power, positioning sustainable energy as an economically compelling choice.
He provided examples of CATL deployments, including solar-plus-storage systems in Chile and the Democratic Republic of the Congo that supply remote mining operations at approximately one-quarter the cost of diesel generators, and distributed solar with battery storage in Pakistan that has halved electricity expenses for cement plants.
In California, expanded storage capacity has mitigated the renewable “duck curve,” with clean energy meeting or exceeding grid demand for more than 1,800 hours in 2025.
Zeng outlined three defining attributes for future energy systems: distributed, intelligent and circular.
He described CATL’s high-voltage grid-forming energy storage technology, which supports frequency regulation, reactive power compensation, damping control, system inertia and black-start capability, currently powering an off-grid industrial park in China.
Intelligent systems will leverage artificial intelligence for data-driven scheduling and optimization, as seen in an AI data center deployment in Shanghai.
Circularity involves recycling battery materials, where CATL has achieved industry-leading recovery rates of 99.6% for nickel and cobalt and 96.5% for lithium, collaborating with NGOs and industry partners to ensure a sustainable supply chain.
Zeng projected that 2030 will mark the true beginning of a sustainable energy era and stressed the need to transition laboratory breakthroughs—such as solid-state batteries and perovskite solar cells—into scalable applications.
He called for international cooperation, local production strategies and the establishment of special economic zones to accelerate deployment, citing a study that projects a 1.7 °C temperature rise by 2027.
Immediate action, he said, is essential to limit global warming and achieve a net-zero future.
Source: PR Newswire
