At the 2026 World Power Battery Conference opening on September 3, Zhu Gongshan, Chairman of GCL Group and Chair of the Global Green Energy Council, outlined five new value paradigms for the global battery industry: high-end main materials, full-chain resource integration, carbon-factor electrification, omnipresent AI, and AI-powered zero-carbon parks.

"One generation of materials, one generation of batteries—this has been an unshakable rule in the battery industry for two decades," Zhu said. He emphasized that materials lead the way in an electric-driven world, adding that revolutionary advances in materials will redefine the battery supply chain. The interplay of silicon, lithium, and carbon, he noted, will determine the physical form and ecosystem positioning of next-generation batteries.

Zhu highlighted that a multi-material coupling system will converge three core tracks—solar power generation, power batteries, and energy storage batteries—onto a single technological evolution path, accelerating the realization of solar-storage parity, matched lifespans, and integrated solar-storage-computing solutions.

He revealed that GCL's flagship fifth-and-a-half-generation high-end cathode material, C20, developed under the GCL-PHY process, will soon hit the market with bulk supply destined for CATL. By the end of next year, GCL plans to have built over 750,000 tonnes of production capacity in Sichuan, while also advancing silicon-carbon anode initiatives aimed at creating the industry's largest-scale capacity.

Zhu considers 2026 the breakout year for silicon-carbon anode deployment, as high-end main materials push next-generation batteries from liquid to multi-form factor states. New-generation materials, he explained, will reconstruct batteries and, combined with application scenarios, accelerate the shift toward solar-storage co-deployment, matched longevity, ultra-low costs, and carbon premiums.

He further noted that power batteries and energy storage batteries are moving from parallel tracks to a deeply coupled energy ecosystem. Mainstream battery technology routes and next-generation material technologies now jointly support both markets, with highly shared supply chains—from cathode and anode materials to cells and equipment—amplifying scale effects in both directions. At the core, he said, lies the concept of vehicles-as-storage, batteries-as-new-infrastructure, grids-as-platforms, and electricity-as-computing-power.