(Yicai Global) Sept. 5 -- Shares of Sungrow Power Supply rallied after battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology said it is exploring how to expand its partnership with China's largest photovoltaic inverter manufacturer.

Sungrow's stock price [SHE: 300274] closed 7.65 percent high to CNY116.97 today. The share are still more than 20 percent down from Aug 23.

A team led by CATL's Chairman Zeng Yuqun recently visited Sungrow's headquarters in Hefei to discuss how to deepen the pair's collaboration on energy storage systems and global application, the Ningde-based maker of electric vehicle batteries said in an article posted on its WeChat account yesterday.

The partnership will give full play to the pair's respective strengths to promote the expansion of the integrated PV systems market, Securities Times reported today, citing an industry insider. Such integrated systems allow solar power to enter the grid.

The renewables market is booming, partly due to Europe's surging demand. In the first half, the installed capacity of Chinese lithium-ion batteries more than doubled to 32 gigawatt-hours, according to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Battery shipments should rise by 88 percent to 90 GWh this year, based on Gaogong Industry Research's estimate.

CATL has been vying for new opportunities by diversifying. The firm's products can be used by industrial companies, data centers, or commercial buildings to store solar or wind power.

In the first half, CATL's energy storage segment earned CNY12.7 billion (USD1.8 billion) in revenue, almost tripling from a year ago. It is cooperating with some of the world's top 10 energy storage clients, including Nextera Energy, Fluence Energy, Wartsila, Tesla, and Powin Energy.

Sungrow has also been watching its numbers surge. In the first half, the firm's revenue climbed by 50 percent to CNY12.3 billion, driven by its inverter and energy storage business.

The six-month revenue from Sungrow's energy storage business jumped almost three times to CNY2.4 billion (USD346.2 million) from a year ago as shipments reached 2 GWh. Sungrow's converter shipments were higher than those of any other company for six straight years.

Sungrow's PV inverter business has reached a profit inflection point, and the energy storage segment has become a new growth driver, Everbright Securities analyzed.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi