Emerging as a crucial source of flexibility instrumental in integrating renewable energy into the electricity grid, energy storage, both utility-scale and behind-the-meter, is set to attract massive investments by 2030.
A total amount of $103 billion will be spread roughly equally across the Americas, Asia Pacific and Europe, Middle East and Africa regions, reads the new report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) titled “Energy Storage Forecast, 2017-2030″, comparing the storage market’s expected growth to the major expansion that the solar industry went through from 2000 to 2015, when the share of solar PV in total generation doubled seven times.
Eight countries will emerge as the main deployment destinations as 70% of capacity will be installed in the U.S., China, Japan, India, Germany, U.K., Australia and South Korea, with the U.S. leading the pack with one-quarter of deployments.
“The industry has just begun. With so much investment going into battery technology, falling costs and with significant addition of wind and solar capacity in all markets, energy storage will play a crucial part in the energy transformation,” said Yayoi Sekine, energy storage analyst and lead author of the report.
The latest BNEF global storage market figures dwarf the recently released forecast by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), which found that storage capacity could triple by 2030 if current renewable energy capacity doubles, with a potential battery price decline of 66%.
Meanwhile, on the pathway to the the projected deployment figures, the strong growth of battery storage market is being reaffirmed by ongoing large-scale projects, such as the 129 MW battery currently being built by Tesla and Neon in Australia, as well as projects in sight, such as the recent announcement by British electrical power generation company Drax to build a 200 MW battery storage project at Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire – one of the largest CO2 emitters in Europe.
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Doubling six times is not the same as growing sixfold. Doubling six times means growing by two to the power of six or sixty four. The headline should thus read “Global storage market to grow sixtyfour-fold by 2030, BNEF reports”.
Hi Alan, Thanks for your comment. We have amended the headline. Best, Becky Beetz, Head of Content, pv magazine