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Global energy storage market set to hit 1 TWh by 2030

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Energy storage installations around the world will reach a cumulative 358 GW/1,028 GWh by the end of 2030, more than 20 times larger than the 17 GW/34 GWh online at the end of 2020, according to the latest forecast from BloombergNEF (BNEF). This boom in stationary energy storage will require more than $262bn of investment, it estimates.

The market analyst reports that 345 GW/999 GWh of new energy storage capacity will be added globally between 2021 and 2030, which is more than Japan’s entire power generation capacity in 2020. The US and China are the two largest markets, representing over half of the global storage installations by 2030. The clean power ambitions of state governments and utilities are expected to propel storage deployment in the US, while in China, the ambitious installation target of 30 GW of cumulative build by 2025 and stricter renewable integration rules will boost expected storage installations.

Other top markets include India, Australia, Germany, the UK and Japan. Supportive policies, ambitious climate commitments and the growing need for flexible resources are common drivers, according to BNEF.

Regionally, the Asia-Pacific region will lead the storage build on a MW basis by 2030, but the Americas will build more on a MWh basis because storage plants in the US usually have more hours of storage, notes the analyst. Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) is reported to currently lag behind its counterparts due to a lack of targeted storage policies and incentives, which some may find surprising considering Europe’s ambitious climate targets. However, growth in the region could accelerate as renewables penetration surges, more fossil-fuel generators exit and the battery supply chain becomes more localised, suggests BNEF.

Yiyi Zhou, clean power specialist at BNEF and lead author of the report, comments: ‘The global storage market is growing at an unprecedented pace. Falling battery costs and surging renewables penetration make energy storage a compelling flexible resource in many power systems. Energy storage projects are growing in scale, increasing in dispatch duration, and are increasingly paired with renewables.’

BNEF’s forecast suggests that the majority, or 55%, of energy storage build by 2030 will be to provide energy shifting (for instance, storing solar or wind to release later). Co-located renewable-plus-storage projects, solar-plus-storage in particular, are becoming commonplace globally.

Customer-sited batteries, both residential and commercial and industrial ones, will also grow at a steady pace. Germany and Japan are currently leading markets, with sizeable markets in Australia and California. BNEF expects energy storage located at homes and businesses to make up about one quarter of global storage installations by 2030. The desire of electricity consumers to use more self-generated solar power and appetite for back-up power are major drivers.

Other applications, such as using energy storage to defer grid investment, may remain marginal in most markets out to 2030, says BNEF. However, build could pick up if regulatory barriers are removed and incentives are aligned for network owners to consider storage as an alternative to traditional infrastructure investment.

Figure 1: Global cumulative energy storage installations, 2015–2030
Note: MENA = Middle East and North Africa. Buffer represents markets and use cases that BNEF is unable to forecast due to lack of visibility.
Source:BNEF

News Item details


Journal title: Petroleum Review

Organisation: Bloomberg New Energy Finance

Subjects: Forecasting, Energy storage

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