Energy storage, the technology that can play a critical role in ensuring the reliability of energy sources as PV, had an exciting year in 2017. The year had 1.4 GW and 2.3 GWh of energy storage deployed globally, according to GTM Research’s ‘Global Energy Storage: 2017 Year in Review and 2018-2022 Outlook’ report.

It was Australia that deployed the highest power of 246 MW in the year globally. That was thanks to Tesla’s 129 MWh battery storage system installed at the 100 MW Hornsdale wind power project by Neoen.

But it was the US that took the top position regarding new energy capacity – it installed 431 MWh of which 234 MWh was deployed in Q1/2017. Led by California, Massachusetts and New York contributed most as they had enacted specific laws supporting energy storage.

Germany was ranked third in 2017, adding 135 MW in terms of power. It was followed by China and Japan.

“We saw yet more frequency market restructuring in Europe as the European Network Codes went into effect, which includes harmonization of the balancing markets. A number of proposed changes that will impact the frequency markets of the coupled markets of Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland were announced, although nothing specifically to improve the conditions for storage,” said director energy storage for GTM Research, and the co-author of the report, Ravi Manghani . 

South Korea finds a special mention in the report as its national power utility Kepco pursued its initiative to deploy 500 MW of energy storage. At the end of 2017, its cumulative energy storage deployment power had touched over 370 MW across 13 projects. Four of these with a total of 112 MW were deployed in 2017.

Consolidation

Last year was also marked by consolidation activities in the storage sector, as big fish like Italy’s Enel bought energy storage company Demand Energy, France’s Total acquired Saft, and French energy giant, Engie, took a majority stake in Green Charge. Siemens and AES also floated a joint venture for the energy storage market globally, called Fluence, which recently supplied the first big battery energy storage systems for India (see 10 MW Storage System For New Delhi).

“We will watch to see how these energy titans will fare in developing innovative offerings in the coming year, bringing their strong background in the conventional energy business into the brave new world of storage,” said Senior Analyst, Energy Storage for GTM Research, Rory McCarthy, the other co-author of the report.

2018 and beyond

The authors of the report argue that the US will continue to rule the energy storage market globally right through to 2022. China will surpass all other markets to land on rank 2 in 2019 and will continue to stay there until 2022. Supported by energy storage improvements and regulatory push in several markets, GTM expects the annual global energy storage market to reach 8.6 GW and 21.6 GWh by 2022.

A free summary of the report is available on GTM Research’s website.

In January 2018, Navigant Research came out with a report that expects the energy storage for renewables integration market to grow to an annual revenue of over $23 billion by 2026 (see RES Energy Storage $23Bn Market By 2026).