BNEF: Energy storage market to double six times by 2030

The global energy storage market looks to mirror the rapid growth the solar industry experienced between 2000 and 2015, with a new Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) report predicting that the energy storage market will double six times by 2030.


BNEF released a new report on Monday (20 November), which predicts that the energy storage market will grow to 125GW between 2016 and 2030, creating an output of 305gWh. This growth is remarkably similar to the trajectory the solar industry experienced for 15 years from 2000, when the share of photovoltaics in the energy mix doubled seven times.

BNEF energy storage analyst Yayoi Sekine said: “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.”

The Global Energy Storage Forecast report notes that the UK, the US, China, Germany, Australia, Japan, India and South Korea will account for 70% of all installed capacity. Both utility-scale and behind-the-meter installations will be issued to create a “crucial source of flexibility” capable of handling an influx of renewable energy, the report notes.

BNEF predicts that more than $100bn will be invested during the next 15 years in the energy storage markets, spread equally across continents. A previous energy storage forecast from BNEF suggested that energy storage system investments would cost $8.2bn annually by 2024, before reaching $250bn by 2040.

The revised investment prediction is based on BNEF’s own calculations that battery technology costs will fall to $120 per kWh by 2030.

Storage shift

The findings arrive one week after BNEF commissioned a report alongside the Renewable Energy Association (REA) and energy storage developers Eaton. That report revealed that the intermittency of wind and solar energy will create wildly varying outputs from renewable energy generation in the UK by 2040.

While battery storage is viable option to counteract a few days of low wind or solar generation, the report claimed that other resources, such as a steady stream of hydro energy, will be needed to plug a 72% to 80% demand gap during low output months.

POWER-GEN’s Industry Study warned that the European utility industry is not prepared for a vital energy storage shift, with only 26% of survey respondents “very confident” that the industry would be ready and able to embrace the technology.

In contrast, the UK’s battery storage sector is booming, with new installations expected to help create savings for the UK in the tune of £8bn by 2030. This includes the UK’s largest portfolio from renewable energy provider Anesco, which announced proposals to bring 185MW of energy onto the grid earlier this year.

Battery Energy Storage Solutions’ (BESS), a UK owner and operator of large scale battery storage, announced today (21 November) that it has raised a £50m equity investment from a group of investors led by New York based Tiger Infrastructure Partners.

The investment will help facilitate demand for new projects and will enable BESS to grow its portfolio, which will be more than 60MW in the UK by early 2018.

Matt Mace

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