World’s installed battery storage capacity to surpass 14 GW by 2020

Aug 23, 2016 16:29 CEST by Militsa Mancheva

August 23 – The world’s cumulative installed battery energy storage system (BESS) capacity is expected to surge from 1.5 GW in 2015 to over 14 GW by 2020, GlobalData said Tuesday.

The forecast takes into consideration the constantly growing renewable energy installations and the focus on grid stability. According to the latest viewpoint of the research and consulting firm, BESS prices are expected to nearly halve by the end of the decade on account of the growing competitiveness in the sector, as well as the technological innovations and improvements in the manufacturing processes.

The report says that the US will maintain its leadership position on the global BESS market. Its value is expected to soar from USD 750 million (EUR 681.7m) last year to approximately USD 1.7 billion five years later.

“The US market for energy storage has so far been focused on frequency regulation — in other words, storage to balance out swift, short-term variation in power output,” GlobalData’s Analyst covering Power, Swati Gupta, explained.

BESS have a wide range of applications in the power sector as they tackle issues such as energy time shift, load following and frequency regulation, renewable capacity continuity, transmission congestions relief and energy tariff cost management. All in all, they can help make renewable energy sources smoother and more reliable, Gupta said.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.909)

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