The global energy storage market is projected to soar to more than 300GWh by the end of 2030 from “a meagre starting point” of less than 5GWh last year, according to a new report.
Analysis by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) estimated $103 billion will be invested in energy storage over that period.
The trajectory for energy storage “mirrors the market expansion that solar went through from 2000 to 2015, when the share of solar PV as a percentage of total generation doubled seven times”, the report said.
BNEF energy storage analyst and lead report author Yayoi Sekine said global growth would be driven by both cost reductions for batteries and associated systems, and a rising need for more gigawatts of flexibility “to manage the ups and downs of an increasingly wind- and solar-powered grid”.
Sekine said: “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.”
According to BNEF, the rapid global growth rate indicated in its research “tracks well” with a forecast published earlier this year by GTM Research— which projected the US energy storage market would grow “to roughly 2.6GW in 2022, almost 12 times the size of the 2016 market”.
