Global Energy Storage to Bounce Back Despite Adversity

The medium term future for energy storage remains bright despite coronavirus pandemic. The recent analysis by Frost & Sullivan, Outlook for the Global Energy Storage Industry, 2020, predicts the market to decline, as project delays, including the lack of access to residential and commercial clients, takes its toll.

An additional insight, Global Battery Energy Storage Market, analyzes the impact of the pandemic and notes the market is forecast to rebound strongly in 2021 and experience an accelerated growth period from 2022 onwards, with global annual capacity additions forecast to hit 23.3 GW per year in 2025, up from just 4.1GW in 2019. Jonathan Robinson, Energy Program Lead, Industrial at Frost & Sullivan said, “The fundamentals behind an investment in energy storage remain strong”.

The United States and China are set to be the biggest markets for energy storage in terms of installations and installed capacity. South Korea, which was the global leader in energy storage solutions in 2018, is likely to drop a few positions but remain one of the top five along with Germany and Japan. High electricity prices, declining feed in tariffs, increasing grid demand charges and declining technology and project costs all mean that energy storage is becoming a much more attractive proposition for consumers from households to heavy industry.

There will be a growing market for retrofitting existing solar PV systems with additional energy storage capacity, while new solar PV installations will increasingly be paired with a storage system at the time of purchase. Leveraging big data analytics will enable utilities to determine likely demand in a particular locality and deal with fluctuating customer loads.

Battery manufacturers must forge partnerships with energy management solution providers to offer in-built, cloud-based battery monitoring and fault diagnosis platforms with relevant cyber security measures to continuously monitor and optimize the performance of a large pool of batteries. Battery manufacturers must incorporate machine learning algorithms to develop smart self-learning system. Companies should either develop or partner with the providers of virtual power plant solutions, as these will become increasingly important in the decentralized energy markets of the future.

Outlook for the Global Energy Storage Industry, 2020 and Global Battery Energy Storage Market are a part of Frost & Sullivan's Energy and Environment Growth Partnership Service program, which helps organizations identify a continuous flow of growth opportunities to succeed in an unpredictable future.