trending Market Intelligence /marketintelligence/en/news-insights/trending/23vJ0EZqYMF3UBuHp6MThQ2 content esgSubNav
In This List

US energy storage additions up 46% in Q3, report finds

Podcast

Next in Tech | Episode 49: Carbon reduction in cloud

Blog

Using ESG Analysis to Support a Sustainable Future

Research

US utility commissioners: Who they are and how they impact regulation

Blog

Q&A: Datacenters: Energy Hogs or Sustainability Helpers?


US energy storage additions up 46% in Q3, report finds

U.S. energy storage developers added 41.8 MW in the third quarter of 2017, 46% more than a year earlier, as the emerging sector heats up ahead of an expected five-year installation spike starting in 2018, GTM Research and the Energy Storage Association showed in their latest quarterly report.

Released Dec. 7, the report projected an annual market in 2017 of 296 MW, driven mostly by utility-scale storage, rising modestly from 231 MW in 2016. Anticipated growth in residential lithium battery installations and in commercial and industrial facilities could roughly double the market next year and push annual additions to nearly 1,000 MW in 2019, "as procurement programs and improved economics come to the fore," the report said.

GTM Research, a unit of Wood Mackenzie, forecasts that the annual U.S. storage market will expand to 2,535 MW by 2022, nearly 10 times its current size, worth an estimated $3.1 billion. The residential segment, accounting for just 4% of energy storage revenues in 2016, is anticipated to grow to 10% of this year's market and 38% of the market in 2022.

The coming market surge is foreshadowed in recent contracting activity. Pacific Gas and Electric Co., for instance, signed six deals for 165 MW of lithium battery storage, the PG&E Corp. subsidiary said in a Dec. 1 regulatory filing. The contracts are aimed at helping the utility meet its 580-MW share of California's 1,325-MW energy storage target. Moreover, a revamped California program offering $500 million in incentives for homes and businesses to install energy storage reopened May 1 and has attracted strong interest from developers, including Tesla Inc., Stem Inc. Advanced Microgrid Solutions and ENGIE SA. Together, the four companies have reserved more than $60 million in incentives for commercial and industrial projects, according to the latest program metrics.

Southern California Edison Co. has added more than 4.5 MW from 29 behind-the-meter projects receiving incentives since the program relaunched, the Edison International affiliate said in a Dec. 1 letter to the California Public Utilities Commission. In the third quarter, California added 1.87 MW of residential storage and 6.5 MW at businesses, leading the country in both segments, according to GTM Research. Texas led U.S. utility-scale deployments with 30 MW.