NavigantResearch is projecting that the energy storage market in the U.S. will skyrocketfrom 273 MW of new capacity added in 2015 to 6,838 MW added in 2025.
The U.S.growth is part of a global shift toward more energy storage systems like batteries.While North America is the current leader for grid-tied energy storage, Asia Pacificmarkets will supplant the U.S. and others by about 2018, according to a new reportfrom Navigant, "Country Forecasts for Grid-Tied Energy Storage."
The fivemajor markets in Asia Pacific are expected to increase from deployments of 199.5MW of distributed storage capacity in 2015 to 9,416.6 MW in 2025, according to aJuly 20 Navigant statement.
Othercountries that have high amounts of storage relative to their populations includeAustralia, where the market for residential, behind-the-meter storage, as opposedto utility projects, has been especially vibrant.
Right now in the U.S., the vast majority of storage has beenutility systems. California utilities are in the process of procuring 1,300 MW ofenergy storage by 2020.
The gap between residential and utility storage will likely narrowover the next decade, Eller said. New storage capacity will probably be much closerto an even divide between residential and utility deployments by 2025, he said.A change that could make that shift possible is if more electric utility regionsadopt time-of-use pricing that would create more financial incentives for customersto store energy for later use.
The projected growth in U.S. storage would come on the heelsof an ongoing period of rapid additions in battery systems. Battery storage capacitysoared from about 300MW to nearly 900 MW over three years, according to data from the Electric PowerResearch Institute.
Globally, Navigant expects storage capacity to increase by about62,000 MW in major world markets from 2015 to 2025.