New research out today from Bloomberg New Energy Finance forecasts astonishing growth in the energy storage market in both dollars and capacity. Source: Flickr/Portland General
A new report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) details how more than US$8 billion will be invested in new-build energy storage in the year 2024, driven by an increase in deployment of behind-the-meter storage. Meanwhile, between 2016 and 2024, some US$44 billion will be invested in storage, compared to US$3.9 trillion in power generation capacity.
Globally, 81GWh of capacity will be installed by 2024, with 53% of this capacity coming from the Asia Pacific region; from India, China and Japan in particular. Despite India and China not enjoying as much regulatory support as Japan and the US – the two regions with the most policy support for energy storage – rapidly increasing electricity demand paired with increasing levels of renewables penetration will drive deployment, according to the report.
“The Indian energy storage market begins to grow rapidly from 2020 onwards, and 2.2GW will be installed in the country in 2024 alone,” writes report author Logan Goldie-Scot. “This is followed by China, where we expect roughly 1.8GW to be installed in 2024.”
Global investment
Even though the biggest markets for annual investment in 2024 will be found in India, China, the US and Europe, Goldie-Scot highlights how these markets will not necessarily be those with the largest deployment “due to differences in capex for residential versus commercial versus utility-scale energy storage systems.”
70% of new investment in 2024 will be in behind-the-meter storage alongside PV due to the level of deployment and because residential and commercial storage capex is higher than for utility-scale, the report points out. An increase in the uptake of residential and commercial storage is also a signal that such customers will be buying less electricity from their utility; and this in turn is a sign of a complete overhaul of the current consumer-utility relationship.