Energize Weekly, August 1, 2018
A record 36 megawatt-hours (MWh) of home energy storage systems were installed in the first quarter of 2018, according to the U.S. Energy Storage Monitor report from GTM Research and the Energy Storage Association.
That was as much residential storage capacity as had been installed in the previous three quarters combined and accounted for 28 percent of all storage deployed in the quarter—also a record share.
California and Hawaii together accounted for 74 percent of the residential installations. Both states have cut back their programs for net-metering credits for residential solar, making storage more attractive.
“Changing net-metering rules and increasing customer interest in backup and solar self-consumption drove the residential energy storage market’s record quarter,” Brett Simon, senior analyst at GTM Research and project manager for the U.S. Energy Storage Monitor report, said in a statement. “More solar installers are offering residential storage products than ever before and see residential storage as an important area of business growth.”
Several residential solar installers already claim storage-attachment rates for new solar photovoltaic installations of up to 20 percent in regions such as Southern California, Simon said.
Utility-scale storage accounted for 51 percent of the total 126 megawatt-hours of deployments in the first quarter, up 26 percent over the fourth quarter of 2017.
The report noted that seven states have initiatives or policies that will impact the storage market.
The New Jersey state legislature, for example, expanded the state’s renewable energy portfolio standard to 25 percent by 2025 and to 50 percent by 2030, along with a 2 gigawatts of utility-scale energy storage by 2030.
Vermont’s Green Mountain Power initiated a program that offers bill credits for residential storage used to address system peaks.
Among the report’s other findings were:
- U.S. energy storage market grew 26 percent from 100.2 MWh the fourth quarter of 2017 to 126.3 MWh in first quarter of 2018.
- Behind-the-meter deployments accounted for 49 percent of deployments in MWh terms.
- GTM Research forecasts that the U.S. energy storage market will grow 17-fold from 2017 to 2023, and the annual residential energy storage deployments will surpass 1,000 megawatt-hours in 2020.
- The market will cross the $1 billion threshold in 2019 and then will almost double the following year as a massive influx of front-of-the-meter projects are deployed.
