Supply-chain issues hobble storage projects but installation still set a record in 2021
Energize Weekly, April 13, 2022
Even in the face of supply-chain problems, energy storage installations set a record in the U.S., and the forecasts have domestic and global capacity growing twentyfold by 2030, according to industry analyses.
A total of 3,528 megawatts (MW) was installed in the U.S. in 2021, compared to 1,41.5 MW in 2020, according to the U.S. Energy Storage Monitor, a market report by the American Clean Power Association, an industry trade group, and consultant Wood Mackenzie.
“Despite increased costs and supply tightness leading to project delays, projects are still being built at record-setting pace,” the report said.
The bulk of that capacity – 1,613 MW – came online in the fourth quarter. This was a quarterly record even as some 2 gigawatts (GW) of utility-scale storage projects were delayed to 2022 and 2023 by supply-chain issues.
“Module and BOS [base operating supplies] price increases have pushed some developers to delay projects in mid-term planning, waiting for capex to stabilize,” the Energy Storage Monitor said.
Regionally, perennial leaders California and Texas, as well as some Southern states such as Florida, saw major deployments.
While utility-scale projects were hampered in the fourth quarter, residential storage posted its strongest quarter ever with 123 MW of capacity installed. California led with 58 MW, followed by Puerto Rico with 14.5 MW and Texas with 10.5 MW.
Globally, energy analyst BloombergNEF (BNEF) projects that worldwide capacity will reach 358 GW by the end of 2030, up from 17 GW in 2020.
This energy storage boom will require more than $262 billion of investment, BNEF’s Global Energy Storage Outlook estimates.
The U.S. and China are the two largest markets, representing over half of the global storage installations by 2030.
“The clean power ambitions of state governments and utilities propel storage deployment in the U.S. In China, the ambitious installation target of 30 gigawatts of cumulative build by 2025 and stricter renewable integration rules boost expected storage installations,” BNEF said.
Other key markets include India, Australia, Germany, the U.K. and Japan.
Regionally, Asia-Pacific will lead the capacity additions on a megawatt basis by 2030, but the Americas will build more on a megawatt-hour basis, because storage plants in the U.S. usually have more hours of storage, BNEF said.
“The global storage market is growing at an unprecedented pace,” Yiyi Zhou, a BNEF clean-power specialist, said in a statement. “Falling battery costs and surging renewables penetration make energy storage a compelling flexible resource in many power systems.”
