Once considered a nonessential but desirable addition to renewable energy projects, energy storage is now shifting into a standalone solution that provides customers and system owners significant value. In 2017, new projects are being announced on a weekly basis as the global energy storage industry continues to explore different business cases that make energy storage systems (ESSs) profitable. According to a new report from Navigant Research, worldwide, more than 1,420 energy storage projects, encompassing more than 43,000 individual systems, exist.
“Overall, the global energy storage industry is poised to continue to grow quickly over the next several years,” says Ian McClenny, research analyst with Navigant Research. “With emerging infrastructure becoming increasingly integrated, dynamic, and complex, flexible resources like storage will provide added value to existing and new power generating assets.”
Recent market developments include an uptick in projects in the distributed sector, particularly for microgrids and the commercial and industrial segment. Meanwhile, utility-scale systems are down quarter over quarter and year over year, according to the report.
The report, Energy Storage Tracker 1Q17, provides a comprehensive resource of global energy storage projects. The Tracker includes a database of 1,420 projects (encompassing at least 43,083 individual systems) and tracks the country, region, market segment, capacity, status, technology vendor, systems integrator, applications, funding, investment, and key milestones of each project. In addition, the report includes an analysis of the technology choice within each major region for energy storage, analysis of the leading regions for energy storage capacity and projects, and market share analysis for technology vendors for deployed projects and projects in the pipeline.
