Energy Storage News

The U.S. energy storage market is growing tremendously. Indeed, IHS Markit projects that over 40 GW of energy storage capacity will be installed by 2022, starting from a base of only 0.34 GW installed in 2012 and 2013. This growth of the U.S. energy storage market is driven by several commercial and regulatory factors, including an increase in recent utility-scale power purchase agreements, declining costs of lithium-ion batteries, the availability of state and, to a certain extent, federal incentives for solar + storage projects. Here are the five main factors guiding the market heading into 2020.

UL has granted its first certification to UL 1974, the Standard for Evaluation for Repurposing Batteries, to 4R Energy Corporation. Outlining how to sort and grade battery packs, modules and cells that were originally made for electric vehicles (EV) and other applications, UL 1974 helps identify a battery’s state-of-health and introduces ratings to determine the viability for their continued use. Through this process, performance-validated “second-life” batteries can be utilized for energy storage systems to provide a safe, reliable, clean energy source.

The United States will grow to be the largest global market for solar + storage this year, where peaking capacity requirements are driving procurement, according to a recent IHS Markit study. Utility-scale solar + storage projects now are online or being built in Arizona, California, Hawaii, Indiana and Florida, and the list grows. In March, NextEra Energy said it would build the Florida Power and Light Manatee Energy Storage Center’s battery system, with four times the capacity of the world’s largest battery system currently in operation.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Clean Energy Group (CEG) have released the first comprehensive public analysis detailing the potential size of the commercial behind-the-meter battery storage market in the United States. NREL analyzed over 10,000 utility tariffs in 48 states, finding that more than five million of the 18 million commercial customers across the country may be able to cost-effectively reduce their utility bills with battery storage technologies. These findings, grouped by utility service territory and state and illustrated in a series of maps and tables, are presented in NREL and CEG’s white paper, Identifying Potential Markets for Behind-the-Meter Battery Energy Storage: A Survey of U.S. Demand Charges.