An Industry Comes of Age: The Need for Energy Storage “Productization”

After years of development and testing, demonstrations and pilots, energy storage is at a fully commercialized stage. Industry growth has been exponential: according to GTM Research, 2015 saw a 243% year-over-year increase in energy storage systems in the U.S., with a total of 221 MW deployed. State-level mandates are driving demand in some key regions, but more importantly, technologies are generally maturing at a faster rate, with costs coming down and new markets opening. According to Utility Dive’s 2016 State of the Electric Utility Survey, energy storage ranked first among technologies for future investment by utilities for the second year in a row. Nearly two-thirds of utility respondents cited storage as one of three emerging technologies in which they should invest more, followed by distributed generation and large-scale renewables like wind and solar.