Applications & Installations

A fork in the road for energy storage

Faster-than-expected price falls and global oversupply of batteries will go up against a rising tide of global protectionism this year. So how will it all shape up for the energy storage industry? Storage industry thought leader and UN adviser Marek Kubik considers the key issues.
By
Marek Kubil
The 20MW Malita Energy Storage Facility in the province of Davao Occidental, in the Philippines, delivered by Fluence for SMC Global Power. | Image: Fluence

From ESS News

We are becoming accustomed to record-breaking years for energy storage, and 2024 was no exception. Manufacturer Tesla deployed 31.4 GWh, up 213% from 2023, and market intelligence provider Bloomberg New Energy Finance raised its forecast twice, ending the year predicting almost 2.4 TWh of battery energy storage by 2030. That is likely an underestimate.

Positive feedback loops and exponential growth are notoriously hard to predict. Humans are not well set up to process exponents. In 2019, pumped hydro storage (PHS) supplied 90% of global energy storage power output (measured in gigawatts), but batteries are set to overtake that in 2025 and its related energy storage capacity, in gigawatt-hours, by 2030.

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