Three Countries Will Account for 59% of All Energy Storage Installations in 2016
Broader market growth in the commercial energy storage market will come in the next few years as a result of falling system costs. As a result, South Korea, Japan and the United States will account for 59% of global installations of energy storage by 2016 although deployment will increase in other regions as well in the next five years, according to a new report from IHS.
This year, for the first time these regions will each record 100 megawatts of annual energy storage installations. Led by declining prices in lithium-ion (li-ion) batteries, system prices have fallen significantly over the last few years. In fact, average li-ion battery prices fell 53% between 2012 and 2015 and by 2019 are forecast to decline by half again, IHS says.
Sam Wilkinson, solar supply-chain and energy storage analyst at IHS, says because three countries account for the majority of combined global installations, it shows just how few countries are currently experiencing significant commercial deployment of energy storage. “Most other global markets currently remain firmly in the test, pilot and demonstration phases,” Wilkinson says.
