The global energy storage market is on the cusp of a long-running investment and deployment boom, according to one of the world’s most influential energy analysts.
Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) this week announced an upgrade to its forecasts for the behind-the-meter (BTM) and grid-scale energy storage sectors, confirming that in response to falling costs it had “significantly increased” its projections for the sector.
The latest annual report on the global energy storage market predicts global energy storage capacity, excluding pumped hydro storage, will soar over the next two decades from less than 20GW to nearly 1,000GW by 2040.
Specifically, BNEF said it now expects the market to grow to a cumulative 942GW/2, 857GWh by 2040, attracting $1.2tr in investment over the next 22 years.
It added that the emergence of “cheap batteries” will provide a knock on boost to the renewables market, as it will allow wind and solar projects to provide power when the wind is not blowing or the sun is not shining.
“We have become much more bullish about storage deployments since our last forecast a year ago,” explained Yayoi Sekine, energy storage analyst for BloombergNEF and co-author of the report, in a statement. “This is partly due to faster-than-expected falls in storage system costs, and partly to a greater focus on two emerging applications for the technology – electric vehicle charging, and energy access in remote regions.”
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