A survey of present and expected impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on member companies in the China Energy Storage Alliance (CNESA) has underscored their faith in recovery prospects, despite the worries of nearly 80% of respondents over “reduced operating income and tightening of liquidity”.
A summary of findings emailed to Energy-Storage.News said there has been an undoubted impact on both the upstream and downstream end of the energy storage industry, with supply chain production and project deployments and grid connections alike suffering delays.
However, association research manager Wang Si said in his summary that 64% of survey respondents believe “new opportunities for energy storage will emerge after the outbreak is contained,” while “most also believe that the energy storage market can still achieve its predicted growth rate in 2020”. The survey’s response-gathering process began on 5 February, while China was the focal point of the COVID-19 outbreak before the global spread that followed.
“In general, because the energy storage industry is still in an early stage of rapid development, the epidemic is likely to have a limited impact on the overall market development for the year,” Wang Si of CNESA wrote.
Cost reductions slowed by supply chain, demand impacts
In other words, CNESA noted that the domestic industry only began its full-on commercialisation last year and still awaits the creation of a supportive policy structure and market environment that could bring energy storage to rapid growth.
Perhaps hardest hit in terms of revenues will be small and medium-sized businesses that are primarily focused on the energy storage market, including system integrators, project developers and asset operators.
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