The UK hit a new flexibility milestone earlier this year, with a gigawatt of lithium-ion battery energy storage now estimated to be operational according to Solar Media Research. The trend mirrors a global picture – lithium-ion batteries continue to dominate the global energy storage market, accounting for 99.3% US share in Q4 2019, continuing a long historic trend.
Despite many energy storage technologies vying for market share – including much-hyped alternatives like flow batteries, which position themselves as the long-duration technology of choice – lithium-ion has maintained its leading position in the sector. Why?
To provide some background, Fluence is a horizontally integrated and technology-agnostic energy storage technology company. This means we do not manufacture batteries, electrolytes or similar ourselves nor have any stake in their supply chain, and aren’t placing “bets” on any one storage medium. We approach energy storage from a “job to be done” perspective and deploy what we view as the right technology to do that job at the time.
As a result, we see ourselves as well-placed to pivot once technologies hit a point of maturity. Indeed, over the past 12+ years of deploying and servicing energy storage assets and a fleet approaching two gigawatts operational or awarded globally, we have done so a number of times.
Across this fleet, we have delivered a diverse range of storage chemistries, including variants of NMC and LFP (under the lithium-ion chemistry umbrella), as well as advanced lead acid, sodium sulphur and yes, even flow batteries.
We work with whatever technology is right for customers in terms of price point, energy density and performance today: in almost all cases, that technology is lithium-ion based.
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