Regulatory changes at the national level coupled with policy programmes in leading states will drive residential and commercial energy storage to new heights, according to various sources at this week’s Energy Storage International in California.
The residential sector was particularly well represented in terms of exhibitors at the show, taking place at the same site as Solar Power International in Anaheim between Monday and Thursday this week. As mentioned in our preview blog a few days ago, technology providers including SolarEdge, ElectrIQ and several more including LG Chem and Panasonic Eco Solutions were launching or showcasing products aimed squarely at the US household market.
Behind-the-meter (BTM) energy storage – which includes commercial and industrial (C&I) sectors as well as households – is already growing faster than ever in the US, with figures from Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables (formerly GTM Research) released at the beginning of September finding that BTM storage constituted 75% of all deployments in megawatts in the second quarter of this year. Analyst Dan Finn-Foley told Energy-Storage.news at the time that he expects BTM could overtake grid-level storage deployments by 2022.
Janice Lin, head of the California Energy Storage Alliance (CESA), told Energy-Storage.news at the show this week that the overall market for energy is growing fast and that interest is also scaling up from outside sources.
“One of the indicators that [energy storage is] really taking on and taking root on a global scale is that we have a lot of proactive enquiries from regulators, decision makers, governments, that are very pro-actively exploring how to incorporate storage into their respective power sector, or their jurisdiction,” Lin said, adding that NGOs and climate groups and advocates including former US vice president Al Gore are also making positive comments or starting initiatives on energy storage.
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