Britain could have a 12-gigawatt battery market by 2021, according to a parliamentary policy group.
The paper was written by the U.K. Renewable Energy Association (REA) and an All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Energy Storage, an interest group made up of members of the House of Lords and House of Commons.
Hitting that 12-gigawatt target will require major policy support, however.
The figure assumes a scenario in which all the policies contained in the U.K. government’s July 2017 smart systems and flexibility plan are rolled out on schedule and in parallel with other reforms, including tax incentives.
In practice, a medium deployment scenario of 8 gigawatts by 2021, up from 60 megawatts of battery storage today, is more plausible, concludes the position paper.
Many of the medium-scenario drivers are “already happening outside legislation,” said the paper’s lead analyst and editor, Frank Gordon of the REA.
The REA and the APPG believe the biggest boost for electrical storage in the U.K. will come from renewable energy producers adding batteries to solar and wind projects, so they can earn extra revenues from capacity markets and arbitrage.
The position paper’s high deployment scenario assumes 40 percent of U.K. solar generation and 25 percent of wind could have battery storage attached to it by 2021, equaling a total of some 8 gigawatts of capacity.
The medium deployment scenario would see around 3 gigawatts of solar-connected and 2 gigawatts of wind-connected battery storage. Under a low deployment scenario, around 1 gigawatt would be installed, split evenly between solar and wind.
One of the market shifts favoring the co-location of storage is already underway. The U.K. Energy Networks Association, which represents network operators, recently pledged to overhaul the market for flexibility services.
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