US Energy Storage Market Deployed 40.7 MW In Q2’2015, Says GTM Research

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The US energy storage market deployed 40.7 MW worth of storage in the second quarter this year, its best quarter in two and a half years, says GTM Research.

GTM Research and the US Energy Storage Association released the latest edition of their US Energy Storage Monitor report, which highlighted the country’s impressive second quarter energy storage market growth. Specifically, the second quarter saw the interconnection of a 31.5 MW solar project in the PJM region — a regional transmission organisation that coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity in all or parts of Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

This quarter is the largest quarter, and this project is the single largest solo project to come on line, since the fourth quarter of 2012, when the Notrees 36 MW project was interconnected in Texas.

Behind the meter, in the non-residential energy storage market, had its best quarter ever, deploying 4.9 MW of storage, with a big share of that growth coming from California, where GTM highlights “the massive pipeline of [Self-Generation Incentive Program] SGIP-approved projects finally began to be interconnected.

“It is promising to see that outside of PJM and California, 10 states had significant activity related to energy storage policies and programs in the last three months,” explained Ravi Manghani, GTM Research Senior Energy Storage Analyst and lead author of the report. “This is a good sign for the industry, which has leaned on a handful of markets for its growth to date. We have states like Minnesota and Washington that are looking to grow their storage industries, while others like Massachusetts and New Jersey are using storage to modernize the grid and make it more resilient.”

The authors of the report note that PJM and California will continue to be the regional energy storage market leaders for the foreseeable future.

“The number of different states that are actively engaging in energy storage shows that regulators, legislators and utilities are seeking innovative ways to deploy systems,” said Matt Roberts, Executive Director of the Energy Storage Association. “Advanced storage systems are being leveraged to increase reliability and resiliency in the Northeast, offset the need for ‘peaker plants’ in the Southwest, and help replace capacity and integrate renewables across the West. It’s a dynamic addition to the grid, and provides all of these benefits with each system install.”