A new report has concluded that high PV penetration coupled with growing electricity rates will see annual installations of energy storage reach 244 MW annually by 2020.
According to The Australian Energy Storage Market: Downstream Drivers and Opportunities report published by GTM Research in Australia this week, the well-publicized penetration of solar PV across the country, coupled with the exceedingly well-known continuing increases in utility bills will push Australia into adopting energy storage much more quickly than other countries.
Specifically, GTM believes that annual installed capacity by 2020 will reach 244 MW annually.
Australia Energy Storage Forecast by Segment, 2013-2020E
Unsurprisingly, and as a direct result of increased electricity bills, the pairing of residential solar PV is likely to see residential energy storage act as the main driver of nation-wide energy storage growth over the next five years. GTM forecasts the residential energy storage market to skyrocket in 2016, growing from only 1.9 MW of annual installations in 2015 to 44 MW in 2016, and reaching 2020 as an annual 132 MW market.
“In mid-2015, a significant number of storage system vendors announced residential products for the Australian market,” said Brett Simon, an energy storage analyst at GTM Research and the report’s author, commenting on the role of multiple players entering Australia’s market. “Some of these products are available already, and more will enter the market in early 2016. Furthermore, it’s notable that Australia’s electricity retailers are starting to offer energy storage systems for their customers, including major players like Ergon Energy, AGL, and Origin Energy.”
It is worth nothing, also, that energy storage will begin growing as a major player in the commercial and industrial (C&I) sector as well, growing from only 1.4 MW in 2015 to 23 MW in 2016.
“Storage vendors are also eyeing the C&I market,” added Simon. “Demand charge management is already a viable value stream for a significant number of C&I customers. Furthermore, as storage system costs continue their rapid decline, the economic case for C&I storage will grow even stronger.”
Unsurprisingly, utility-scale storage is currently the largest market segment in Australia, but this won’t last for long, as GTM predict that only 20 MW of utility-scale solar will be deployed in 2020, only 10% of the country’s total that year.
The Australian Clean Energy Council is in similar agreement with GTM, stating that “It is this emergence of low-cost, on-grid storage technologies that will genuinely transform our electricity market – and it is vital that governments and the community start planning for it now.”
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