What does 2017 hold for Australian Energy Storage & how do we compare globally? Jan Rieche shares his thoughts…

 

After having recently hosted the debate at the Australian Energy Storage Conference in Sydney, I am off to present at its North American counterpart in San Diego next week. As one of the biggest Energy conferences in the world, this is an opportune time to explore the differences and commonalities of both the Australian and the US markets.

 

Until recently batteries seem to have eclipsed the storage debate. Similarly, solar seems to be on everyone’s lips and almost be the only player in renewable energy here in Australia. Despite all the hype, Australia had just 6750 battery installations in 2016 (combined size of 52MWh). However, 2017 looks to be a more promising year 20,000 projected installations (SunWiz Battery Market Report 2017), nearly tripling the 2016 numbers. Couple this with a huge number of large scale storage projects in the works (about to be deployed and proposed) this paints a rather promising picture for the future of energy storage.

 

In the US, led by a record breaking final quarter, energy storage grew to 336MWh installed and is set to grow to 7.3GWh by 2022. By this point, the market is projected to be worth US $3.3bn. That growth can mainly be attributed to California, which made up 88% of all installed energy storage capacity. Most of that growth came from utility-scale projects, with behind-the-meter commercial and residential storage systems only presenting 25% of capacity. Whilst most of the utility scale storage have been installed in California and Hawaii, most of the residential and commercial installations came from outside these 2 states.

 

It seems that storage is mirroring the global deployment of solar: In most countries outside Australia, utility scale projects made up the majority of early installations and then flowed on to residential and commercial installations; whereas in Australia it was the other way around. It would make sense that the deployment of storage follows the installed capacity of solar (rooftop) installations.

 

Are you keen to see and learn more about how the US (and California in particular) are comparing in numbers this year – and what new technology is coming out of that renewable energy, storage and software powerhouses? Then the ESNA Conference is for you.

Supported by our US Country Manager Catherine Moore, I will be attending the Energy Storage North America Conference from Tuesday the 8th of August until Friday the 11th of August where Polyglot Group will be hosting the VIP lunch. I will also take part in the Australia Roundtable discussing how we find, train and deploy human resources to develop and install the forecasted storage boom in both countries.

Keen on discussing the future of energy storage? Keen for a chat?
Don’ t hesitate to get in touch with Jan Rieche!

Jan

About the Author:

Jan is Polyglot Group's Global Head of Energy & Infrastructure. Jan’s aim is to continue making the world more aware of climate change & the importance of utilising renewable energy for a better tomorrow.
Read more about Jan Rieche.