Post: BNEF forecasts global energy storage market to grow 15-fold by 2030

BNEF forecasts global energy storage market to grow 15-fold by 2030

Energy storage installations around the world are projected to reach a cumulative 411GW by the end of 2030 – 15 times the 27GW of storage that was online at the end of 2021, according to the latest forecast from BloombergNEF (BNEF).

BNEF’s latest Energy Storage Market Outlook, published on 12 October, sees an additional 13% of capacity by 2030 than previously estimated, primarily driven by recent policy developments. This is equal to an extra 46GW.

The US and China are set to remain the two largest markets, representing more than half of global storage installations by the end of the decade. Europe, however, is catching up with a significant ramp-up in capacity fuelled by the current energy crisis.

The most notable new policies include the US Inflation Reduction Act, which is providing more than $369B in funding for clean technologies. BNEF expects this to drive roughly 30GW of energy storage build from 2022 to 2030.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has had a clear impact on energy storage deployments in Europe. Record electricity prices are forcing consumers to consider new forms of energy supply, driving the residential storage market in the near term. The significant utility-scale storage additions expected from 2025 onwards align with the very ambitious renewable targets outlined in the REPower EU plan and a renewed focus on energy security in the UK. BNEF has more than doubled its estimates for energy storage deployments from 2025 to 2030 across Europe from previous forecasts.

BNEF’s forecast suggests that the majority of energy storage build by 2030, equivalent to 61% of megawatts, will be to provide energy shifting—i.e., advancing or delaying the time of electricity dispatch. Co-located renewables-plus-storage projects, in particular solar-plus-storage, are becoming commonplace globally.

Customer-sited (or behind the meter) batteries—both residential, and commercial and industrial—are also expected to grow at a steady pace. Germany and Australia are currently the leaders in this space, with sizeable markets in Japan and California as well. BNEF forecasts energy storage located in homes and businesses will make up about one quarter of global storage installations by 2030.