Global energy storage installations to more than double year on year in 2021: IHS Markit

New analysis from IHS Markit projects that installations of energy storage capacity globally will exceed 10 gigawatts (GW) in 2021, more than doubling the 4.5 GW increase in 2020.

IHS Markit released its analysis of energy storage on 15 February, complementing a recent report on "Ten Cleantech Trends in 2021."

The US will account for half of the energy storage installations in 2021, roughly tripling its pace of capacity growth a year earlier. "IHS Markit expects the United States to continue to extend its dominance of the global market, gaining market share until 2023, when the project pipeline reduces," said George Hilton, senior analyst, clean technology, at IHS Markit.

From 2025 onward, mainland China's activity will pick up pace and will drive the overall Asia Pacific region to account for 44% of annual installations by 2030. In Europe, 2021 will see an increase of about 70% in annual installations compared with 2020. Growth will continue into 2022 as well, a year in which IHS Markit expects that 17 countries will register 100 megawatts or more of new capacity, up from nine countries in 2020.

"The energy storage industry will begin significant multi-year growth in 2021, continuing until 2030, as the technology begins to form a core component of power grids in developed markets and new opportunities in developing markets continue to emerge," said Hilton.

For all of the geographical regions, Hilton cited as driving factors the need "to keep the grid frequency stable and reduce the intermittency of renewable energy," as renewables continue to take on larger shares of power output due to decarbonization initiatives.

US lawmakers are supporting storage for grid reliability purposes, as IHS Markit found that solar-plus-storage installations are capitalizing on the extension of the solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC) that was passed in late 2020. This extension enables energy storage projects co-located with solar to benefit from a reduced tax burden through 2025.

In the past six months, 1.3 GW of tenders have been announced or awarded in the US for storage projects that will be co-located with solar PV, IHS Markit said.

Other trends

The Cleantech Trends 2021 report identified the following as other key developments to watch this year:

• Growth in solar installations globally of 30% in 2021, vs. 2020, with China accounting for about 35% of new capacity.
• Offshore wind installations approximately doubling in 2021 to 10 GW.
• "Exponential growth" in proposed low-carbon hydrogen projects and a runup in stock prices of companies in the hydrogen space.
• The continuation of a multi-year trend of rapid innovation in solar technology.

Posted 16 February 2021 by Kevin Adler, Chief Editor