Status and Outlook of the Energy Storage Market

Energy storage systems are starting to move beyond the development and demonstration phase and into commercial deployment. Additionally, several drivers are emerging that will spur growth in the market for energy storage systems. These include: the growth of stochastic generation from renewables; an increasingly strained transmission infrastructure as new lines lag behind demand; the emergence of microgrids as part of a distributed grid architecture; and the increased need for reliability and security in electricity supply. In order to benefit from these drivers, however, the energy storage community must overcome a number of barriers, including regulatory, tariff-based, and cultural barriers.