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Storage market predictions: commercial PV storage will dominate by 2017
North America and Japan will be the key markets while today the growth of commercial energy storage exists thank to a small number of suppliers
According to HIS storage market predictions, in the next four years commercial PV storage will grow by a factor of 700 and, by 2017, it will become the solar storage market’s largest segment.
Contrarily, commercial storage is currently considered the smallest one at about 3.2MW of which 2.3GW will be dued to mushroom to 2.3GW by 2017, with a progressive decrease in the use of technology in residential and utility-scale PV.
The decrease in these two market segments will mean an increase in the growth from the current 5% to 40% of commercial storage by 2017.
Contrarily, commercial storage is currently considered the smallest one at about 3.2MW of which 2.3GW will be dued to mushroom to 2.3GW by 2017, with a progressive decrease in the use of technology in residential and utility-scale PV.
The decrease in these two market segments will mean an increase in the growth from the current 5% to 40% of commercial storage by 2017.
These predictions are to be found in HIS ‘The Role of Energy Storage in the PV Industry’ report, in which are also explained the causes leading to such a growth. They are, in fact, the rising electricity prices and, in areas where grid supplies are unreliable, the demand among businesses for back-up power.
According to Abigail Ward, HIS PV analyst, “Just last year, commercial was the smallest market for PV storage systems, far behind the residential and utility-scale segments. However, facing rising energy prices and the growing need for backup power supplies, commercial enterprises are turning to PV storage solutions that work in concert with their solar-power systems. This will allow commercial to surge past residential and utility to become the largest market for PV storage in just four years.”
As an example, the main commercial enterprises in question to become key markets are located in North America and Japan: the first area will reach 40% of commercial-scale PV storage installations by 2017; while the second area is looking for new power sources to re-create the generation capacity of before the Fukushima disaster in 2011.
Anyway, the report shows that today the growth of commercial energy storage exists thank to a small number of suppliers.
On this topic, HIS PV analyst Ward adds that “at present, many of the suppliers active in the PV storage business are targeting the residential PV market, where systems are largely being installed to increase the on-site self-consumption of a PV system owner. However, installations in the commercial PV sector potentially can reach the point of payback much more quickly than those in the residential area. This will encourage many PV storage suppliers to enter the business in the coming years.”
