Residential energy storage market reaches record US highs in first quarter of 2018

According to the latest U.S. Energy Storage Monitor report, home energy storage system deployments reached record highs in the first quarter of 2018.

The report, issued by GTM Research and the Energy Storage Association (ESA) earlier this week, concluded that 35.8 megawatt-hours (MWh) of grid-connected residential energy storage systems were deployed in the first three months of this year. This gain is as much as was deployed in the previous three quarters combined.

Such gains contributed to a 26 percent overall growth in the U.S. energy storage market, even though the market has declined by 46 percent year-over-year. GTM Research predicts that annual residential energy storage deployments will surpass 1,000 MWh in just two years. Much of this has been driven by significant efforts on the part of California and Hawaii, which made up 74 percent of residential deployments in the first quarter.

“Changing net-metering rules and increasing customer interest in backup and solar self-consumption drove the residential energy storage market’s record quarter,” Brett Simon, senior analyst at GTM Research and project manager for the U.S. Energy Storage Monitor report, said. “More solar installers are offering residential storage products than ever before and see residential storage as an important area of business growth, particularly as utilities implement time-of-use rates and reduce net-metering compensation. These policy trends are expected to continue as utilities and regulators work to deal with increasing levels of solar PV penetration, which are driving increasing residential storage demand.”

ESA Chief Executive Officer Kelly Speakes-Backman also pointed to greater state action on barrier removal to energy storage deployment. Thus far, deployments have led the Energy Storage Monitor to track figures from Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Nevada, PJM, and Texas.