US energy storage sector has strongest recorded third quarter

The U.S. energy storage sector came on strong over the last few months, reporting its strongest third quarter on record with 100.7 megawatts and 264.6 megawatt-hours of storage deployed.

“We are encouraged to see the continued strong growth of the energy storage industry,” Kelly Speakes-Backman, CEO of the U.S. Energy Storage Association (ESA), said. “Three of the last four quarters have recorded more than 100 MW in deployments, experiencing a healthy diversity of customer-sited and grid-side projects, and a growing pipeline of projects in development. We can expect deployments to accelerate even further if Congress acts to pass legislation making stand-alone energy storage eligible for the 30 percent investment tax credit by the end of this year.”

The MW boost represented a 33 percent growth quarter over quarter, and an even larger 60 percent growth for MWh, according to a new report from Wood Mackenzie and the ESA U.S. Energy Storage Monitor report. It was an especially good quarter for front-of-meter storage deployments — a 121 percent quarter over quarter growth that amounted to 161 MW overall. It followed a slump in that area, reversing it into a new record for quarterly residential deployments as well.

Massachusetts dominated this area of storage, accounting for 58 MWh on record. Vermont and Arkansas followed at 24 MWh. Their efforts could help the segment reach nearly 10 percent year-over-year growth in MW this year and set the tone for a major influx next year when the segment is expected to add 825 MW.

Residential storage has also grown by nearly 40 MW, and Brett Simon, Wood Mackenzie senior storage analyst, predicts this trend will only spike higher in the year to come in response to the power shutoffs in California. In addition to the Golden State, Hawaii and Arizona were the largest U.S. markets for such storage.

Between now and 2024, the report also predicts MW growth potentially higher than 12 times current figures. This is in spite of significant uncertainty facing the non-residential market, due to business-model challenges and market disturbances.