A record Q3 for energy storage

WoodMac announced last week that the United States energy storage sector had it strongest third quarter on record this year, deploying 100.7 megawatts (MW) and 264.6 megawatt-hours (MWh) of storage, according to our latest Energy Storage Monitor report.

The free executive summary for that report is available here: https://www.woodmac.com/research/products/power-and-renewables/us-energy-storage-monitor/?utm_source=linkedinblog&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=wmpr_esmq319

Residential storage grew by over 38 MW in the third quarter of this year, slightly outpacing second quarter deployment levels to deliver a new record for quarterly residential deployments. California, Hawaii and Arizona were the largest US markets for residential storage in during the timeframe.

While researching the latest ESM, I heard anecdotes about growing residential storage volumes in California. Based on my conversations, I expect a large uptick early next year as marketing efforts for solar-plus-storage started earlier this year in response to power shutoffs bear fruit; power shutoffs will start to act as significant drivers of growth in residential storage into 2020 and beyond, as more customers explore solar-plus-storage for backup power. Additionally, California’s new home solar mandate will have knock-on effects for storage growth, as homebuilders are expected to partner with system integrators to build housing that comes equipped with solar-plus-storage from day one. We expect roughly 1 in 5 new residential solar PV systems installed in California in 2020 to be paired with storage.

On front-of-meter (FTM) side, the market is on track to deploy 161 MW of utility-scale storage this year. This is significant growth but the market is just warming up. My colleague Dan Finn-Foley finds that FTM storage growth will accelerate further starting in 2020 as the segment grows 5x in annual deployments next year, followed by a tripling from 2020 to 2021.

The latest Energy Storage Summary executive summary is 15+ slides long and covers national aggregate of deployments by market segment, font-of-the-meter policy developments nationwide, behind-the-meter policy developments nationwide, market sizing and more. Download it here: https://www.woodmac.com/research/products/power-and-renewables/us-energy-storage-monitor/?utm_source=linkedinblog&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=wmpr_esmq319

For more discussion of the report findings, read Jeff St. John’s piece here: https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/us-storage-market-rebounds-in-q3-as-calif-power-outages-loom-large