Global energy storage market to expand rapidly through 2025

Global wind and solar capacity has grown steadily in recent years, and the energy storage market is expected to follow. According to Taiwanese analysis agency TrendForce, lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery energy storage technology has significant advantages over other technologies and is becoming the main installed capacity of new energy storage in the world.

This is in line with earlier research by US analyst Wood Mackenzie, which predicted that lithium iron phosphate (LFP) will surpass nickel cobalt manganese (NCM) in market share by 2028. Nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) batteries still accounted for half of the market last year, but LFP batteries are starting to emerge due to their competitive cost, long life cycle and high safety performance.

According to TrendForce, the cumulative global installed capacity of renewable energy in 2021 is 3,064 GW, underscoring the urgent need for energy storage to balance supply gaps.

In 2021, the global energy storage market will maintain rapid growth. According to TrendForce, the newly installed capacity reached 29.6 GWh, a year-on-year increase of 72.4%. Looking ahead, the global energy storage market will expand rapidly, reaching 362 GWh by 2025.

China is expected to overtake Europe and the United States soon. According to TrendForce's forecast, by 2025, China's energy storage market will exceed 100 GWh.

In the U.S., future growth will focus on electrochemical energy storage as new pumped hydro capacity is currently stagnant. The US is expected to add 136 GWh of new capacity by 2025. Meanwhile, TrendForce said Europe is expected to add 54 GWh of installed capacity by 2025, driven by various geopolitical forces.

In the battery storage market, TrendForce noted that the dominance of Korean manufacturers such as Samsung and LG has declined to some extent. This is partly due to the accelerated expansion of Chinese battery makers still loyal to LFP battery technology, such as BYD (BYD) and CATL (CATL).

When it comes to storage power conditioning systems (PCS), most of them come from solar inverter manufacturers. Competition in this segment is expected to intensify for both established players such as SMA and Sungrow as well as newcomers.

TrendForce said there will be relatively fragmented competition in the system portfolio, with SMEs in the majority. However, some leading upstream players such as Sungrow and NextEra Energy will also be part of the mix, the company added.