India may emerge the third largest energy storage installation country by 2040

The study indicates that energy storage installations around the world will multiply exponentially, from a modest 9GW/17GWh deployed as of 2018 to 1,095GW/2,850GWh by 2040.

KOLKATA: India may emerge the third largest country in terms of energy storage installations by 2040, a forecast from research company BloombergNEF (BNEF) indicates.

According to the forecast, ten countries are on course to represent almost three quarters of the global market in gigawatt terms. South Korea is the lead market in 2019, but will soon cede that position, with China and the U.S. far in front by 2040. India would be the third largest others being Germany, Latin America, Southeast Asia, France, Australia and the U.K.

The study indicates that energy storage installations around the world will multiply exponentially, from a modest 9GW/17GWh deployed as of 2018 to 1,095GW/2,850GWh
by 2040.

This 122-fold boom of stationary energy storage over the next two decades will require $662 billion of investment and will be made possible by further sharp declines in the cost of lithium-ion batteries, on top of an 85% reduction between 2010 and 2018 .The study predicts a further halving of lithium-ion battery costs per kilowatt-hour by 2030, as demand takes off in two different markets – stationary storage and electric vehicles.

Yayoi Sekine, energy storage analyst for BNEF and co-author of the report, said in his statement: “Two big changes this year are that we have raised our estimate of the investment that will go into energy storage by 2040 by more than $40 billion, and that we now think the majority of new capacity will be utility-scale, rather than behind-the-meter at homes and businesses.”

The study goes on suggesting that cheaper batteries can be used in more and more applications including energy shifting, peaking in
the bulk power system, as well as for customers looking to save on their energy bills by buying electricity at cheap hours and using it
later.

Demand for storage will increase to balance the higher proportion of variable, renewable generation in the electricity system. Batteries will increasingly be chosen to manage this dynamic supply and demand mix.

The report finds that energy storage will become a practical alternative to new-build electricity generation or network reinforcement.
Behind-the-meter storage will also increasingly be used to provide system services on top of customer applications.

Total demand for batteries from the stationary storage and electric transport sectors is forecast to be 4,584GWh by 2040, providing a
major opportunity for battery makers and miners of component metals such as lithium, cobalt and nickel.

Source : economictimes