For renewables and energy efficiency, effective storage technologies are a key ingredient to their continued success. For its part, the battery industry is keeping up. According to a recent study by the firm Navigant Research, the market for next-generation battery technology is ready for growth.
The study, “Next-Generation Advanced Batteries,” was released in June. It looks at several classes of next-generation, pre-commercial advanced battery chemistries that could challenge existing technologies for dominance in the field.
The report acknowledges that lithium ion (Li-ion) is the primary chemistry used today for transportation and grid-tied storage applications. However, there will be limitations to Li-ion over time. The report concludes that other chemistries—such as lithium-sulfur (Li-S), lithium solid-state (Li-SS), or next-generation flow and liquid metal—may prove more capable of addressing the shortcomings with Li-ion concerning issues such as energy density, safety and costs.
The report examines two segments within the grid-tied energy-storage market. The first encompasses behind-the-customer utility meter (behind-the-meter, or BTM) distributed energy storage. The second encompasses storage needs in front of the utility side of the customer meter (in-front-of-the-meter, or FTM) on the transmission and distribution system.
The report envisions that both the BTM and FTM segments will increasingly require batteries capable of both short duration (less than one hour) power-focused performance and long-duration (3-plus hour) energy performance. This will be a key driver in the battery-chemistry market. The chemistry that can deliver the best performance for both durations at the lowest cost will have an advantage in the market.
Navigant projects the market for new chemistries to increase from 30.2 megawatt-hours in 2019 to greater than 6.5 gigawatt-hours annually in 2025. Revenue is expected to reach $9.2 million in 2019 and rise to $1.4 billion in 2025.
About The Author
LAEZMAN is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer who has been covering renewable power for more than 10 years. He may be reached at [email protected].