When something innovative catches on, other related technology often gets its own boost. In many cases, the success of the two is intertwined, each feeding off of the other. For example, it is hard to imagine the Internet without PCs and vice versa.


The same could be said for renewable power and energy storage. As renewables continue to grow, utilities and consumers need to be able to store the power they generate.


According to a recent report, that dynamic is fueling energy-storage market growth at an epic pace. GreenTech Media (GTM) Research and the Energy Storage Association (ESA) jointly released a report in March.


“U.S. Energy Storage Monitor: 2015 Year in Review” describes a market that is doubling and tripling in size by various measures, and shows no signs of slowing. The report examines a number of different market indicators, all of which are showing huge gains. For example, total deployments grew by 243 percent in one year, from 65 megawatts (MW) in 2014 to 221 MW in 2015. Other indicators, such as total deployments in megawatt-hours, front-of-meter and behind-the-meter deployments also showed similar increases.


At the same time, utility-scale system prices came down roughly 10 percent from a median price of about $1,050 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) to about $950 per kWh, showing that the technology is getting cheaper and more efficient, an indicator of more growth to come.


Federal and state policies are also helping to create a favorable environment, one in which GTM projects a bustling market for years to come. The research firm foresees a 1,662-MW annual U.S. storage market by 2020, an eightfold increase from 2015. In dollar amounts, that market is expected to be worth $2.5 billion, a sixfold increase from 2015.