Corporates playing in the solar and energy storage segments have long dreamed of combining the two complementary technologies to differentiate products and defend margins. This symbiotic match shows promise, yielding a US$2.8 billion market over the next five years, according to Lux Research.
Grid-tied solar installations will comprise 675 megawatts, or nearly 95% of the combined 711 megawatt market, while off-grid applications including telecom power claim the remaining 5%. While the off-grid market enjoys higher profit margins, the much larger addressable market for grid-tied systems means they dominate the solar and energy storage market.
"Developers are pushing packaged solar and storage systems in order to stand out as value-adding leaders, but not all benefit equally," said Steven Minnihan, Lux Research senior analyst. "Residential energy storage will see a boost adoption due to solar, but the addition of storage will barely move the needle for solar players, driving a paltry 1% increase in global PV sales."
Assessing the emerging market for combined solar and energy storage, Lux Research analysts found that residential applications will dominate through 2018. As lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries and overall storage arrays fall in price, residential systems will gain the most, growing to 382 megawatts in 2018. The light commercial segment will increase to 220 megawatts while heavy commercial/industrial systems lag, growing only to 73.3 megawatts.
Japan is the worldwide leader. Hit by high electricity prices and seeking alternative energy after the nuclear woes, Japan will install 381 megawatts of solar coupled with storage by 2018, leading all other markets by a wide margin. Germany will come in second at 94 megawatts, while the US will be third at 75 megawatts.
Newfound storage policies may dramatically increase the market. In 2013, Germany set aside US$67 million to subsidize solar-tied energy storage and the US Senate introduced a program that could fund US$7.5 billion worth of new storage projects, or about 7.5GWh of capacity, said Lux Research.
