The worldwide market for solar storage is forecast to grow rapidly to reach US$19 billion in 2017, from less than US$200 million in 2012, according to IHS.
Following the introduction of an energy storage subsidy in Germany, global installations of solar storage systems are forecast to grow by more than 100% a year on average over the next five years, to reach almost 7GW in 2017 and worth US$19 billion. Germany will account for nearly 70% of storage installed in residential solar PV systems worldwide in 2013. However, opportunities also will exist in other regions and applications in the future and Germany's share of the global market naturally will fall as a result.
Germany's long-awaited subsidy for solar storage systems is due to launch on May 1. IHS predicts that the subsidy will promote rapid growth in the Germany residential sector, and result in almost 2GWh (gigawatt-hours) of effective storage capacity being installed during the next five years.
"Because domestic electricity rates now significantly exceed residential feed-in tariff (FIT) rates, there is strong interest in increasing self-consumption in residential solar PV systems to maximize the financial return of the system," said Sam Wilkinson, PV analyst at IHS. "As a result, 8MW of solar PV systems were already installed with storage in Germany in 2012, prior to the subsidy being released. The introduction of the widely anticipated subsidy will quickly accelerate uptake by making the lifetime cost of solar PV systems with storage cheaper compared to those without it."
Although the rates are not confirmed yet, the proposed subsidy will reduce the average 20-year cost of a solar PV system with storage to 10% less than a system without it.
Previously, the high cost of batteries had more than offset the savings created by increased self-consumption, and solar PV systems without storage offered a more attractive return.
While Germany is forecast to remain one of the largest markets for solar storage, energy storage solutions will also be deployed in a wide range of other regions, said IHS. Germany was the pioneer of the FIT for solar PV systems and along with Japan initially drove the solar market's development.
As the first country to introduce a subsidy for solar storage, Germany will inspire other countries to follow suit, if the scheme proves successful, IHS expects.
"We do expect that other countries will follow Germany's example and adopt similar subsidy schemes to promote the use of solar energy storage-particularly where there is a case for promoting self-consumption and grid stability," Wilkinson said. "Even without subsidies though, storage can be an attractive proposition in conjunction with residential solar PV systems in some markets, such as the UK, where the market is forecast to begin growing quickly in 2014, when the price of batteries is predicted to have fallen sufficiently to make solar storage financially viable."
Storage is also predicted to be used in larger systems, in order to improve the integration of solar into the grid, increase the financial return of solar PV systems and meet the increasingly demanding connection requirements that some countries are imposing on intermittent electricity sources like solar. Utility-scale solar PV systems with storage are forecast to grow to more than 2GW annually by 2017, according to IHS, with Asia and the Americas dominating this market.
