(REPOST: Energy Storage)
Over 9,000MWh of battery energy storage could be deployed in Britain over the next five years as the sector enjoys a trend towards “explosive growth”, a market analyst has said.
Lauren Cook at Solar Media’s Market Research division spoke to Energy-Storage.News this week on the publication of ‘UK Battery storage: Opportunities & Market Entry Strategies for 2018-2022’, a new report.
Cook found that in just 12 months, the UK’s pipeline for new battery storage projects has grown by over 240%, with forecasted installations in 2018 set to rise more than 200% year-on-year. Opportunities are being created by a range of drivers including a national commitment to phase out coal, falling technology costs and more than 30GW of wind and solar capacity ripe for co-location with batteries.
According to Cook, this means the UK could quickly becoming a market of strategic focus for international players.
“The market is growing and it’s changing rapidly. There’s now projects completed on the ground. Once global companies start to see it’s not just a speculative market, it will make sense for them to think about how to enter the market and what the opportunities are for them.
“They will then need to know who is active in the market, who has these opportunities and who they will have to work with to take advantage of those opportunities.”