Wood Mackenzie Power&Renewables lowered its forecast for US energy storage demand in 2022 and 2023 by approximately one-third in its latest global outlook report.

The company stated in its latest quarterly "Global Energy Storage Market Outlook Update" that by 2031, the cumulative deployment of the global energy storage market will reach 500GW, of which 75% will be in the United States and China.

The abstract did not disclose its installation forecast for 2031. Bloomberg NEF predicted as early as November 2021 that the cumulative installation of energy storage devices worldwide will reach 358GW/1028GWh by 2030.

McKinsey, in conjunction with the Global Long Term Energy Storage Council, predicts that the installed capacity of global long-term energy storage will reach 1.5TW-2.5TW by 2040, with a capacity of 85TWh-140TWh. The Global Long Term Energy Storage Council releases a White Paper on Long Term Energy Storage (Abstract and Documents)

The United States remains the leader in the energy storage market, but the disruption of trade actions has led WoodMac to lower its forecast for the next two years. It has reduced the market demand forecast for 2022 by 34% and the demand forecast for 2023 by 27%.

The downgrade is due to the interference caused by the anti-dumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) tariff lawsuits in the second quarter on the scale and distribution of the power grid.

The company added that the US solar and energy storage market has been particularly severely hit by AD/CVD tariff applications, with approximately 35% of hybrid grid installations delayed in 2022. On June 6th, an executive order from the Biden administration brought some relief, delaying the imposition of new tariffs on solar cells from four Southeast Asian markets for two years. Therefore, he stated that the market still has the potential to rebound.

As shown in the figure below, during the period of 2021-2031, the United States and China will be the main markets for energy storage deployment, with the top 10 markets accounting for 91% of the newly added markets during the same period.

The research company also stated that the REPowerEU program has provided impetus for the energy storage market in Europe, with an expected five fold growth in the next decade, but the economic viability of the project remains a challenge. It quantifies that the plan will bring an improvement of 12GWh.

In most countries on the European continent, grid side storage has not yet taken off, but the growth of renewable energy, limitations on natural gas supply, and overloaded grids can help kickstart the growth of the industry.

At the same time, China will continue to dominate the Asia Pacific market, but the profitability of energy storage projects remains a challenge for the sustainable development of the industry. The country is considering introducing corresponding policies to increase compensation for energy storage costs and enhance economic incentives for projects.

The implementation plan for the development of new energy storage during the 14th Five Year Plan period, released in March, has been announced by 12 provinces and cities, with a cumulative deployment target of 40GW of energy storage by 2025.

Due to limitations in the development of long-term energy storage technology, the currently deployed long-term energy storage is mainly pumped storage. The market urgently needs breakthroughs in new electrochemical long-term energy storage technologies.

From January to July this year, State Grid Corporation of China began construction of four pumped storage power stations, including Taishun in Zhejiang, Fengxin in Jiangxi, Anhua in Hunan, and Shangzhi in Heilongjiang. Eight units of five pumped storage power stations, including Fengning in Hebei, Yimeng in Shandong, Dunhua in Jilin, Huanggou in Heilongjiang, and Jinzhai in Anhui, were put into operation, with an additional installed capacity of 2.45GW. Within this year, State Grid Corporation of China will resume production of 4 pumped storage units in Fengning, Hebei and 1 unit in Jinzhai, Anhui, with an additional installed capacity of 1.5GW. Construction of the Liaoning Zhuanghe and Ningxia Niushoushan pumped storage power stations will also begin, further enhancing system regulation capabilities and accelerating the clean and low-carbon transformation of energy.

On July 30, Wenshan Electric Power (600995) released a progress announcement on replacing Southern Power Grid's peak shaving and frequency regulation power generation Co., Ltd. It was announced that from 2021 to 2025, the Southern Power Grid's energy storage operation platform will add 15GW of energy storage assets, with a cumulative investment of 28.1 billion yuan.