Prospects of energy storage foreign trade

What role does energy storage play in the transport sector?

In the transport sector, the increasing electrification of road transport through plug-in hybrids and, most importantly, battery electric vehicles leads to a massive rise in battery demand. Energy storage, in particular battery energy storage, is projected to play an increasingly important role in the electricity sector.

How did energy storage grow in 2022 & 2023?

The US utility-scale storage sector saw tremendous growth over 2022 and 2023. In 2022, the volume of energy storage installations totaled 11,976 megawatt hours (MWh), which was surpassed in the first three quarters of 2023, reaching 13,518 MWh by cumulative volume.

Should governments consider energy storage?

In the electricity sector, governments should consider energy storage, alongside other flexibility options such as demand response, power plant retrofits, or smart grids, as part of their long-term strategic plans, aligned with wind and solar PV capacity as well as grid capacity expansion plans.

Can the energy storage sector be supercharged?

Policymakers in the United States and Europe continue to put forth measures meant to supercharge the energy storage sector toward a promising future. Even with near-term headwinds, cumulative global energy storage installations are projected to be well in excess of 1 terawatt hour (TWh) by 2030.

Are battery energy storage systems the future of electricity?

In the electricity sector, battery energy storage systems emerge as one of the key solutions to provide flexibility to a power system that sees sharply rising flexibility needs, driven by the fast-rising share of variable renewables in the electricity mix.

How will the energy sector change over the next two decades?

The energy sector’s share is projected to increase significantly over the next two decades: electric vehicles and stationary battery energy storage systems have already outclassed consumer electronics as the largest consumer of lithium and are projected to overtake stainless steel production as the largest consumer of nickel by 2040 ( , p. 5).