The Photo voltaic Vitality Industries Affiliation (SEIA) revealed a white paper outlining the trade group’s imaginative and prescient for U.S. vitality storage, setting a goal to put in 10 million distributed vitality storage websites and attain 700 kWh of put in storage capability the top of the last decade.
The white paper, launched Jan. 28 together with a information to vitality storage regulatory insurance policies in every of the 50 states, discusses coverage suggestions that will open markets for improvement of vitality storage. The paper, which will be accessed right here, additionally appears at methods to acquire monetary assist for storage, construct a U.S. storage provide chain, and assist the persevering with push for long-duration storage know-how.
“Increasing vitality storage capability is a vital technique of making certain our nation’s vitality safety and resilience,” mentioned SEIA president and CEO Abigail Ross Hopper. “As demand for vitality soars, storage helps flip quick-to-build, low-cost photo voltaic technology into clear, dispatchable energy, making certain our grid can adapt to challenges, assist crucial infrastructure, and ship dependable energy to each group.”
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Information from Wooden Mackenzie reveals there presently is 83 GWh of put in vitality storage capability within the U.S. The group additionally mentioned there are almost 500,000 distributed storage installations.
SEIA on its web site states, “Photo voltaic and storage are a dynamic pair, and collectively will kind the spine of a clear, dependable electrical energy system. Storage is crucial to our nation’s local weather stability, vitality resilience and abundance, and to a easily working grid.”
Jason Kaminsky, CEO of kWh Analytics, a renewable vitality danger evaluation group, instructed POWER that photo voltaic paired with vitality storage would be the major supply of long-term development to satisfy rising vitality demand. “Regardless of an anticipated near-term improve in pure fuel, photo voltaic and storage will proceed to be the first supply of long-term development to satisfy rising vitality demand spurred on by financial development, crypto and AI,” mentioned Kaminsky. The chief additionally mentioned that resilient provide chains will allow photo voltaic to handle trade price construction, even within the face of latest or stronger tariffs from the Trump administration.
“Photo voltaic and storage development are unlikely to be excessively deprived by new or strengthened tariffs. Years of prior tariffs and restrictions have made photo voltaic provide chains resilient and dynamic, traditionally enabling the trade to handle price construction,” mentioned Kaminsky.
‘Constructive’ About Photo voltaic and Storage
Eric Packer, senior vp of Strategic Initiatives at Rexel USA, a significant U.S. electrical distribution firm, just lately instructed POWER his firm stays optimistic about photo voltaic vitality paired with vitality storage. “Our outlook stays optimistic for PV and vitality storage methods. Saved photo voltaic vitality allows the allocation of vitality on demand as a substitute of solely having the ability to have vitality when the solar is up, which has been a limiting issue,” mentioned Packer. “We proceed to see curiosity and investments in microgrids, which harness photo voltaic vitality and reapply it again to the grid at peak demand instances or as wanted from demand.”
Present trade forecasts present that U.S. storage capability is predicted to succeed in 450 GWh by 2030, although analysts have mentioned that isn’t sufficient to assist the necessity for storage, which frequently is used to assist steadiness the intermittency of renewable vitality assets equivalent to photo voltaic and wind energy.
The SEIA is asking states, regional transmission organizations, and the federal authorities to pursue accelerated deployment of vitality storage, and extra manufacturing of kit to serve the sectors. The actions embrace:
- Preserving the federal tax credit score for standalone storage.
- Making certain equal grid entry and truthful compensation to storage for grid providers.
- Reforming interconnection processes to account for storage flexibility.
- Establishing inexpensive retail charges for storage charging.
- Supporting home manufacturing with focused commerce insurance policies and streamlined allowing.
- Implementing state-level procurement applications.
- Emphasizing investments in low-income communities, together with areas disproportionately impacted by excessive climate and poor air high quality.
- Investing in additional improvement of long-duration storage.
“The U.S. storage market is at an inflection level, however with the combo of coverage assist and personal, state and federal collaboration, we will obtain SEIA’s storage targets whereas creating jobs and making certain dependable, across the clock energy for each residence and enterprise on this county,” mentioned Joan White, SEIA’s director of storage and interconnection.
Andrew Tang, vp, Vitality Storage and Optimization for Wärtsilä Vitality, just lately addressed the panorama for vitality storage. Tang instructed POWER: “In an effort to succeed in these targets, [e.g. ambitious climate targets from COP29 and the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure], vitality storage tasks will proceed to develop in measurement and scope. The scale of vitality storage tasks has been steadily rising to the multi-gigawatt-hour scale and can proceed to take action subsequent yr.”
Tang continued, “Vitality storage methods will proceed to be more and more geared in the direction of vitality shifting, pushed by the ever-growing penetration of intermittent renewable vitality technology and the concomitant must retailer vitality for dispatch in instances when provide and demand are mismatched. On the similar time, devoted renewables firming necessities are popping up in a range of markets globally. As these tasks transfer nearer to inhabitants facilities, addressing challenges like noise mitigation and hearth security will change into much more crucial.
“The expansion of vitality storage will proceed alongside the drive for renewable vitality enlargement. We’ll see the availability chain evolve in 2025, with the trade shifting towards additional diversifying manufacturing assets to make sure that provide meets each buyer price and market necessities,” mentioned Tang.
—Darrell Proctor is a senior editor for POWER.
