Energy Storage Tracker 4Q12

Government investments in energy storage and related areas (such as smart grid) are clearly bearing fruit, particularly in the North American and Asian markets.

As the global energy storage project pipeline has grown, the number of deployed projects has increased as well.

Meanwhile, the R&D strategies of each region are becoming more apparent, as Asian economies are moving toward advanced battery technologies, with the intention of developing export industries, whereas the North American market is characterized by a policy of funding innovation and is, consequently, the most technologically diverse region in the industry.

In addition to government support, two factors account for the rise in deployments of energy storage projects: demand for energy storage has risen, as utilities have learned more about energy storage technologies and become less risk averse, and the brightening economic outlook has made companies become more willing to invest the capital required for energy storage. Announced projects rose in number from 83 in the second quarter of 2012 to 107 in the fourth quarter. The number of deployed projects (indicating that a project is operational) grew from 522 to 562 during the same period.

This Pike Research tracker report includes a database of 757 projects and tracks the country, region, market segment, status, technology vendor, applications, funding, investment, and key milestones for each project. In addition, the report includes analysis of the project pipeline for energy storage, an analysis of the technology bias within each major region for storage, key trends over the past 5 years, and the leading end-use market segments in the space.

Key Questions Addressed:

• How large is the energy storage pipeline and how has it changed in the past 6 months?
• Which regions are leading in terms of market share in the energy storage sector?
• What is the technology choice within each region?  Which global regions are more innovative?
• How many new projects have come online in the last 6 months?
• How has the energy storage market changed in the past 5 years?
• What are the leading market segments for energy storage? Which technologies lead in each segment?