With the acceleration of the global energy transition, the U.S. energy storage industry has shown a vigorous development trend, and its future development trend is mainly reflected in the following aspects:
Continuous expansion of market scale: according to EIA data, as of November 2024, the U.S. large-scale energy storage filings reached 56GW, an 81% year-on-year growth; PV filings reached 108GW, a 20.6% year-on-year growth. 2025-2028, the cumulative installed capacity of energy storage in the U.S. is expected to be 74.3GW/257.6GWh, of which the annual growth rate of grid-level energy storage is 25%. Of this, grid-scale energy storage is expected to grow at an annual rate of 25%, adding 10.4GW/30.6GWh by the end of 2024, and a cumulative total of 63.7GW/222GWh over the five-year period 2024-2028. Mainly thanks to the large scale of project reserves, under the expectation of interest rate cut and battery tariff increase, the construction progress of large storage projects is expected to accelerate in 2025. In addition, distributed energy storage will also usher in the development of 12GW will be deployed between 2024 - 2028, of which residential energy storage accounted for 80%, the lower cost of energy storage superimposed on the increase in people's interest in standby power, will boost the user energy storage market, industrial and commercial energy storage will also grow 294%.
Technological innovation to promote the development of: the United States in the energy storage technology research and development efforts, lithium-ion batteries currently dominate, but researchers are actively exploring new energy storage technology. Such as liquid current batteries, solid-state batteries and other long-term energy storage technology has become a research hot-spot, liquid current batteries, energy storage capacity, charging and discharging cycle life; solid-state batteries are expected to solve the problem of lithium-ion battery security and improve performance. At the same time, some emerging energy storage technologies are also emerging, such as “enhanced geothermal system” based on the development of mechanical energy storage technology (earth-store) has completed the commercial demonstration, showing 6 - 10 hours of energy storage capacity and lower cost. In addition, intelligent management technologies for energy storage systems will continue to evolve in order to achieve efficient interaction with the grid and improve operational efficiency and stability.
Continued policy support: Policy support from the U.S. federal and state governments is an important driver for the development of the energy storage industry. The federal level of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) will be independent energy storage projects into the tax credit (ITC) policy, as long as the energy storage capacity is greater than 5kWh, you can enjoy the tax credit preferential, greatly stimulating the energy storage market. States have also introduced policies, such as California with self-generation incentive program (SGIP) to occupy the highest market share in the field of energy storage, and plans to add 15GW of new pre-meter storage in the next ten years. In the future, the policy is expected to continue to promote the development of the energy storage industry, and further improve the development environment of the energy storage industry.
The market structure is constantly optimized: the U.S. energy storage market is mainly divided into the pre-meter market (large-scale energy storage, including new energy distribution storage and independent energy storage) and the post-meter market (industrial and commercial energy storage and household storage). Currently, the installed capacity of energy storage before the table accounts for more than 90%, which is the wind vane of development. In the future, with the development of distributed energy, the after-meter market, especially household storage market is expected to usher in rapid growth. Households' demand for energy self-sufficiency and backup power increases, which will promote the continuous expansion of the household storage market, and the market structure will be more balanced.
Closer industrial synergy: the development of the energy storage industry will drive the upstream and downstream industry synergistic development. The cooperation between upstream battery raw material suppliers, midstream battery and energy storage system manufacturers, downstream energy storage project developers and operators will be closer. For example, in order to meet the market demand for low-cost, high-performance batteries, battery manufacturers will strengthen cooperation with raw material suppliers to ensure a stable supply of raw materials and reduce costs; energy storage system manufacturers and project developers work closely together to develop customized energy storage solutions based on different application scenarios. The synergistic development of the industry will improve the competitiveness of the entire energy storage industry and promote the rapid development of the industry.
However, the U.S. energy storage industry is also facing a number of challenges, such as high initial investment in energy storage systems, waste battery recycling and disposal issues, and obsolete grid infrastructure in some areas to limit the deployment of energy storage systems. But overall, driven by market demand, technological innovation and policy support and other factors, the U.S. energy storage industry has broad prospects for future development.
