According to the Energy Storage Monitor report, the battery energy storage industry is rapidly growing across the U.S., as per Q1 2024 data. The U.S. storage industry installed 8.7 GW across all segments. The report depicted that the U.S. deployed 4.2 GW in Q4, 2023. The 77% of the increase came from solar installations in Texas and California.
With 218.5 MW installed in Q4, 2023, the residential solar energy storage market surpassed the record of 210.9 MW set in Q3. This was a marginal record quarter for the market. Most of the 33.9 MW deployed by the community, commercial, and industrial (CCI) category was in California.
One reason for the growth in storage is the decline in battery prices. Battery prices dropped in Q4. The drop is a result of an excess of raw lithium material for batteries and a lower-than-expected demand for EVs in the EU and the US.
The cost of lithium battery cells has decreased by around 50% since last summer, according to Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited (CATL), the biggest battery producer in the world. According to Goldman Sachs, there will be a surge in demand for electric vehicles once their prices get lower than gasoline-powered vehicles.
The Future Predictions of U.S. Energy Storage Industry
In the meantime, CCI is anticipated to install 1.2 GW yearly. Wood Mackenzie anticipates the residential segment to increase to 2.1 GW annually in 2024. It stated that distributed storage expansion will be boosted in the upcoming years by the introduction of storage incentive programs and California’s switch to NEM 3.0. It also emphasized Puerto Rico’s robust growth in distributed energy storage. John Hensley, who works at American Clean Power, says that because we have a lot of energy storage projects in the works, the future looks good for using energy storage more.
