In the United States, 29 states, three territories and Washington, D.C. have adopted Renewable Portfolio Standards and many experts agree that storage deployments are going to be critical to integrating the influx of renewables on to the grid. But going into 2020, the industry appears to be less bullish about the prospects of grid-scale battery storage over the next decade.
In Utility Dive’s 2020 State of the Electric Utility survey, 27% of participants said they expect their organization will significantly increase grid-scale battery storage in the next 10 years — a significant reduction from 37% in 2018, and 34% in 2019. This is despite analysis by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, which forecast a spike in utility-scale battery storage beginning in 2021.