The USA has installed over 5GWh of energy storage in the third quarter of 2022, which is the highest figure on record and almost half the total amount of storage deployed in 2021.
These figures come from a report by research group Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables. Most of these were grid scale projects, deployed in California and Texas. Although grid-scale projects were the most numerous, residential schemes have also seen strong growth.
A total 161MW/400MWh of residential battery systems, equivalent to more than 23,000 installs deployed in Q3 2022 overtakes the previous quarter's record of 375MWh. California and Texas were also among the leaders in the residential sector, joined by Puerto Rico and Hawaii, both of which are booming markets for storage due to their island grids and reliance on imported fuels.
Wood Mackenzie also said that the non-residential segment it reports on, comprising commercial and industrial (C&I) and community energy storage, is also set for growth in the coming years. However, it continues to underperform significantly compared to the other segments, with only 26.6MW/56.2MWh of new installations on record for the third quarter 2022.
Wood Mackenzie anticipated Q4 2022 being another busy three months for grid-scale developments. By mid-November the firm had already tracked 600MW of deployments in the sector.
Well-documented market challenges, such as supply chain tightness caused by soaring demand for key materials like lithium carbonate, and logistics issues caused by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, had been expected to cause a dip in installs as projects were delayed.
Another cause of issues, which is not limited to the energy storage market but applies more broadly across the energy sector, is the lengthy queues for interconnection to the grid. That continues to persist, although efforts are being made by stakeholders and regulators including the US Department of Energy (DOE), to rectify an often complex process. However, Wood Mackenzie said that the effect has been to delay projects, rather than cancel them, so perhaps a new record for installs will be set in 2023.