The US energy storage market set a new record in the fourth quarter of 2021, with new installations totalling 4727 megawatt hours (MWh), according to Wood Mackenzie.
The analysis, compiled by Wood Mackenzie and the American Clean Power Association, highlighted that the fourth quarter of 2021 saw more capacity installed than in the first three quarters combined, despite project delays.
Annual deployments of grid-scale storage nearly tripled year-over-year to 3GW/9.2 gigawatt hours (GWh).
Despite a record year, the grid-scale market didn’t meet expectations in 2021, with supply chain challenges delaying more than 2GW of capacity into 2022 and 2023 and Wood Mackenzie forecasts that supply chain pressures and delays within interconnection queue processing will persist through 2024.
American Clean Power Association energy storage vice president Jason Burwen said: “2021 was yet another record for the US energy storage market, with annual installations of multiple gigawatts for the first time.
“Even in the face of continued macro-economic headwinds, interconnection delays, and lack of proactive federal policy, increasing demand for resilient clean energy and volatility in the price of fuel-based generation will drive energy storage deployment forward.”
Burwen added: “Despite supply tightness leading to some project delays, the grid-scale market is still on track for exponential growth.”
System component price gains experienced over recent years have nearly been wiped out by higher costs for raw materials and transportation.
Specifically, battery module pricing saw the largest increase of all system components due to the increased cost of raw materials.