Stationary battery systems in the main world markets: Part 2: Main trends and prospects

Stationary battery systems are gaining a lot of interest in recent years, mainly because of their ability to balance generation and demand of electricity over time. The intermittent nature of renewable generation connected to the power grid is causing major stability and reliability issues in the power system, that can be solved also using stationary storage systems, able to provide the ancillary services necessary to the proper operation of the power network. Despite the considerable advantages offered by these technologies, the electrochemical storage industry is still in the nascent state and it is important to identify the main trends and prospects in relation to future technical developments, regulatory landscape and future commercial models. This paper is the second of a two-part series, aiming to provide an overview of stationary battery systems in the major world markets, identifying the applications most widely used in each storage market. In this second paper, a country overview is provided for each of the selected markets, in terms of policy regulations, subsidy programs and storage installations. The main trends are also identified, with reference to the viable use cases currently spread in the main world markets. This has been done analyzing the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) storage database, containing details about electrochemical projects installed in each country. The analysis carried out in this work could help stakeholders to assess the impact of energy storage policies in different countries, identifying the future trends and the most promising markets around the world.