Grids

Energy Storage Market for Wind Energy Industry to Reach $1.1 Billion by 2015

NanoMarkets has just issued a report on the market opportunities for energy storage in the wind power business. In the report the firm concludes that there will be a growing market for energy storage systems that will remove some of the major obstacles to wind farm generation and create a business opportunity for these wind turbines systems that will reach $1.1 billion by 2015.

Additional details about the report, "Energy Storage Opportunities in the Wind Power Industry," can be found on the firm’s website at www.nanomarkets.net.

This is the latest in the firm’s on-going coverage of opportunities in the Smart Grid era. NanoMarkets’ Smart Grid Analysis unit has published on many areas of Smart Grid opportunities, and is preparing a companion volume to this one covering energy storage in the solar sector.

While many analysts have forecast rapid growth rates for wind farm generation over the next few years, NanoMarkets believes that growth in the wind energy turbines will not be sustainable unless the matter of cost effective energy storage is addressed.

The intermittent nature of wind energy generation leads to situations where power is created at times when demand is low resulting in reduced revenue generation or outright wasted. Unpredictable wind power also tends to disrupt conventional electricity grids which are not built to accommodate highly varying energy sources.

China is likely to account for over one third of all the revenues from energy storage systems sold to the wind power industry. The Chinese government plans to increase wind generation capacity in the country ten-fold in the next decade and will spend billions of dollars on storage facilities as part of its grid upgrade process. The report notes that, while world-class Chinese energy storage firms are beginning to emerge, the rapid deployment of wind generation in China will also open up opportunities for overseas firms too.

The report notes that much of need for wind power storage at the present time is accounted for by lead-acid batteries, which represent low-cost and mature technology. However, NanoMarkets believes that the wind industry will quickly shift to newer higher performance battery technologies such as lead-carbon, sodium-sulfur and flow battery systems. Furthermore, the higher performance and lifetimes of lead-carbon batteries compared to traditional lead-acid batteries will give lead-carbon the largest single share of wind-power energy storage sales by 2015 with sales that will exceed $300 million in 2015. NanoMarkets also sees significant use of mechanical storage including pumped hydroelectric and compressed air storage.

This report analyzes and quantifies the opportunities for firms seeking to understand the opportunities created by energy storage technologies in the wind power sector. It provides an analysis of the market in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Japan, China and India, with eight-year forecasts of energy storage sold into the wind sector for each of these countries/regions, as well as for the world as whole. These forecasts are broken out by major energy storage technologies and in both volume (MWh) and value terms. The report also includes discussions of major wind-related storage projects around the world and the major firms to watch in this space.

www.nanomarkets.net