Grid-scale batteries are finally taking off — but now supply can’t keep up with demand. Here’s a recap of what went down in 2022 and a preview of the year ahead.
Energy storage succeeded like never before in 2022 — and the sheer scale of this newfound success is causing problems.
A few years ago, batteries played an insignificant role on the U.S. grid, or any grid, really. Advocates talked up the theoretical benefits batteries could deliver for a cleaner, more efficient grid, if only someone would notice how great they were and, like, pay them for it.
How quickly things change. In the rosy dawn of 2022, the federal government predicted that the U.S. would add 5.1 gigawatts of batteries over the course of the year, equating to 11 percent of new power plant capacity. At the close of the year, the count looked more like 5.4 gigawatts, according to the storage analysts at Wood Mackenzie.
“Up to 2020, we’d never had a single year break a gigawatt” of storage deployments, said Jason Burwen, an architect of U.S. grid-storage policy and vice president of energy storage at the American Clean Power Association. “That is a bonkers rate of acceleration.”
Read more: CanaryMedia
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