June 16, 2021 Growing Market for Commercial Solar Storage
Widespread adoption of solar energy technology by governments, businesses, and local utility companies over the past year has led to an increase in global solar energy market revenue. Industry analysts expect the solar storage energy market to record a compound annual growth rate of 35% by 2025. Commercial solar storage is a necessary component of a thriving solar energy market, extending the value of solar panels and photovoltaic design.
Support from Businesses and Agencies
What’s behind the recent growth in the commercial storage space? Solar storage is playing a leading role in the advancement of clean energy initiatives. Ramping up the building of standalone commercial solar storage facilities is necessary to keep pace with demands on the U.S. electricity grid.
A great deal of the change currently underway within the solar market is due to support from government agencies and large businesses, both of which have begun exploring solar as a cost effective power source. In the United States, interest from both federal and state policymakers has exceeded expectations. The decisions these policymakers are making today will impact how commercial solar storage is utilized in the coming years, particularly as demand for electricity increases.
Not only has interest from government agencies and large businesses led to a greater share of revenue being directed toward solar energy sources, but it has also contributed to the development of newer, novel commercial solar storage solutions. The success of the commercial solar storage industry is directly linked to the success of the solar industry more broadly.
According to a recent report published by Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, solar accounts for the majority of projects paired with energy storage in 2021. While just 6% of wind and natural gas projects currently underway have storage attached, an incredible 34% of solar projects in the queue are paired with storage batteries.
Practical Applications for Commercial Solar Storage
We’ve all noticed more electric vehicles on the road lately. The demand for electric vehicles has a direct impact on electric batteries. Integrating electric vehicles into corporate transportation fleets has been shown to reduce transportation and logistics costs for large businesses and government agencies. However, investing in electric vehicles also requires an investment into integrated storage units. The most cost-efficient storage units include solar integrated EV charging stations. The proliferation of these types of units has helped push the commercial solar storage industry to new heights in 2020 and 2021.
Smaller businesses and residential customers are contributing to growth in the commercial solar storage space, as well. The majority of commercial and residential solar projects now include some form of solar storage. Switching from nuclear and fossil fuels to more cost effective batteries will revolutionize the industry and provide lower prices for residential customers throughout the United States and globally.
Renewable Integration in the Solar Energy Market
Governments around the world have indicated their support for integrating more sources of renewable energy, leading to a particularly strong commercial solar storage market. In South Australia, a record-setting $1 billion investment was approved to build solar voltaic farms that will link to a 250MW battery storage system.
Regulatory reforms and subsidies will impact segment growth in the coming years, as well. Along with these investments in solar energy generation, however, will have to come investments into commercial solar storage. In order to provide power across large swaths of land and grow their charging infrastructures, government agencies must integrate more commercial solar storage.
Within the U.S., the energy storage market is made up of hundreds of companies and thousands of workers who manufacture, distribute, and install energy storage systems. The industry will continue to scale over the coming years.
Cost-Effective Storage Options
The most cost-effective options for solar storage aren’t always the most obvious. Innovators in the field of solar engineering are developing new strategies for solar storage that will benefit both commercial and residential customers. One example of this type of innovation involves the automaker Toyota, which is building rooftop-based solar storage at its facilities. Toyota has indicated that it plans to explore the opportunities in lithium-ion battery storage, which could be deployed as stationary storage options. The addition of a commercial solar storage facility tied to rooftop panels would allow Toyota to power its electric forklifts even on the darkest days. Lithium-ion batteries are the most common type of storage to be paired with solar. As manufacturing of these batteries has increased in recent years, the cost has dropped dramatically.
Commercial solar storage can also make day-to-day fluctuations in electricity pricing easier to handle. Batteries and other storage systems help agencies and governments manage evening energy bumps and smooth electricity prices through arbitrage. That’s in addition to another obvious benefit, which has to do with security.
Beyond being cost-effective, commercial solar storage is also a reliable option for municipalities and agencies that struggle with finding better forms of backup power.
Saving Natural Resources
Current interest in commercial solar storage opportunities is about more than just lower costs. It’s also the result of alarming changes in global climate patterns that have scientists and industry executives concerned. Natural resources are rapidly depleting, leading more global brands to invest in commercial solar technology. Industry analysts report that the global solar energy storage market could exceed 3 GW of annual installations by 2025.
Reliable Solar Storage Solutions
Considering the costs and complexities involved in high-quality commercial solar storage, it should come as no surprise that most businesses and agencies utilize the services of an experienced and trusted company that specializes in providing photovoltaic design and engineering services, like KMB.
At KMB, our team of commercial solar experts can evaluate your strategy and provide custom recommendations to enhance the value of your solar energy project. With more than 1,000 projects nationwide, and over 1,500 MW of solar designed, we are an industry leader in the commercial solar market.
Read more about KMB’s commercial solar services: https://www.kmbdg.com/services/solar-engineering/