InfoLink: 222 GWh more energy storage worldwide in 2025

The global energy storage market added 175.4 GWh of capacity in 2024 with China, the Americas, and Europe accounting for more than 90% of installations.

Europe added 19.1 GWh of energy storage capacity last year, up 12.4% from 2023. Italy has become Europe’s largest energy storage market thanks to utility-side, front-of-the-meter (FTM) systems, and leads Germany and the United Kingdom.

The Americas added 41.3 GWh of energy storage in 2024, up 53% year on year, with the United States and Chile leading the way. Some 90% of systems in the United States were for short-term energy storage, with an average storage duration of 3.1 hours nationwide, rising to four hours in California. That state, and Texas, accounted for more than 65% of the U.S. total with Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico also returning strong figures in an FTM-led market.

Chile’s lithium extraction regions of Antofagasta and Atacama dominated as the nation added more than 2 GWh of energy storage capacity in 2024, to reach more than 30 GWh. FTM systems also dominated in Chile.

A nascent Middle East and Africa energy storage market had 2.7 GWh of capacity in 2024. Chinese companies dominated more than 40 GWh of energy storage tenders during the year, mainly in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Intense competition is driving down energy storage bid prices.

With new markets emerging outside China, Taiwanese analyst InfoLink has advised energy storage manufacturers to focus on market insight and plan for new opportunities.

Leading manufacturers

The top five global alternating-current (AC)-coupled battery energy storage system integrators in 2024 were Tesla, Sungrow, CRRC Zhuzhou Institute, Fluence, and HyperStrong. InfoLink said US-based Tesla led significantly in the first and second quarters of the year but China’s Sungrow caught up in the second half, surpassing Tesla’s quarterly shipments in the third and fourth quarters. That rivalry could continue into 2025.

Chinese giants CATL and BYD dominated direct-current-coupled energy storage systems in 2024, ahead of PotisEdge, Hithium and RelyEZ. CATL, BYD and newcomer Hithium are leading manufacturers of energy storage cells which are increasingly expanding into system integration. The former two, with vertically-integrated operations from lithium extraction to cell production and system integration, are expected to make strides in AC-coupled energy storage this year.

2025 forecast

InfoLink expects the energy storage market to maintain its growth trajectory this year, with 221.9 GWh of capacity to be added, up 26.5% from 2024.

Despite geopolitical challenges, InfoLink expects the energy transition to drive 25% growth in energy storage shipments in 2025, to more than 300 GWh.

The consultancy noted “the development of energy storage has become a global consensus,” and pointed to the prediction, made at the COP29 climate change summit held in Azerbaijan in late 2024, that global energy storage project capacity will increase to 1.5 TW by 2030. “As a result, InfoLink maintains a cautiously optimistic outlook for the medium- and long-term development of energy storage systems,” said the data company.

The 90% of the energy storage market held by China, the Americas, and Europe in 2024 is expected to reduce thanks to rising deployment in the Middle East and Africa and other emerging markets. That would hint declining energy storage prices are driving geographical diversity.

Customer-facing, “behind-the-meter” energy storage systems are expected to play more of a role as Europe is expected to add almost 27 GWh of capacity in 2025. FTM units will continue to dominate, though, as will Italy. Germany is expected to add more than 1 GWh of FTM energy storage but Spain and Belgium are likely to join the party, behind the United Kingdom, as their large-scale energy storage projects begin to come online.

The United States is expected to add more than 20% more energy storage capacity than was installed in 2024, despite uncertainty surrounding clean energy incentives under the Donald Trump administration. In fact, the recent tariff hike on Chinese imports, imposed under Section 301 of the US Trade Act of 1974, is driving an installation rush in 2025.

With the Americas expected to add 55 GWh of energy storage in 2025, up a third on last year, lithium extraction-related energy needs are set to drive more than 3 GWh of capacity in Chile. Tenders held by the province of Ontario could see Canada add more than 2 GWh of energy storage during the year.

A 2.6 GWh project by BYD and a 7.8 GWh site for Sungrow will help Saudi Arabia lead as the Middle East and Africa is expected to add 13 GWh of energy storage in 2025, up 381%, year on year.

From pv magazine España.