Growing importance of the energy storage industry

03/14/2018 | Print view

Power storage systems and thermal heat storage systems are already being used widely and systematically. In 2017 the total installed energy storage power in Germany was around 7,370 MW. - © Tesvolt — © Tesvolt

Power storage systems and thermal heat storage systems are already being used widely and systematically. In 2017 the total installed energy storage power in Germany was around 7,370 MW.

With an expected turnover of more than EUR 5 billion in 2018 Germany`s young energy storage industry has growing economic importance. Especially battery storage systems see growing demand.

The facts and figures of the German energy storage industry were collected for the German Energy Storage Association (BVES). The positive developments are mostly driven by small and medium-sized enterprises at the moment. Of the more than EUR 5 billion turnover generated by the industry in 2018, around EUR 3 billion comes from new storage technologies and applications alone. The segment of battery storage for use in systems has been developing particularly well. In fact it’s a dynamic revenue driver.

9 percent increase in employment within one year

At the same time, employment figures have been rising steadily in the industry. From 2017 to 2018 alone BVES is expecting to see a 9% increase in employment. These figures are already making the energy storage industry half as big as Germany’s lignite industry.

More than 7,3 GW total installed energy storage power

Power storage systems and thermal heat storage systems are already being used widely and systematically. In 2017 the total installed energy storage power was around 7,370 MW. This is enough to provide temporary storage for the annual power requirements of over 6 million people. At the same time the thermal heat storage systems installed in Germany can produce around 30 TWh of heat for nearly 7 million people.

Efficient integration of renewable energies

As well as providing electric power, heat and numerous other applications, energy storage delivers major added value to the efficient integration of renewable energies into our energy system. Even today the systematic use of energy storage systems would, for instance, save an annual equivalent of 10.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. This would be tantamount to saving 10% of carbon emissions from cars in Germany.(HCN)