1. Market Size
As of the end of June 2020, global operational energy storage project capacity (including physical, electrochemical, and molten salt thermal energy storage) totaled 185.3GW, a growth of 1.9% compared to Q2 of 2019. Of this global capacity, China’s operational energy storage project capacity totaled 32.7GW, a growth of 4.1% compared to Q2 of 2019.
Global operational electrochemical energy storage project capacity totaled 10,112.3MW, surpassing a major milestone of 10GW, an increase of 36.1% compared to Q2 of 2019. Of this capacity, China’s operational electrochemical energy storage capacity totaled 1,831.0MW, an increase of 53.9% compared to Q2 of 2019. Both in the global and Chinese markets, electrochemical energy storage capacities showed growth compared to their respective Q2 period in 2019, at 1.4% and 1.8%, respectively.
Graph 1: global total operational energy storage project capacity (MW)
Graph 2: China’s total operational energy storage project capacity (MW)
2. Market Developments
In the first half of 2020, the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic caused global delays in the energy storage project development process, including project approval, procurement, equipment shipping, and construction. These challenges caused a decline in new operational project capacity compared to the same period in 2019, with newly operational capacity totaling 591.8MW, a 26.2% decrease in growth rate. Apart from energy storage project development, financing of energy storage projects (including venture capital, private equity, and other investments) also suffered from the pandemic. Investments in the first half of 2019 totaled 1.9 billion USD, dropping to 716 million USD during the same period in 2020.
Much like the global market, the Chinese energy storage market also suffered from the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak. These effects were primarily felt during the first quarter. As the epidemic gradually became under control in the second quarter, factories began returning to work, and energy storage projects slowly returned to construction. Such projects included the Fujian Jinjiang 100 MWh Li-ion battery energy storage station, a northwest China centralized solar-plus-storage station, a Guangdong AGC frequency regulation energy storage project paired with a thermal power plant, and other projects which completed construction and began operation. These projects helped China’s new operational energy storage capacity to achieve a moderately higher capacity growth compared to the same period in 2019, at 3.8%, or 121.4MW.