According to a report released on June 1, 2021, by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), energy storage deployment could reach over 125 GW of installed capacity by 2050 under modest assumptions—a more than five-fold increase.[1] Depending on cost and other variables, the report, “Storage Future Study (SFS), Economic Potential of Diurnal Storage in the U.S. Power Sector,” estimates that deployment could total as much as 680 GW by 2050. Currently, there is 23 GW of storage capacity in the U.S., most of which is pumped hydropower.

The report’s authors concluded that new storage deployment would primarily start with shorter durations of about four hours, and as costs drop, durations would gradually increase to 12 hours. By 2030, annual battery storage deployment could range from one to 30 GW. By 2050, deployments could range between seven to 77 GW. According to the authors, energy storage will provide the most considerable value when deployed together with solar and given the ability to provide grid services. In the study, researchers added new capabilities to the NREL’s Regional Energy Deployment System (ReEDS) to model the value of diurnal battery energy storage and its offerings to grid services. They modeled two sets of scenarios: one with storage providing multiple grid services and one that restricted the services that storage can provide. The NREL found that not allowing storage to provide grid services like firm capacity and time-shifting would hinder deployment.

[1] https://www.nrel.gov/news/program/2021/grid-scale-storage-us-storage-capacity-could-grow-five-fold-by-2050.html