The United States installed a record 3.51 GWh of new energy storage capacity in the third quarter (Q3) of 2021, Wood Mackenzie said in a report.

In Q3 2021, the utility-scale front-of-the-meter (FTM) market deployed 998 MW/3198 MWh of new energy storage capacity. California, Texas, and Arizona led the segment.

California continues to lead the FTM market, with projects developed a NextEra Energy Resources contributing the majority installation for the quarter. In Texas, storage projects developed by Broad Reach Power also boosted the FTM capacity in Q3.

In Q3 2021, the residential solar market installed 97.9 MW/225 MWh of storage capacity, a marginal increase due to continuous rise in attachment rates.

The report notes that project timelines for the residential solar-plus-storage project remain problematic because solar modules and battery constraints contribute to project backlogs.

The non-residential solar market installed a record 43.6 MW/92.1 MWh of storage capacity during Q3 2021. Commercial virtual net-metered and community solar projects with storage accounted for most of the non-residential capacity in Q3 2021. California installed the largest capacity of behind-the-meter non-residential projects in Q3 2021.

Jason Burwen, the interim chief executive of the U.S. Energy Storage Association, said the storage decade has arrived. After achieving 1 GW of annual installations for the first time last year, U.S. energy storage companies just installed 1 GW of projects in one quarter. The pace of energy storage installations would continue breaking records for years to come, particularly once Congress enacts an investment tax credit (ITC) for energy storage.”

Wood Mackenzie’s storage analyst, Vanessa Witte, said, “Wood Mackenzie expects up to 4.7 GW of utility-scale storage to come into operation in 2021, which means this record-breaking quarter is only the beginning of a wave of major new projects set to come online this year and next.”

In Q2 2021, the United States installed 345 MW of new energy storage systems – a 162% year-over-year (YoY) increase.

According to a report by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the pipeline of solar capacity in the U.S. at the end of 2020 was around 460 GW. Of this, 160 GW or 34% of projects include battery storage.

Harsh Shukla is a staff reporter at Mercom India. Previously with Indian Express, he has covered general interest stories. He holds a Masters Degree in Journalism from Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, Pune.

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