How much profit does battery energy storage technology have?
Battery storage solutions facilitate the seamless integration of renewable energy by enabling surge capacity and mitigating supply inconsistencies that arise during peak demand
Although academic analysis finds that business models for energy storage are largely unprofitable, annual deployment of storage capacity is globally on the rise (IEA, 2020). One reason may be generous subsidy support and non-financial drivers like a first-mover advantage (Wood Mackenzie, 2019).
Building upon both strands of work, we propose to characterize business models of energy storage as the combination of an application of storage with the revenue stream earned from the operation and the market role of the investor.
Where a profitable application of energy storage requires saving of costs or deferral of investments, direct mechanisms, such as subsidies and rebates, will be effective. For applications dependent on price arbitrage, the existence and access to variable market prices are essential.
Figure 1 depicts 28 distinct business models for energy storage technologies that we identify based on the combination of the three parameters described above. Each business model, represented by a box in Fig- ure 1, applies storage to solve a particular problem and to generate a distinct revenue stream for a specific market role.
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