Batteries are at the Heart of Energy Management Thinking

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Outlines:

• How EV/HEV industry drive the battery technology development?
• Why to focus on Li-ion battery?
• The modularity of the battery size, power and energy capacities makes them easy to use in a large variety of applications.
• PHEV and BEV have the largest batteries and can be charged from the grid.
• A strong growth of EV/HEV market will result in high demand on batteries, much higher compared to stationary battery demand.
• The focus on EV/HEV compatible-battery technologies will bring the largest variety of business opportunity.

We need to develop innovative technologies for batteries to answer growing EV/HEV market demand and to fully exploit renewable energy generation. Batteries will increasingly be part of our daily life. Batteries, power electronic devices, photovoltaic and wind systems, energy management and electricity supply – all these market segments are connected. Yole Développement (Yole), the “More than Moore” market research and strategy consulting company, follows the battery industry’s progress every day. But not only this – its expertise spans numerous industrial fields including compound semiconductors, power electronics, photovoltaics and more. Consequently Yole analyzes technical and market trends and identifies the synergies between different sectors.

How do EV/HEVs drive battery technology development? How will battery energy storage impact renewable energies deployment? How can batteries create themselves a “second life”? Is the idea of an electric vehicle as a source of electricity for a home a dream or reality? Yole will be providing an insight into these synergies and battery applications trends at Energy Storage Europe 2016 event, on March 16 in Dusseldorf, Germany.

Batteries are clearly at the heart of this story and the EV/HEV market segment is its closest ally. The annual demand for EV/HEV batteries will reach about 250 GWh by 2023 (Source: Energy Management for smart grid, cities and buildings: opportunities for battery electricity storage solutions, Yole Développement, May 2015). This figure shows the growing level of business opportunities for existing and new battery makers. Equally, there are numerous R&D investments exploring disruptive battery technologies. What will happen?

- Because of increasing demand coming from the EV/HEV sector, battery manufacturers will increase their production capacities. In parallel, because of the high volumes specific to the automotive sector, battery manufacturing costs will therefore decrease.

- To address this growing demand, industrial companies will develop their R&D activities to produce more efficient and cheaper batteries. These innovative solutions will then be available for new market segments, such as energy storage for renewable energy systems, including wind and PV systems.

PV and wind now account for a high percentage of electricity generation in several countries. To illustrate this trend, we can look at PV inverters, which is the most important power electronics element in PV installations. PV inverter demand should reach 93.3 GW by 2021, announces Yole’s Senior Analyst, Dr Milan Rosina.

Within these markets, players are looking for solutions to stabilize electricity grids. Batteries could be the right answer. Clearly, the deployment of new renewable energy installations will be strongly linked to the development of battery-based solutions. (Source: Opportunities for power electronics in renewable electricity generation, Yole Développement, January 2016).

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