Recent figures suggesting an exponential growth in battery exports is just one of the recent positive announcements for battery storage in GB. Just in October we have seen some (admittedly short term) higher FFR prices but, more significantly, BEIS proposing to exempt storage (except hydro) of 50MW upwards from the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) regime in England and Wales (the consultation, which closes on 10 December, can be found here). If the exemption is implemented, it is likely to open up new economies for scale for in-front-of-the-meter projects, and network reinforcement applications.
In the longer term, analysis of the requirements of a Net Zero energy system, and increasing focus on the potential for renewables price cannibalisation, suggest that longer duration battery storage is becoming economic and will have a significant role in meeting daily storage needs. If that is right, it may be that we will see further exponential growth in battery storage coming from co-location of longer duration systems with new renewables projects and network reinforcement applications (which don’t face the same barriers to financing as projects which rely on short term contracts and shallow markets) as we transition to a Net Zero system.
Storage exports jump 600% as solar sees ‘exponential’ increase, new figures show