Residential energy storage systems still dominate the German market

　　Residential energy storage will still dominate the German battery energy  storage market in 2021, but new opportunities are opening for the deployment of  grid-scale energy storage systems, according to a new report.

　　Residential energy storage accounted for 93% of the 1,357MWh of battery  storage systems deployed in the country last year, according to the report  titled "Battery Energy Storage Developments and Market Review in Germany (Status  2022)."

　　(Home energy storage systems deployed in Germany from 2013 to 2021)

　　The findings of the paper, co-authored by RWTH Aachen University in Germany  and the spin-off group the Institute for Power Electronics and Electric Drives  (ISEA), largely continue the trends identified in the survey report two years  ago.

　　The study defines home energy storage systems (HSS) as residential energy  storage systems up to 30kWh, while Germany has deployed 145,000 residential  energy storage systems totaling 739MW/1,268MWh in 2021, after deploying 145,000  in 2020. 430,000 residential energy storage systems. Its figures roughly match  research commissioned by the German Energy Storage Association (BVES) from  consultancy Energie.

　　Many of SES Power's products are suitable for HSS systems, especially those  using lithium iron phosphate square aluminum shell cells, such as 12V100Ah,  24V100Ah, 36V100Ah, 48V100Ah, household energy storage 3KW, 5KW systems,  rack-mounted energy storage systems and other products, very popular with German  customers because they can be easily combined with photovoltaic power generation  systems.

　　In contrast, Germany only deployed 27MW/57MWh of 30kWh-1MWh industrial  energy storage systems (ISS) last year, while large-scale energy storage systems  (LSS) of 1MWh and above only deployed 36MW/32MWh. Industrial energy storage  systems (ISS) and large-scale energy storage systems (LSS) can be either  grid-connected or battery energy storage systems on the consumer side of  commercial and industrial (C&I).

　　The number of residential energy storage systems deployed in Germany has  been growing since 2013, as has industrial energy storage systems (ISS), albeit  at a slower pace. On the other hand, since a record 288MWh of industrial energy  storage systems (ISS) were deployed in 2018, their deployments have fallen  sharply, falling more than 10-fold to 11.5MWh in 2021.

　　The research report attributes the significant reduction in industrial  energy storage systems (ISS) to the saturation of the frequency containment  reserve (FCR) market, which was dominated by utility-scale energy storage  systems deployed between 2016 and 2019. Other problems in the German energy  storage market include double charging of energy storage systems (that is, the  energy storage system charges for using electricity from the grid and charges  for supplying electricity to the grid).

　　A survey by the German Energy Storage Association (BVES) suggested that  regulatory issues are in fact the main problem for operators of German energy  storage assets, a spokesman for the German Energy Storage Association (BVES)  said in an interview with industry media last year, “The German government It  doesn’t see energy storage as a key element of its energy transition.”

　　The result is that by 2021, Home Energy Storage Systems (HSS) will account  for 79% of Germany's total battery storage capacity of 4,406MWh, Large Scale  Energy Storage Systems (LSS) will account for 17%, and the remaining 4% will be  industrial energy storage System (ISS). However, the German battery energy  storage market is developing, allowing more grid-scale energy storage systems to  be deployed alongside renewables.

　　The vast majority of home energy storage systems (HSS) and industrial  energy storage systems (ISS) deployed in Germany last year were lithium-ion  battery storage systems, while 11 large-scale energy storage systems (LSS)  deployed last year were entirely lithium-ion Battery energy storage systems,  although after the diversification of energy storage technology deployments in  2017-2019, large-scale energy storage systems (LSS) are the most diverse of the  three, with about one-fifth using other technologies (mainly lead-acid  batteries, redox flow batteries and thermal energy storage systems).

　　Most large-scale energy storage systems (LSS) were deployed last year at  large commercial and industrial sites due to saturation of the frequency  containment reserve market (FCR) (despite a temporary price spike in 2021).

　　But larger battery storage systems are starting to play a role in other  grid services being rolled out by Germany's Federal Network Agency (FNA). One of  these is the "Innovation Auction," which is open to projects combining two or  more clean energy technologies, such as large-scale solar and wind parks that  can be bid in conjunction with battery storage systems, often with storage  capacity exceeding 1MWh.

　　In the first three rounds of innovation auctions from September 2020 to  August 2021, 62 battery storage systems totaling 250MWh participated. However,  battery storage systems participating in the auction can only be charged with  electricity from renewable energy generation facilities, which prevents them  from accumulating revenue by participating in the Frequency Containment Reserve  Market (FCR), Automatic Frequency Recovery Reserve (aFRR) market or commercial  market.

　　German grid operators are also launching large-scale battery storage  projects called "GridBoosters" to temporarily ease grid bottlenecks and save  costs.

　　The study also found that 340,000 battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) and  341,000 plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) were registered in Germany last  year, bringing the total to 1.27 million of these two types of EVs so far, with  their respective the numbers are roughly equal.

　　The report added that the total number of batteries used in these EVs is  40GWh, with four-fifths of this coming from battery-powered vehicles (BEVs).  This shows the potential for things like vehicle-to-grid and vehicle-to-home  charging solutions.

　　The report notes that the large number of batteries used in electric  vehicles therefore shows the great potential for flexibility that can be used to  build battery energy storage systems. From an economic point of view,  integrating electric vehicles to serve the grid is highly desirable. However, it  was also pointed out that the public charging infrastructure cannot keep up with  the growth of electric vehicles.