How do business models of energy storage work?

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.

Are energy storage projects ready for a bright future?

In anticipation of a bright future, the first projects with energy storage are being set up. We have analyzed some of these cases and clustered them according to their po-sition in the energy value chain and the type of revenues associated with the business model.

What are the business models for large energy storage systems?

The business models for large energy storage systems like PHS and CAES are changing. Their role is tradition-ally to support the energy system, where large amounts of baseload capacity cannot deliver enough flexibility to respond to changes in demand during the day.

Is energy storage a profitable business model?

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).

Is energy storage a'renewable integration' or 'generation firming'?

The literature on energy storage frequently includes “renewable integration” or “generation firming” as applications for storage (Eyer and Corey, 2010; Zafirakis et al., 2013; Pellow et al., 2020).

Is energy storage an independent asset class?

Energy storage is becoming an independent asset class in the energy system; it is neither part of transmission and distribution, nor generation. We see four key lessons emerging from the cases. PHS has been installed in France, Japan and other re-gions to compensate for the inertia of nuclear reactors.