Three signs that battery energy storage is mainstream today
[...] Sign one: Everybody’s got a battery to sell While long-standing off-grid and PV backup suppliers have quietly supported solar-plus-storage applications all along, the nation’s largest solar PV installers like Sunrun, SunPower and Tesla started offering battery products to their customers in the last several years. The companies continue to report dramatic growth in the share of battery sales to their traditional PV-only offerings. The advent of well-packaged, long-life lithium-ion batteries has made energy storage more appealing to consumers. When the biggest names in solar get behind batteries, their marketing, messaging and political influence increases awareness among consumers, businesses, and governments alike. Their smaller competitors also take up the cause so that they don’t get left behind. Sign two: utilities and policymakers see the benefits Ever since utilities in California published the infamous “ Duck Curve ” showing the growing impact of high...