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).

Do investors underestimate the value of energy storage?

While energy storage is already being deployed to support grids across major power markets, new McKinsey analysis suggests investors often underestimate the value of energy storage in their business cases.

What is the difference between self-built and leased energy storage?

In the self-built mode, the new energy power plants themselves are both the owner and the user of the energy storage, meaning the storage system is constructed and operated by the power plants. In the leased mode, the energy storage is owned by an energy storage company, while the new energy power plant acts as the user.

How can energy storage be profitable?

Where a profitable application of energy storage requires saving of costs or deferral of investments, direct mechanisms, such as subsidies and rebates, will be effective. For applications dependent on price arbitrage, the existence and access to variable market prices are essential.

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.

How are the benefits generated by energy storage configuration models evaluated?

In this section, based on the energy storage configuration results mentioned above, the actual benefits generated by these three commercial models are evaluated from four perspectives: technical, economic, environmental, and social. The specific descriptions of the evaluation indicators are as follows.