Dive Brief:
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Consultancy IHS Markit sees the growth of grid-connected energy storage installations creating a boom for energy storage inverter and power conversion system suppliers, PV Magazine reports.
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As the energy storage market grows, pricing premiums for inverters will erode, leading to wider uptake, IHS says.
- IHS sees the market for inverters and power conversion systems hitting 4.5 GW by 2020, from 910 MW a year currently.
Dive Insight:
Balance of system costs are an area that has been highlighted as ripe for cost reductions for energy storage. A new report from IHS now says that as battery costs continue to decline, driving energy storage installations, costs for the inverters and power conversion systems that those systems require will also fall.
"Competition in the large-scale sector has already led to prices being significantly lower, and we forecast the average global price per watt of 1 MW+ inverters will fall below $0.10 in 2020," Sam Wilkinson, IHS Technology senior research manager, told PV Mag.
IHS sees the residential market for AC-coupled inverter systems accounting for 60% of the market by 2020 as rooftop solar continues to grow and the deployment of virtual power plants and grid and load management spreads.
The downward pressure on prices will also be aided by new suppliers entering the market and increasing the volumes, Wilkinson said.