Recent research indicates that the key to success and growth in the rapidly evolving storage industry in the US, China, and other increasingly mature markets lies with storage system manufacturers' tireless efforts.
The battery-based energy storage industry continues to grow at a rapid pace globally, creating more opportunities for new and existing market entrants. With this growth, many storage system manufacturers are developing their business models to build stronger competitive foundations.
Different stakeholders are focused on market share growth for long-term investment as the energy storage market continues to accelerate. While this brings competitive pressure to existing players in the market, upstream component suppliers and downstream developers are seeking ways to diversify and ensure profitability.
As more capital flows into the energy storage industry, it creates an ideal platform for different competitive scenarios and exploration of energy storage industry development.
Despite recent market consolidations, the storage industry continues to attract significant investments as storage system manufacturers, battery and component manufacturers, and increasingly more large energy companies and technology groups enter the fiercely competitive storage market.
At the same time, many investors seeking diversified investments in clean energy technologies are driving existing and new entrants to compete for market share in the fast-growing clean energy technology industry.
Research shows that the competitive landscape of the battery-based energy storage market is becoming more diverse.
Due to ample project pipelines causing existing deployment to pale in comparison, battery energy storage inverter (PCS) manufacturers are expanding their businesses towards solar PV facilities and storage applications, while new market entrants in the storage integration industry challenge existing integrators.
There is still a significant regional diversity in the energy storage market. As the energy storage market initially grew in certain countries, many local energy developers and new entrants have entered the energy storage field.
While the pattern of energy storage system manufacturers remains diverse, market share is becoming more concentrated and integration signs are appearing. The future market pattern for energy storage system manufacturers worldwide will further diversify. This is mainly due to the expansion of business scope by energy storage inverter manufacturers for solar + energy storage applications and strategic opportunities brought in by existing competitors' commitment to development.
As the energy storage market is highly sensitive to price, most energy storage integrators have launched energy storage systems based on lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries in the United States.
The upstream supply chain in the Chinese energy storage market is highly diversified, while the pattern of downstream energy storage system manufacturers is more consolidated because of the large battery manufacturer base, particularly LFP battery manufacturers and inverter manufacturers.
Thus, a highly diversified battery supply chain has been built, and many market participants hope to benefit from the continuously growing stationary energy storage market.
An energy storage system manufacturer is a company that specializes in assembling component subsystems and ensuring that these subsystems function together as a whole.
In the energy storage industry, energy storage system manufacturers provide complete battery energy storage systems (BESS) and are therefore typically responsible for sourcing individual components, primarily battery modules/racks, power conversion systems (PCS), and other equipment; assembling the systems; providing comprehensive warranties; integrating control and energy management systems (EMS); typically offering project design and engineering expertise; and providing operation, monitoring and maintenance services.
As the industry continues to evolve, the degree of upstream and downstream integration among many energy storage system manufacturers can vary, and specific responsibilities often vary due to contracts and customer requirements.
