Battery Energy Storage Roadmap

Energy storage is integral to achieving electric system resilience and reducing net greenhouse gases by 45% before 2030 compared to 2010 levels, as called for in the Paris Agreement. China and the United States led energy storage deployments in 2023 and are expected to maintain the majority share of installed energy storage system capacity in 2030. Regions with the largest expected growth in energy storage capacity by 2030 include Latin America (+1,374%), the Middle East (+1,147%), and the Asia-Pacific (+778%), based on data from Wood Mackenzie’s Global Energy Storage Market Update Q2, 2024.

The United States has set a national decarbonization target of 50 – 52% greenhouse gas emissions reduction from 2005 levels by 2030, with the goal of reaching a net-zero carbon economy in 2050. As of 2023, the United States reported nearly 16.5 GW of operable energy storage assets with a capacity greater than 1 MW.‡ United States forecasts that consider state goals, utility integrated resource plans (IRPs), and industry expectations estimate energy storage capacity will more than double by 2030, much of which is expected to be contributed to BESS deployments. This EPRI Battery Energy Storage Roadmap is a planning tool for EPRI and its Members that identifies gaps in accelerating significant deployment of BESS capacity and prioritizes the applied research activities that EPRI and its Members will undertake.

The EPRI Battery Energy Storage Roadmap Future State Pillars reflect EPRI’s mission to advance safe, reliable, affordable, and clean energy. Click on a Future State Pillar to see the Vision, explore the Gaps, and learn about how EPRI is addressing the gaps.

This EPRI Battery Energy Storage Roadmap charts a path for advancing deployment of safe, reliable, affordable, and clean battery energy storage systems (BESS) that also cultivate equity, innovation, and workforce development.

Energy storage is integral for realizing a clean energy future in which a decarbonized electric system is reliable and resilient. Global installed energy storage capacity is expected to grow more than 650% by 2030 to enable more renewable energy resources and support grid modernization.

EPRI’s Energy Storage and Distributed Generation Program uses this Roadmap as a planning guide for strategizing the direction and alignment of its BESS collaborations and applied research priorities to foster the needs of its Members and EPRI’s mission of “advancing safe, reliable, affordable, and clean energy for society.”

Collaborative Roadmap Development

EPRI’s Battery Energy Storage Roadmap was developed collaboratively with its subject matter experts and Member Advisors, who represent diverse international and domestic utility, energy developer, and government agency perspectives. EPRI’s the original Energy Storage Roadmap and current Battery Energy Storage Roadmap were developed using the process shown below:

Originally published in 2020, EPRI’s Energy Storage Roadmap envisioned a path to 2025 in which energy storage enhances safe, reliable, affordable, and environmentally responsible electric power. Fifteen distinct Future States were described and associated gaps identified to realize the energy storage future vision.

In 2022, the Roadmap was enhanced to include detailed descriptions of the gaps and describe the research activities underway to address those gaps.

This Battery Energy Storage Roadmap revises the gaps to reflect evolving technological, regulatory, market, and societal considerations that introduce new or expanded challenges that must be addressed to accelerate deployment of safe, reliable, affordable, and clean energy storage to meet capacity targets by 2030. The EPRI Battery Energy Storage Roadmap is the product of a series of working group meetings attended by EPRI Member Advisors and staff to review and assess the relevance of gaps identified in 2020 and compile new gaps that have since emerged. The compilation of gaps included in this document represent challenges that are collectively regarded as high-priority by EPRI Members. To facilitate use of the Roadmap as a strategic planning guide, Future State Pillar gaps have been reorganized by:

• Energy storage project life cycle

Gaps were sorted by the project life cycle phase they are aligned with most. This facilitates proactive planning and coordination of project activities across the life cycle.

• EPRI’s Energy Storage and Distributed Generation Program project sets

Gaps were sorted by project set to facilitate focused, long-term research planning that incorporates projects and activities to close the gaps.

Future State Pillars

This EPRI Battery Energy Storage Roadmap contains four Future State Pillars, each representing an aspect of EPRI’s mission to advance safe, reliable, affordable, and clean energy. Innovation, community support of BESS adoption, and a trained workforce are considered foundational to the planning, procurement, deployment and integration, operations and maintenance (O&M), and decommissioning of BESS projects.

EPRI’s Battery Energy Storage Roadmap takes a simplified approach compared to its 2020 and 2022 predecessors based on EPRI Member and subject matter expert feedback on the Future States. This Roadmap defines a singular vision for each Future State Pillar. Each vision is supplemented by "Aspects," which are non-exhaustive descriptions of various considerations that are encompassed by the Future State vision.

Removing the boundaries of discrete future states allows EPRI flexibility in its applied research activities to address BESS gaps and challenges, which are interdisciplinary and have multi-faceted impacts across diverse stakeholder interests. This Battery Energy Storage Roadmap can also be used by others to help develop their energy storage future.