Profit analysis of mechanical energy storage equipment manufacturing

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).

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 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 would a storage facility exploit differences in power prices?

In application (8), the owner of a storage facility would seize the opportunity to exploit differences in power prices by selling electricity when prices are high and buying energy when prices are low.

Is energy storage a'renewable integration' or 'generation firming'?

The literature on energy storage frequently includes “renewable integration” or “generation firming” as applications for storage (Eyer and Corey, 2010; Zafirakis et al., 2013; Pellow et al., 2020).

What are the different types of energy storage technologies?

We focus on a set of common and commercially available technologies for energy storage (see Table S1 for details). These technologies convert electrical energy to various forms of storable energy. For mechanical storage, we focus on flywheels, pumped hydro, and compressed air energy storage (CAES). Thermal storage refers to molten salt technology.