Summary: Battery storage is roughly where the solar industry was in the early 2000’s. It’s a tiny market now but it is exploding and the technology is evolving rapidly. There is money saving potential for customers but there are risks for incumbent energy providers who are pushing back. The standards for battery storage are changing like quicksand and investor funds are pouring in to take advantage of this inevitable market. The rapid “hockey stick” growth that we are seeing in the energy storage industry is likely to be even more accelerated than the growth of the solar industry. All the pieces are in place for a number of successful companies throughout the storage value chain, but as with the solar industry, there is going to be some spectacular train wrecks along the way as well as some companies that just do not have the staying power to succeed. On this week’s Energy Show, we talk about the following eight mistakes that companies in the solar industry made that hopefully storage companies can avoid: Mistake #1: Constraints on critical upstream components (Li or Co = Si?) Mistake # 2: Live by incentives and die by incentives Mistake # 3: Releasing half-baked products Mistake #4: Ignoring software Mistake #5: Assuming electricity rates will always go up Mistake #6: Not paying enough attention to safety issues Mistake #7: Selling commodity components, not bankable systems Mistake # 8: Inevitable black swan events
