At present, with the intensification of competition in the industry, there is an obvious trend of vertical integration in many links of the energy storage industry. From the perspective of the energy storage industry chain in the U.S. market, the types of downstream developers are gradually diversifying, and most of them are involved in energy storage integration, such as Fluence and NextEra Energy. Nextera Energy and AES, the leading power companies in the United States, have entered the energy storage integration link, and the latter and Siemens have established a joint venture energy storage integration company Fluence.
01 The head effect is significant
According to the energy storage project data in the list of power generation projects disclosed by the EIA, by penetrating the equity relationship of energy storage project developers, relevant institutions have counted the scale of energy storage project developers with a scale of more than 20MWh by the end of 2023 (the data in 2023 is more than 5MW projects).
Among them, in 2022, the power of new energy storage project developers in the United States is 1439%/36.12%/51.22%/92.54%, the head effect is significant.
Chart: Concentration of developers of energy storage projects of 20MWh and above in the United States.
In 2023, with the increase of ITC subsidies, the market share of leading developers has expanded, and at the same time, small and medium-sized developers have also accelerated their entry, and the capacity of new energy storage project developers in the United States in 2023 CR1 CR3 CR5 will increase to 23 respectively21%/40.62%/52.10%, but the proportion of CR10 fell to 6985%, which shows that the number of new developer players has increased significantly.
02 Profiles of major U.S. energy storage developers
In addition, the types of developers have expanded from utility companies to power grids and financial enterprises, and the industry pattern is diversified.
By combing the developers of new energy storage power stations with more than 5MW in operation in the United States in 2023, the developers of large storage projects in the United States have expanded from utility companies to power grids (such as Italian National Grid Enel, EDF, etc.) and financial companies (such as Energy Capital Partners, CIM Group), etc., and the developer background is diversified.
Among them, leading power utilities such as Nextera Energy, Vistra, and AES have taken the lead in deploying a number of large-scale energy storage projects with a deep understanding of the power market mechanism, and have the first-mover advantage in project operation.
Figure: Profiles of major U.S. energy storage developers.
03 How should Chinese PV storage companies start a battle in the U.S. market?
Overall, the U.S. is one of the world's major energy storage markets. In the subdivision scenario, the development of energy storage in the United States is still the most eye-catching performance of large storage. The profit margins of industrial and commercial energy storage and household storage are large, and the profit models are more diverse; Relatively speaking, the profit level of large savings is slightly lower than that of industrial and commercial savings and household savings, but its scale is large. In addition, with the increase in the proportion of wind and solar power generation, coupled with ITC subsidies, large storage has high economics and diversified profit models, and still has the potential for rapid growth.
Looking back on 2023, combing the participating companies of the photovoltaic energy storage exhibition RE+ in the United States found that domestic mainstream manufacturers have appeared with blockbuster products.
Figure: Domestic energy storage companies that appeared in RE+ (incomplete statistics, random arrangement of enterprises).
Judging from past experience, the U.S. market is dominated by capital, and the company has strict audits of equipment manufacturers. If a brand can establish a more reliable reputation in the local area, other ** companies will follow up more smoothly and naturally.
The U.S. market attaches great importance to the management of the ** chain, the feasibility of financing and the reference of previous projects. This means that if you deploy the local market earlier, you can build an impact that stirs the local market, and of course, ensuring the quality of the product is also one of the key points. At present, it takes about a year for Chinese brands to verify and test in terms of local legal and market access challenges.
Product strength of energy storage enterprises
The "product power" of the energy storage industry is becoming the new protagonist, to a certain extent, product power = product value + core competitiveness + business management (brand) cashing power.
In the past 2023, many benchmark companies are actively exploring product innovation, brand marketing and other methods, on the one hand, the iterative update of technology, on the other hand, the continuous decline in costs, the endogenous growth and exogenous power of the energy storage industry will jointly promote the rapid development of the industry as a whole. Enterprises that actively deploy overseas, have leading technology and have the opportunity to cut into the US energy storage chain are expected to benefit.
Article**: EnergyTrend Energy Storage.