On September 17, at the 3rd World Energy Storage Conference held in Ningde, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the most influential intergovernmental international organization in the field of renewable energy globally, officially released its first energy storage research report-Key Enablers for the Energy Transition: Solar PV and Storage (Full Report) globally, following the simplified edition released last year.

The report systematically recaps the current development status of the global energy storage industry from the two dimensions of technology and cost, and profoundly assesses the future trends, providing a reference basis for policymakers of various countries to formulate energy storage plans and strategic energy plans.

The report notes that with the significant reduction in the costs of global utility-scale PV and energy storage projects, "PV + energy storage" will become the most cost-effective form of renewable energy implementation, which can meet the demands of both global electricity growth and the clean energy transition. Besides, with the advancement of battery technology and the increase in the demand for long-duration energy storage, lithium battery energy storage is pushing forward with response durations of 4-8 hours or even longer. In the future, it can be one of the long-duration energy storage technology options to support flexible adjustment of the power grid over a longer time span.

The report offers a number of policy recommendations, including setting a national energy storage target, incorporating energy storage into the top-level planning of the power grid, improving the rules of the electricity market to effectively leverage the value of energy storage, developing targeted financial innovation products to reduce the initial investment cost, while establishing and improving the safety standard system and empirical testing platform for energy storage grid integration.

Ilina Radoslavova Stefanova, Director of the IRENA Coalition for Action, said:"If these policy recommendations are accepted and implemented, they will be able to drive the decarbonization process of the power system, achieve the renewable energy and energy storage targets for 2030, and lay the foundation for building a resilient and fully renewable global energy system."