According to research firm LCP-Delta, residential battery installations in Europe saw an 83% increase in 2022. Over the course of the year, 1.8 million homes installed a home PV system, while 455,000 homes installed a residential battery storage system. The majority of the batteries were sold with the PV system, indicating that around one in four PV systems in Europe now come with a battery. This has led to a total of 1.1 million home batteries installed across the continent.
It is not clear whether the 83% figure refers to the growth in annual installations or the growth in absolute installations to-date. However, the figures suggest that it is referring to the former. These figures closely align with the predictions made by SolarPower Europe, a trade body, which anticipated 420,000 home batteries to be installed in 2022, pushing Europe “over the one million mark.”
SolarPower Europe also estimated the total installed home battery storage capacity to be 9.3GWh, with home battery systems ranging from a few kWh to the largest at 20kWh. The increase in residential battery installations can be attributed to several factors. Firstly, consumers are seeking to protect themselves from volatility in the energy market. Additionally, a shift away from feed-in-tariffs and net metering schemes, as well as a focus on optimizing the self-consumption of PV, are contributing to the growth.
Dina Darshini from LCP Delta commented that the battery market is in its early growth phase, with more operators entering the market and an increasing number of qualified installers. However, to reach the next growth phase, policy initiatives could be implemented to encourage more households to adopt battery storage. For example, in Italy, homeowners can access government subsidies that cover 90% of the cost of battery storage, which has resulted in Italy becoming the second-largest market in Europe, following Germany.
Both Germany and Italy have seen residential batteries become the largest segments in the past few years, although the grid-scale market is also starting to gain traction in both countries. Germany, being the largest market, was featured in PV Tech Power’s journal last year, while Italy’s market was featured in the most recent edition.
