BESS Additions

Global operational BESS capacity has surpassed 250 GW, overtaking pumped hydropower energy storage (PHES) for the first time, driven by rapid deployment growth.  Annual additions exceeded 100 GW / 280 GWh in 2025 (nearly three times 2023 levels), corresponding to a CAGR above 100% btw 2020 and 2025 [Rystad, 2026].  Figure 1 illustrates annual BESS capacity additions, from 2020 to 2025.

  

Deployment momentum is expected to accelerate in 2026, w/ global BESS additions projected to exceed 130 GW/350 GWh.  While established markets such as China, U.S., U.K., Australia, and Germany are set to remain dominant, emerging markets, including Italy,  Saudi Arabia and the wider Middle East, Chile, and Eastern Europe, are gaining relevance as policy frameworks, grid requirements, and project pipelines converge.

  

BESS lifetime & price

 

Continued technology improvements are extending system lifetimes beyond 20 years and more than 10,000 cycles.  Declining costs have been a key driver of BESS deployment, although the pace of reductions is expected to moderate.  In 2025, total turnkey BESS costs in China fell by around 15%, reaching as low as USD 150/kWh and establishing a global benchmark, with markets exposed to chinese supply chains benefiting from accelerated deployment.

 

BESS market segmentation

  

BESS solutions are deployed across a wide array of applications, broadly categorized into two main segments: Front-of-the-Meter (FTM) & Behind-the-Meter (BTM).  Figure 2 shows the BESS market segmentation [LIN, 2026].

  

Main use & duration

 

The ability to provide firm capacity, which enables storage to meet demand during system peak times and to replace gas turbines, depends on the fit btw storage duration and the duration of the region’s net peak load.  Time shifting, or saving energy for discharge at times of high demand, provides a smaller but still significant portion of the value of storage [PVM, 2023].  Also, BESS designs typically have, on average, short storage duration (much less than 4 hours), but it is expected to grow with the installation of systems with 6 hours or more in the coming years, as shown in Figure 3.