Laboratory equipment manufacturers could drive growth in energy storage

The forms of power storage used by many laboratory equipment manufacturers have been predicted to see rapid growth in the coming years.

Analyst Pike Research forecasts that, over the course of the decade, the grid-scale energy storage market will grow to an annual value of $35 billion (£23 billion) - almost 25 times its current level.

This expansion is anticipated due to a variety of effects, including growth in electric vehicle usage and wider uptake of utility smart grid schemes.

Hybrid electric and battery-powered cars in particular are expected to achieve annual compound growth of 106 per cent in the first half of the decade, Pike Research says.

For laboratory equipment manufacturers, lithium ion batteries could be the most significant part of the market.

These are one of the technologies the analyst predicts will see the greatest level of growth, along with greater use of flow batteries and compressed air energy storage.