Global Storage Deployments Forecast to Jump 41% in 2026

BloombergNEF's Energy Storage Outlook for the first half of 2026, reported on 8 May, forecasts 158GW and 459GWh of new non-pumped-hydro storage deployments this year, a 41% increase on 2025. Last year closed at 112GW and 307GWh globally, itself up 48% in megawatt terms.

The regional detail is the more useful part. China led 2025 with 61.1GW and 173.1GWh, up 54%. The United States followed at 18GW and 54.6GWh, up 46%. Germany added 3.8GW and 7.6GWh, of which 2.9GW and 5.8GWh was residential — a reminder that a large share of European capacity arrives in very small increments. Sub-Saharan Africa quadrupled year on year to 4.3GW and 8.8GWh, and Saudi Arabia added 2.1GW and 7.8GWh within a Middle East total of 2.4GW and 8.6GWh.

Looking further out, BNEF projects 308GW of annual additions by 2036 and cumulative capacity of 2.9TW and 10.5TWh. The outlook is authored under Isshu Kikuma, the firm's head of global energy storage analysis.

For integrators the numbers translate into a matching volume of battery management, energy management, power conversion and site-controller work, plus the connectivity, edge gateway and remote monitoring stack every site needs before anyone can operate it.

The regional shift is worth planning around specifically. A site in Saudi Arabia, Sub-Saharan Africa or India is not the same engineering problem as one in California or Bavaria. Ambient temperature affects both the battery and the electronics monitoring it. Backhaul is intermittent rather than assumed. Site access for maintenance is expensive, which raises the value of remote diagnosis and lowers the tolerance for a gateway that needs a person to reboot it. Designs that assume a good link and a mild cabinet will meet all three of those assumptions failing at once.