COVID-19 pushes energy storage leader out of market as competition intensifies

Battery storage producer NEC Energy Solutions is winding down its energy storage operations and will no longer pursue new projects, according to a report from Bloomberg News.

"As the market is growing, it is becoming increasingly cost-based — developers are looking further up the value chain to see if they are able to integrate systems at lower costs," Yayoi Sekine, head of decentralized energy at BloombergNEF told Utility Dive in an email. NEC Corp could not find a suitable buyer for the Westborough, Massachusetts-based subsidiary due to market conditions in grid-scale energy storage and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, according to Bloomberg News.
The energy storage market is both shrinking and growing, according to Ricardo Rodriguez, an analyst with Guidehouse Insights. As existing firms are swallowed by competitors, new ones enter the market, he told Utility Dive.