Saudi Arabia emerges as a surprise leader in energy storage

Saudi Arabia has emerged as a surprise leader in the market for massive industrial batteries and is now one of the world’s fastest deployers of grid-scale energy storage.

A new report on the state of the battery market from Volta Foundation shows that the kingdom, the world’s biggest crude oil exporter, is now among the top adopters of large-scale batteries, which are being used to help stabilize its electricity system as it increases reliance on renewable energy.

The speed of the transformation has caught industry watchers by surprise – just two years ago Saudi Arabia had no grid-scale batteries installed and now it ranks fifth globally for annual installed capacity, with almost three gigawatts added last year, the Financial Times reports.

It comes as the country is ramping up efforts to build out its renewable energy and green hydrogen industries to diversify away from fossil fuels, following a similar approach to the UAE, which is investing billions in solar and wind farms both domestically and overseas.

Saudi Energy Minister Abdulaziz bin Salman signed an agreement with his Turkish counterpart Alparslan Bayraktar on Tuesday to invest $2 billion to build solar and wind projects in Turkey.