After reporting a record 112GW of global non-pumped hydro energy storage installations in 2025, BloombergNEF (BNEF) expects to see a 41% increase this year.
BNEF launched its Energy Storage Outlook H1 2026 report this week. The market intelligence firm counted 112GW/307GWh of new additions last year, and forecasts 158MW/459GWh of deployments worldwide for 2026. This is despite a global slowdown in solar PV and wind additions.
Although the rate of increase will have slowed from a 48% jump in megawatt terms (power) from 2024, BNEF has predicted that annual additions will almost double over the next 10 years, reaching 308GW by 2036. By the end of that year, cumulative capacity will reach 2.9TW/10.5TWh, the firm’s report said.
The 2025 total surpassed the 92GW/247GWh BNEF had forecast for the year as recently as the previous, H2 2025 edition of the same report, which would itself have been a record. The firm has since upped its expectations for both this year and the period through 2036.
BNEF head of global energy storage analysis Isshu Kikuma, posting to the company’s blog, noted that it only took four years from annual energy storage additions to grow from 10GW to more than 100GW, much faster than the eight years it took solar PV to achieve the same and the 15 years it took for wind.
