http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/16124<snip>
The following are some of the predictions made in the report:
The transportation energy storage market will grow from $12.9 billion last year to $19.9 billion in 2012, benefiting companies like Matsushita Electric and LG Chem.
Fuel cells will "return from the dead." Commercial sales will rise from $92 million in 2007 to $1.8 billion in 2012, driven almost entirely by new applications in residential combined heat and power systems and distributed generation deployments.
Bulk energy storage for utilities--shifting large amounts of energy from excess production times to peak usage times – presents the biggest potential opportunity of all markets studied: If even 10% of installed wind power plants adopted large-scale energy storage, the market would hit $50 billion. However, utility companies’ risk aversion and long planning cycles will sharply limit market size through 2012 to only $600 million.
After conquering the consumer electronics market, lithium-ion batteries will make similar inroads in the portable and transportation markets--going from $6.8 billion in 2007 sales to $16.9 billion in 2012. Nickel metal hydride and nickel cadmium technologies will be almost completely wiped out in consumer electronics.
Expected IPOs from companies like A123Systems will drive venture capital, M&A, and IPO activity further upward in the next two years.
Wu also said flywheels will expand out from datacenter backup power to grid frequency regulation and new batteries made from zinc-bromide and vanadium redox flow, silver-zinc and zinc-air will find valuable niches.
<more>