How public policy and public salience interact with the energy transition: The case of commercial-scale battery storage adoption

This article analyzes potential policy drivers affecting the adoption of commercial-scale battery storage (CSBS) technologies across high-income countries within the context of the energy transition from 1992-2018 with panel econometric methods. We first estimate a standard technology diffusion model and then investigate various factors that could “shift” the diffusion curves. The first main set of results suggests a positive relationship between public salience and CSBS adoption. The second set of results investigates how latent energy market reactions may influence CSBS adoption. Those results show, surprisingly, no relation or a weak negative relation between the structure of the energy mix and CSBS adoption. The third set of results investigates the effect of public policies: targeted vis-à-vis broad innovation policies. Here, the results indicate a relationship between higher RD&D expenditures for electricity storage and greater rates of CSBS adoption.