The race for energy storage also runs through technologies less familiar to the general public but increasingly central to the power grid of the future. The global supercapacitor market, according to Precedence Research estimates, will grow from $4.00 billion in 2022 to $12.37 billion in 2032 — more than tripling in a decade, driven by applications in electric mobility, renewable grids, wearable electronics and low-maintenance remote systems.
The power electronics market — the components that manage and convert electrical energy across all these applications — is growing in parallel, set to rise from $42.6 billion in 2022 to $69.7 billion in 2030, a 7.3% CAGR, driven by electrification, digitalisation and the spread of electric vehicles.
On the experimental side, the Energy Transition Hub Torino is developing a pilot vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) project for stationary storage: two 100 kW/800 kWh systems (4-hour autonomy), designed to exceed 20,000 cycles at 80% depth of discharge, with a round-trip efficiency above 70% and an operational life of more than 15 years. The system uses 35,000 litres of vanadium-based electrolyte, at an estimated cost of around €155,750, achieving an energy density of 22–25 Wh/L with 100% recyclable materials.
These figures point to a technology built for large-scale renewable integration and grid stability, in an electrochemical storage market that is becoming ever more strategic for Europe's energy transition.