Overall capital expenditures for long-duration energy storage systems (4 hours or more), or BESS, dropped in October to $125/kWh. Of this, $75/kWh is for core hardware supplied from China, and $50/kWh is for installation and grid connection of the battery. This information is reported by the British analytical firm Ember Energy.
It clarifies that these figures are preliminary and should not be directly compared with average values from prior years. According to BloombergNEF, the cost of BESS primary hardware in 2024 fell by 40% compared to 2023: from $272/kWh to a record low of $165 per kWh.
If 50% of the daytime electricity generated by solar power plants is directed for nighttime use, its total expense will increase by $33 per MWh (with an electricity storage cost of $65 per MWh). For comparison: the worldwide average price indicator for “solar” electricity in 2024 was $43 per MWh.
The Ember report also notes that over the past decade, battery installation costs decreased by an average of 20% annually, while installation rates grew by about 80% yearly. Currently, the company estimates global storage capacity exceeds 169 GW.
Projections suggest BESS equipment prices will also substantially recede in 2025. Non-hardware expenses continued to shrink, although their contribution to the overall reduction in BESS capital investment remains minor.
InfOTEC Comment:
Electricity storage solutions are a vital component of power grids where a significant share is held by renewable energy sources (RES). Batteries address the primary issue of RES—intermittency. Simultaneously, the expansion of storage systems will lead to an inevitable rise in tariffs, as the costs for expensive battery farms can only be recouped from the end consumer. In this context, the cheaper the electricity produced, the more costly its delivery to the consumer becomes. Free wind and solar electricity ends up being the most expensive.
The high expense of storage systems is one factor that some analytical organizations believe is slowing the pace of “green” energy development. However, their own forecasts anticipate that these systems should continuously become cheaper as their volume increases—the famous “economy of scale.” Nevertheless, the rate of cost reduction clearly lags behind earlier stated projections. The battery sector encountered its first major crisis in 2020: lithium prices began to soar. Its price has not yet returned to pre-crisis levels, which were around 39 thousand yuan per ton (converted to carbonate). In 2025, lithium increased in price from 75.9 thousand yuan per ton to 94.5 thousand yuan per ton.
In light of this, projections for a sharp and sustained decrease in the price per MWh of battery storage raise valid skepticism.
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