Battery storage prices dropped more than a quarter last year to a record low, a boon for grids straining under rising electricity demand, a new BloombergNEF report found.
For renewables in particular, cheaper battery storage means energy from wind and solar, which tends to be periodically abundant, can be stored and saved for later, relieving grids from an influx of power. Costs were higher for other energy technologies, however: Prices for wind farms, fixed-axis solar projects, and combined-cycle gas turbines — the latter hitting record highs in the US to meet surging energy demand from data centers — all crept up, driven by supply chain constraints, poorer resource availability and market reforms in China.
Still, BNEF expects innovation and competition to drive further price reductions across clean energy by 2035, potentially totalling 30% for solar, 25% for battery storage, and around 20% for wind.
