It is important to examine the economic viability of battery storage investments. Here the authors introduced the Levelized Cost of Energy Storage metric to estimate the breakeven cost for energy storage and found that behind-the-meter storage installations will be financially advantageous in both Germany and California.
Lithium-ion batteries dominate both EV and storage applications, and chemistries can be adapted to mineral availability and price, demonstrated by the market share for lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries rising to 40% of EV sales and 80% of new battery storage in 2023.
Despite the continuing use of lithium-ion batteries in billions of personal devices in the world, the energy sector now accounts for over 90% of annual lithium-ion battery demand. This is up from 50% for the energy sector in 2016, when the total lithium-ion battery market was 10-times smaller.
Battery lifetimes and performance will also keep improving, helping to reduce the cost of services delivered. Lithium-ion battery costs for stationary applications could fall to below USD 200 per kilowatt-hour by 2030 for installed systems.
Lithium-ion battery prices have declined from USD 1 400 per kilowatt-hour in 2010 to less than USD 140 per kilowatt-hour in 2023, one of the fastest cost declines of any energy technology ever, as a result of progress in research and development and economies of scale in manufacturing.
Lithium-ion batteries (LiBs) are pivotal in the shift towards electric mobility, having seen an 85 % reduction in production costs over the past decade. However, achieving even more significant cost reductions is vital to making battery electric vehicles (BEVs) widespread and competitive with internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs).