The fall in lithium-ion battery prices has led to an increase in commercial-scale energy storage installations during 2015, according to a new report.
Average lithium-ion battery prices fell 53%, leading to the decline in system prices for grid connected storage between 2012 and 2015, according to the ‘Grid-Connected Energy Storage Report’ from analyst firm IHS.
The firm predicts costs for a 10MW/ 5MWh battery system will fall to around $4million by 2019— down from $11million in 2013.
South Korea, Japan and the United States led the way this year when it came to energy storage, with each country exceeding 100 megawatts of annual energy installations, states IHS.
By the end of next year the three countries will account for 59% of global installations, IHS forecasts.
Sam Wilkinson, solar supply-chain and energy storage analyst for IHS Technology, said the figures highlighted how few other countries were engaged in the commercial deployment of energy storage.
“Most other global markets currently remain firmly in the test, pilot and demonstration phases,” he said.
“The breakdown of system costs, and the future evolution of prices, varies significantly depending on whether the system is configured to provide a high-power or high-energy application, but battery costs will continue to decline over the next five years.”
However, the report states more than 60% of the total reduction in system costs between 2013 and 2019 for a typical 30-minute duration utility-scale lithium-ion system will come from the balance-of-plant equipment, rather than from batteries alone.
