Battery costs will continue to decrease, but at a slower pace than previous decades, according to GTM Research’s U.S. Front-of-the-Meter Energy Storage System Prices 2018-2022 report. Energy storage system prices are expected to decline at a rate of 8% annually through 2022.
Prices will be driven down by improvements in hardware. Standardization of system design and engineering, and market competition will also bring down storage BOS hardware costs and EPC expenses.
EV growth is also contributing to decreasing battery costs for energy storage by driving investments in battery technology.
In its Solar and Energy Storage Trends in 2018 report, IHS Markit noted that as EVs gain popularity, the number of batteries that need to be recycled or reused also increases. Even though these batteries are no longer usable in EVs, they are still suitable for “second life” use in stationary energy storage applications, providing a source of low-cost batteries.
While UL is doing some work in this area, effective supply chains need to be established for second-life battery-use to really take off.
Although more manufacturers are offering various battery and storage technologies, lithium-ion still made up 98.8% of the market share in Q4 2017, according to GTM Research.
Navigant reported that the most successful companies targeting the stationary battery energy storage market are larger corporations with established businesses providing batteries for EVs and consumer electronics
Navigant named LG Chem and Samsung SDI as the leading manufacturers of lithium-ion batteries in its report Leaderboard: Lithium Ion Batteries for Grid Storage. Companies including Toshiba, Panasonic and Saft were named as contenders