Energy storage cells and prices

The scale of the reduction suggests that in addition to the falling cost of batteries—BNEF's recent Lithium-ion Battery Price Survey found that battery pack prices fell 20% year-on-year to 2024, again the biggest drop recorded to date—energy storage system providers are working on cost reduction in other areas, Kikuma said.

The energy storage system is a 4MW, 32MWh NaS battery consisting of 80 modules, each weighing 3 600 kg. The total cost of the battery system was USD 25 million and included USD 10 million for construction of the building to house the batteries (built by Burns & McDonnell) and the new substation at Alamito Creek.

According to BloombergNEF's recently published Energy Storage System Cost Survey 2024, the prices of turnkey energy storage systems fell 40% year-on-year from 2023 to a global average of US$165/kWh. The research firm said this was the highest annual drop since its survey launched in 2017.

A cell stores excess energy by combining ADP (adenosine diphosphate) and phosphate to make ATP (adenosine triphosphate). Cells get energy in the form of ATP through a process called respiration, a series of chemical reactions. During respiration, six-carbon glucose is oxidized to form carbon dioxide. There are two types of respiration: aerobic respiration and anaerobic respiration.

A growing industry trend towards larger battery cell sizes and higher energy density containers is contributing significantly to falling battery energy storage system (BESS) costs.

For DC-side systems, systems with 300Ah or larger cells were 5% cheaper than systems with 300Ah or smaller cells in 2024. DC blocks with <300Ah cells averaged at US$144/kWh versus US$137/kWh average for 300Ah or larger.