ORIGINAL REPORTING: A Closer Look At The Plunging Cost Of Battery Energy Storage

Bigger than batteries: Why the cost of other components matters to storage deployment; The plummeting cost of balance of system components is poised to make storage a better deal for utilities

Herman K. Trabish, January 11, 2016 (Utility Dive)

The plummeting price of battery energy storage could prove to have just as much to do with the components of the storage system as it does with the cost of the battery, according to Grid-Scale Energy Storage Balance of Systems 2015-2020: Architectures, Costs and Players. The 15 to 20 different items in the balance of the system (BOS) represent one-half to three-fourths of the installation’s cost. Those costs are likely to plummet over the next five years – if the growth of storage deployment continues.

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The researchers assumed $350/kWh for the battery cost, an aggressive number based on the performance of industry leaders Samsung and LG and the Panasonic-Tesla product. For an installation intended to supply energy with a two-hour duration battery, BOS would be about half the total project cost. But for a project intended to supply power with a half-hour duration battery, BOS is almost three-fourths of the installation’s cost. And continued growth of battery storage to drive this drop in the BOS cost is likely. This is part of the pattern that drove solar to its record low cost over the last three years… click here for more

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