| "A study from McKinsey & Co. last summer found the continued energy storage cost declines present a growing threat of disruption for utility business models. Recent bids for utility-scale solar-plus-storage projects may also give a glimpse where the industry is heading. An Xcel Energy resource solicitation received more than 400 individual proposals last month, including what may be record-low prices for renewable energy paired with energy storage. The median price bid for wind-plus-storage projects in Xcel's all-source solicitation was $21/MWh, and the median bid for solar-plus-storage was $36/MWh. Previously, the lowest known bid for similar solar resources was $45/MWh in Arizona." [1] (By comparison, the lowest cost conventional technologies were gas combined cycle technologies, averaging $74 per megawatt-hour, and coal plants, averaging $109) [2] "An acceleration of the 70% cost reduction seen in lithium-ion prices since 2012 will drive global uptake of energy storage over the next few years, finds a new report by IHS Markit. The analysts forecast prices for lithium-ion battery modules to tumble below $200/kWh by 2019, enabling previously “uneconomical applications” such as the colocation of battery storage and solar PV to surge. This sharp and sustained cost reduction will help cement lithium-ion as the battery chemistry of choice in all energy storage markets, including grid-scale behind-the-meter storage, residential storage, and micro-grids. By 2025, the world’s base of cumulative installed storage capacity will reach 52 GW, IHS Markit says, up from around 4 GW today. Last year, 1.3 GW of grid-connected storage was deployed globally, and this rate is poised to accelerate to 4.7 GW a year by 2020, and 8.8 GW annually by 2025." [3] [1] https://www.utilitydive.com/news/eia-700-mw-of-utility-scale... [2] http://energyinnovation.org/2015/02/07/levelized-cost-of-ene... [3] https://www.pv-magazine.com/2017/08/03/lithium-ion-batteries... |