The LCOE of lithium-ion batteries drops to $187 MWh
BNEF said that since the first six months of 2018, the benchmark average cost of electricity (LCOE) for lithium-ion batteries has fallen by 35% to US$187/MWh. For the projects that were put into construction during the opening month of this year, the LCOE of solar photovoltaic power generation was US$57/MWh, a decrease of 18% over the same period last year. However, the recent decline in solar LCOE mainly occurred in the third quarter of 2018, rather than earlier this year, because the mid-year changes in China's photovoltaic policy have flooded the global market with surplus modules, BNEF said. Recent analysis also shows that the benchmark LCOE for offshore wind power has fallen by 24% in the past year, while the LCOE for onshore wind power has fallen by 10%. BNEF said that these 'staggering' cost drops indicate that lithium-ion batteries and offshore wind power are 'now at the center of the global energy transition.' 'Due to technological innovation, economies of scale, fierce price competition and manufacturing experience, the cost competitiveness of these low-carbon solutions has shown an amazing improvement,' said Elena Giannakopoulou, BNEF's head of energy economics. 'Since 2010, the LCOE per MWh of onshore wind power, solar photovoltaic and offshore wind power has decreased by 49%, 84% and 56%, respectively. According to recent projects, the LCOE of lithium-ion battery storage has declined since 2012. 76% of the cost and historical battery pack prices.” BNEF said that the cost reduction of lithium-ion batteries is particularly exciting because it creates a lot of “new opportunities for them to balance the renewable energy-heavy-duty power generation mixture.” Open gas turbines Such technologies have long been relied on by grid operators, he said, to deal with fluctuations in power demand, and increasingly must compete with batteries that can provide up to 4 hours of energy storage. 'In most countries, solar photovoltaic and onshore wind energy have won the competition to become the cheapest source of new'bulk power generation', but the erosion of clean technology is now far beyond this range, threatening the balancing role of natural gas power plant operators. . In particular, always hope to make a difference,” said Tifenn Brandily, BNEF energy economics analyst.