Base year costs for commercial and industrial BESS are based on NREL's bottom-up BESS cost model using the data and methodology of (Ramasamy et al. We use the same model and methodology, but we do not restrict the power or energy capacity of the BESS.
What are base year costs for utility-scale battery energy storage systems?
Base year costs for utility-scale battery energy storage systems (BESSs) are based on a bottom-up cost model using the data and methodology for utility-scale BESS in (Ramasamy et al., 2023). The bottom-up BESS model accounts for major components, including the LIB pack, the inverter, and the balance of system (BOS) needed for the installation.
However, not all components of the battery system cost scale directly with the energy capacity (i.e., kWh) of the system (Feldman et al. 2021). For example, the inverter costs scale according to the power capacity (i.e., kW) of the system, and some cost components such as the developer costs can scale with both power and energy.
The projections are developed from an analysis of recent publications that consider utility-scale storage costs. The suite of publications demonstrates wide variation in projected cost reductions for battery storage over time.
Are battery storage costs based on long-term planning models?
Battery storage costs have evolved rapidly over the past several years, necessitating an update to storage cost projections used in long-term planning models and other activities. This work documents the development of these projections, which are based on recent publications of storage costs.
The battery storage technologies do not calculate levelized cost of energy (LCOE) or levelized cost of storage (LCOS) and so do not use financial assumptions. Therefore, all parameters are the same for the research and development (R&D) and Markets & Policies Financials cases.
The 2020 Cost and Performance Assessment analyzed energy storage systems from 2 to 10 hours. The 2022 Cost and Performance Assessment analyzes storage system at additional 24- and 100-hour durations.