3 ms·
It costs somewhere around $300/kwh to build utility-scale storage. Say they can cycle 3000 times. We find that just the storage costs $0.10/kwh, which is in t
by aaronax 3y ago
It costs somewhere around $300/kwh to build utility-scale storage. Say they can cycle 3000 times. We find that just the storage costs $0.10/kwh, which is in the range of generation costs themselves (probably double wholesale generation costs). So one cannot assume to be able to cheaply store power in utility-scale batteries.
- bryanlarsen 3y agoThat 3000 number is 0 - 100 - 0 cycles. You can get almost an order of magnitude more by using the sweet spot of the battery: 20 - 80 - 20 for standard nickel Li-ion batteries, and 30-100-30 for LiFePO4 batteries.
- biomcgary 3y agoIs that an order of magnitude of cycles or energy throughput?
- bryanlarsen 3y agoCycles. Li-ion goes from ~600 -> ~3000, LiFePO4 from ~2000 -> ~9000. So "order of magnitude" is a bit of an exaggeration, and the 5x reduces to 3x when you use energy instead of cycles. But 3x is still pretty significant...
- mbgerring 3y agoIf storage costs are the same as generation costs, you’re just saying that storage is currently cost effective. Sounds like we should build a lot of it!