‘Unrecognizably’ Cheap Batteries Turn Solar Into an ‘Anytime’ Energy Source

Energy storage prices have now fallen for two years running, with costs now low enough to make dispatchable, round-the-clock solar generation financially viable, finds a new report from energy think tank Ember.

“The economics for batteries are unrecognizable, and the industry is only just getting to grips with this new paradigm,” said Ember’s global electricity analyst Kostantsa Rangelova. “Solar is no longer just cheap daytime electricity, solar is now anytime dispatchable electricity. This is a game-changer for countries with fast-growing demand and strong solar resources.”

The report analyzes the economics of long-duration utility-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) projects in Saudi Arabia, India, and Italy, focusing on markets outside China and the United States “where competitive procurement of Chinese-manufactured equipment is reshaping global storage economics.” It looks at two key metrics that depict that status of BESS: capital expenditure, the investments needed for a company to buy, build, and maintain assets; and the levelized cost of storage (LCOS), the cost of operating a BESS facility over its lifetime, divided by units of discharged electricity. That’s basically, how much it costs to make each kilowatt hour (kWh) of electricity available for use.

Both metrics show that the costs of building and operating battery systems are falling as manufacturing capacity scales up, while competition and oversupply push prices down. Outside the U.S. and China, Ember finds that total capex to build a long-duration utility-scale BESS project is around $125 per kilowatt-hour, after calculating about $75/kWh for core equipment shipped from China and around $50/kWh to install and connect the battery—and an LCOS of $65 per megawatt hour (MWh).

The biggest variability was from the grid connection fee, which often ranges from $30 to $100 per kWh, but can also be significantly less if the BESS is built at an existing solar plant or behind the meter.

Ember says these calculations reflect BESS costs as of October 2025 and suggests that 2025 will show a significant price drop compared to the year before, continuing a trend that saw costs fall 40% from 2023 to 2024.

The findings have important implications for deploying solar energy generation, which is increasingly paired with BESS systems to make electricity consistently available from a source that is otherwise intermittent. Now that storing electricity costs only $65/MWh, the cost to store 50% of a day’s solar generation for night-time use adds just $33/MWh (3.3¢/kWh) to the total cost of solar, which is low enough that dispatchable solar energy now makes financial sense.

“Delivering constant power every hour of the year, including cloudy weeks and seasonal lows, requires solar overbuild and more battery storage,” Ember says.

But shifting half of daytime solar can align solar generation more closely with typical demand, “meaning solar can meet a much larger share of the evening and night-time demand and significantly increase its contribution to the power mix.”