London, 21 June – Batteries are now cheap enough to unlock solar power’s full potential. A new report from global energy think tank Ember reveals that, thanks to rapidly falling battery prices, solar can now deliver cost-competitive electricity almost every hour of the year in the world’s sunniest regions.
Using hourly solar data from 12 cities around the world, the report finds that in very sunny cities like Las Vegas, a combination of 6 GW of solar panels and 17 GWh of battery storage can reliably deliver 1 GW of electricity almost every hour of the year. This “24/365 solar generation” now costs just $104/MWh based on global average capital costs of solar and battery in 2024 — a 22% fall in price in just 12 months – making it cheaper than new coal in many regions ($118/MWh) or nuclear ($182/MWh).
The report demonstrates that it is possible to achieve nearly constant solar electricity every hour of every day of the year, highlighting the real-world potential of “24/365 solar generation” across diverse geographies. Las Vegas was a top performer (97% of hours annually), alongside Muscat (99%). Cities like Hyderabad, Madrid and Buenos Aires also showed strong results, achieving 80–95% of the way to 24/365 solar generation using the same 6 GW solar and 17 GWh battery configuration, even though they have some days of cloud cover. Even cloudier cities like Birmingham in the UK can cover 62% of hours annually.
