Batteries and energy storage

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The ultimate clean flexibility tool for making clean electricity available when it is needed most, while keeping power grids stable and secure

Anchor point: Overview

-88%

The fall in the total installation cost of energy storage projects from 2015 to 2024 globally.

169 GW

New global energy storage capacity added in 2024, more than what was added cumulatively over the four previous years (2020-2023)

5-6 MWh

The amount of electricity that can be stored by a standard 20-foot storage container, double industry standards just a few years ago

20%

The average share of California’s evening peak demand (6pm to 10 pm) which was powered by batteries across September 2025

Batteries are scaling at lightning speed as they become cheaper, longer-lasting, more efficient and safer

Batteries have emerged as the backbone of a resilient renewable electricity system – stabilising renewable power supplies, smoothing fluctuations of power prices and providing ancillary services for secure grids.

Batteries are the fastest-growing storage tool from the clean flexibility toolkit, which include other key storage solutions such as pumped hydro.

Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) ensure cheap renewable electricity is not wasted by storing it in periods of abundance and delivering it when supply is scarce. This smooths price swings in electricity markets, and reduces the need for expensive fossil power back up. Batteries can also rapidly absorb or inject power into the grid to provide ancillary services such as regulating frequency and voltage to help maintain power quality and prevent blackouts. Small, behind-the-meter batteries owned by residential or commercial consumers and the batteries powering electric vehicles can be connected in virtual power plants – digitally controlled to act together as a large power plant – to stabilise power grids, while earning financial benefits to their owners.

Anchor point: Our work

Our work

Tracking the global battery storage revolution

Globally, we are tracking how installations of battery storage capacity have surged. China is driving growth globally, adding more capacity in 2024 than the US and EU combined. Modern lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries have enabled possible round-the-clock solar electricity for sunny countries like Mexico.

In Asia, India is at the dawn of a battery storage age. With falling battery costs and a solid regulatory framework already in place, grid-scale batteries have become fully bankable assets that deliver both economic and operational value across the power sector.

In Europe, we have shown how years of strong solar growth and high gas prices have increased electricity price volatility and strengthened the business case for battery storage across the EU and more recently as a vital enabler of the solar boom in Central and Eastern Europe.

We’re in the decade of battery storage, and it’s a game changer for renewables, especially solar. From Australia to Saudi Arabia and Chile, solar is no longer just cheap daytime power. Paired with batteries, it is becoming dispatchable electricity that can meet demand well beyond sunset. As storage smooths daily variability, solar penetration can rise dramatically – potentially supplying the vast majority of annual electricity needs with far less backup from other electricity sources than previously assumed.

Kostantsa Rangelova
‍Global Electricity Analyst

By removing barriers to the rollout of batteries, grids and smart electrification, the EU can make use of plentiful homegrown renewable power to stabilise power prices and insure against volatility from fossil fuel exporters.

Beatrice Petrovich
‍Senior Energy Analyst, Europe

Battery storage is the multitool of the modern grid. It not only shifts low-cost clean power across the day but also delivers critical stability services such as frequency support and power quality management. In a renewable-dominated system, it acts as an all-weather ally.