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The 500-page Volta Foundation report provides a comprehensive overview of the battery sector, with a focus on battery energy storage systems (BESS). The Volta Foundation has published its annual report on batteries for 2024 , running to over 500 pages and featuring data and work from 120 battery experts from over 100 institutions. The latest report opens the hatches on industry developments across investment, manufacturing, supply chain, chemistry and research innovation, policy and talent movements in the battery world. A significant proportion is devoted to in-depth detail on battery manufacturing, with additional detail from previous reports. The full battery report includes details on both mobile and stationary storage, focusing largely on EV batteries and their supply chain, as well as stationary batteries. The focus on battery energy storage systems (BESS) continues to expand in the report, just as it does in real life. Volta adds data to the global surge in BESS, with a year-on-year increase of 55%, representing 69 GW / 169 GWh of capacity, of which 98% has been installed from lithium-ion batteries. Considering the hockey stick-shaped graphs showing both power and energy, new BESS installations in 2024 alone accounted for more than 45% of the total cumulative global capacity, bringing the cumulative BESS figure to 160 GW / 363 GWh: In terms of regional breakdown, China installed 36 GW, the US 13 GW, Europe 10 GW and Australia 2 GW, with Germany leading the way in Europe. The figures show that BESS deployment is growing faster than the battery industry as a whole, and that lithium-ion will overtake pumped hydro in terms of energy production during 2025. The scale of battery installations is also increasing, as is the average project duration. The increase has been 33%, from an average duration of 1.8 hours in 2020 to 2.4 in 2024, driven by factors such as falling costs, as well as the shift from nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) to lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, and market forces. That said, the previous trend was one of declining hours, from 2021 (2.33 hours) to 2023 (just under 2.2 hours), so the 2024 rebound is notable. Energy storage costs are also not forgotten in the report. Citing data from BloombergNEF, the cost per kWh has fallen to $165/kWh in 2023, down 40% from 2023, and half of the $375/kWh with data on continued cost declines attributed to a less constrained supply chain, dramatically lower lithium prices, and increased competition and scale. There are signs that costs are continuing to fall: a December 2024 offer in China for 16 GWh for “battery housings + PCS (power conversion system)” – excluding EPC and grid connection costs – had an average price of $66/kWh, ESS News reports. Although China’s economy and logistics are conducive to lower prices, costs will fall again in 2025. Safety is another focus. In 2024, there was a significant decline in the BESS safety incident rate, with only five significant events in 2024, three in the US, one in Japan and one in Singapore. Compared to the exponential growth in installed GW, the incident rate is reduced to around 0.03, the lowest figure since 2016: |
