Battery Cell Costs To Touch $32-54 per kWh By 2030: RMI Report

Battery Cell Costs To Touch $32-54 per kWh By 2030: RMI Report

A latest report from RMI claimed that the cost of battery cells is likely to fall drastically in the days to come. The report from the global energy think tank said that the cost of battery cell costs is likely to fall to USD $32-$54 per kWh. It also said that the top-tier batteries would have an energy density of 600-800 Wh/kg. 

The RMI report said that the goal would be achieved owing to the increase in battery energy density, falling battery cost price and exponential growth of battery demand. As per the report, the learning rate for battery costs since the first introduction of the lithium-ion battery in 1991 had been 19%. 

“That means that battery prices fell by 19% for every doubling of battery deployment. To arrive at this learning rate for battery cells, we use total battery demand in all applications, including consumer electronics, and look at the average cost decline for every doubling since 1991. The battery cell learning rate has increased over time, and over the past two decades, the learning rate was 29%,” the RMI report said. 

“As the battery market grows, unit cost keeps falling and quality keeps rising. Both battery cost and energy density are on learning curves: for every doubling of battery production, costs fall by 19%-29% and the density of leading batteries rises by 7%-18%. At this rate, by 2030, battery cell costs will fall to $32-54 per kWh and top-tier batteries will have an energy density of 600-800 Wh/kg,” the report said.

The think tank also said that the demands are also increasing exponentially. “As saturation was reached in these sectors and growth started to ease to 20% per year, batteries became a viable technology in the transport market in the 2010s. This led to a resurgence of market growth. Since 2014, battery demand has been growing at an annual average of 41%, doubling every two years. As the global battery market scaled up, it reinforced the rise in energy density and fall in cost, which in turn accelerated uptake. The result was a rapid, exponential uptake of battery demand,” the report said. 

The report said that the sector is driven by a domino effect of adoption. “Battery demand is growing exponentially, driven by a domino effect of adoption that cascades from country to country and from one sector to the next. This battery domino effect is set to enable the phaseout of half of global fossil fuel demand and be instrumental in abating transport and power emissions, propelling us over 60% of the way toward a zero-carbon energy system,” the report said.