Lithium Battery Cell Prices To Almost Halve By 2029
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Energy Storage News.
This is the introductory paragraph.
Lithium-ion cell prices will fall by around 46% between now and 2029, according to new analysis from Guidehouse Insights, reaching US$66.6 per kWh by that time.
The rest of the article contains a lot more useful predictions.
I will add a prediction of my own.
The drop in prices of lithium-ion batteries will surely result in a lot more applications, in the following areas.
- Battery-electric vehicles
- Battery-electric vans and buses and light-trucks.
- Battery-electric trams and trains
- Battery-electric aircraft.
- Battery-electric ships.
- Battery-electric tractors
- Battety-electric construction plant
Lithium-ion batteries will also be used in hydrogen-powered versions of any of the above.
The cost of lithium-ion batteries, will also lead to more applications in the following areas.
- Grid energy storage or as it sometimes called; front-of-the-meter storage.
- Heavy trucks
- Double-deck buses
- Railway locomotives
These could use a very large number of lithium-ion cells.
Conclusion
Because as yet, there is no alternative to lithium-ion cells for mobile applications, I think we’ll see grid-energy storage going to one of the alternatives like Gravitricity, Highview Power or Zinc8.
Good but energy density is still the main barrier for high power applications like locomotives and aeroplanes and there hasn’t been any significant progress in this metric for many years from the phenomenal progress that had been made.
Comment by Nicholas Lewis | June 9, 2020 |
I was only making the point, that there will be a large rise in demand for lithium-ion batteries and I think, that even with more factories and finding new sources of lithium, that we will need to use another type of battery for some applications to lessen demand for lithium-ion batteries. So the larger grid batteries will go to other battery systems, like the ones I mention, to reduce the need for lithium-ion batteries.
I actually see it unlikely that large scale battery locomotives will be produced for heavy freight use on the main line. Although, I do feel that we could see efficient hydrogen hybrid electric locomotives and possibly smaller battery locomotives to handle smaller tasks efficiently.
As to flying, the need is for unusual shaped batteries, that blend into the airframe, but it will be some years before we see planes with more than nine seats.
Comment by AnonW | June 9, 2020 |