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it is too expensive to store energy","gates-it-is-too-expensive-to-store-energy","article/gates-it-is-too-expensive-to-store-energy",{"_uid":557,"date":558,"tags":559,"editor":560,"content":570,"excerpt":578,"featured":50,"reporter":718,"_editable":722,"component":723,"seo_title":553,"categories":724,"visibility":731,"author_company":49,"featured_image":732,"seo_description":578,"author_full_name":49,"author_job_title":49,"formattedDate":737,"formattedArticleDate":738},"75a883dd-df95-44f8-9792-60f4826850ac","2016-07-21 00:00",[],[561],{"slug":562,"name":563,"content":564},"didi-bostock","Didi Bostock",{"job_title":565,"image":566,"bio":568,"linkedin":569},"Editor - Energy Transition & Economics",{"filename":567},"https://a.storyblok.com/f/287943243085208/512x512/2c5ca5c1a3/didi-bostock.jpeg","Didi is the Energy Transition & Economics Editor at Benchmark, covering a broad range of markets across the energy transition. His remit spans from downstream sectors such as BESS and EVs, through to midstream such as new technologies and battery production, to upstream critical minerals mining. He also leads on financial analysis across these supply chains, alongside in-depth policy analysis.\n","https://www.linkedin.com/in/didi-bostock-656342198/",{"type":571,"content":572},"doc",[573,580,585,590,595,600,605,610,615,620,625,632,637,642,647,652,657,662,667,672,677,682,685,690,695,700,705,710,715],{"type":574,"attrs":575,"content":576},"paragraph",{"textAlign":49},[577],{"text":578,"type":579},"Microsoft and Breakthrough Energy Coalition founder casts doubt over economic viability of energy storage","text",{"type":574,"attrs":581,"content":582},{"textAlign":49},[583],{"text":584,"type":579},"Bill Gates has cast doubt on any immediate energy storage revolution in utilities and has called for more aggressive innovation in the battery industry.",{"type":574,"attrs":586,"content":587},{"textAlign":49},[588],{"text":589,"type":579},"The founder of Microsoft and one of the world’s most influential technology and humanitarian voices has said that the means to store energy is “surprisingly hard and expensive”.",{"type":574,"attrs":591,"content":592},{"textAlign":49},[593],{"text":594,"type":579},"“If you wanted to store enough electricity to run everything in your house for a week, you would need a huge battery—and it would triple your electric bill,” Gates explained.",{"type":574,"attrs":596,"content":597},{"textAlign":49},[598],{"text":599,"type":579},"He went on to clarify his statement by using a $150/kWh cost of a lithium-ion battery with a lifetime of 500 cycles, which equates to $0.3/ kWh.",{"type":574,"attrs":601,"content":602},{"textAlign":49},[603],{"text":604,"type":579},"“According to the EIA, the average price of electricity for consumers in the United States is around $0.1 per kilowatt-hour,” Gates explained.",{"type":574,"attrs":606,"content":607},{"textAlign":49},[608],{"text":609,"type":579},"“The European Union, where prices average 20 cents per kilowatthour, and India, where they range from 2 to 15 cents, would see similarly dramatic increases.” “This is one of the reasons why we need new inventions that improve our ability to store energy cheaply and efficiently. Getting them will make it easier for solar and wind to be a big part of our zero-carbon future,” he added.",{"type":574,"attrs":611,"content":612},{"textAlign":49},[613],{"text":614,"type":579},"The new focus on energy storage is on the back of the establishment of a new fund, The Breakthrough Energy Coalition, which pledges to spark a new economic revolution and is backed by a number of high profile billionaires including Gates, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Virgin Group’s Richard Branson.",{"type":574,"attrs":616,"content":617},{"textAlign":49},[618],{"text":619,"type":579},"The fund pledges to invest “early and boldly” into a number of companies in the low carbon economic supply chain including energy storage, clean transportation, and agriculture.",{"type":574,"attrs":621,"content":622},{"textAlign":49},[623],{"text":624,"type":579},"While the fund has not publicly stated how much it is willing to invest, Forbes understands that Bill Gates is willing to invest $1bn alone, while other members will invest a further $1bn combined into clean energy projects.",{"type":626,"attrs":627,"content":629},"heading",{"level":628,"textAlign":49},3,[630],{"text":631,"type":579}," Is Bill Gates right?",{"type":574,"attrs":633,"content":634},{"textAlign":49},[635],{"text":636,"type":579},"While Bill Gates’ call for more innovation in the battery sector is undoubtedly correct, some of the data used in the analysis can vary depending on application, meaning it is not quite as black and white as outlined.",{"type":574,"attrs":638,"content":639},{"textAlign":49},[640],{"text":641,"type":579},"The cost of lithium-ion batteries can vary significantly at the moment.",{"type":574,"attrs":643,"content":644},{"textAlign":49},[645],{"text":646,"type":579},"Gates uses quite a favourable low price of $150/kWh which is only recently being achieved by major players, with the industry average ranging between $250-350/kWh.",{"type":574,"attrs":648,"content":649},{"textAlign":49},[650],{"text":651,"type":579},"It is expected that by 2018 over 50% of lithium-ion batteries on the market will have a production cost of under $200/kWh primarily through the introduction of scale that battery mega factories, being built at present, will bring.",{"type":574,"attrs":653,"content":654},{"textAlign":49},[655],{"text":656,"type":579},"Gates’ lifecycle data, however, is not so favorable.",{"type":574,"attrs":658,"content":659},{"textAlign":49},[660],{"text":661,"type":579},"Around 500 charge and discharge cycles may be the average for some mobile phones on the market, but larger utility storage batteries are being designed to last for longer.",{"type":574,"attrs":663,"content":664},{"textAlign":49},[665],{"text":666,"type":579},"For example, the Tesla Powerwall, also a lithium-ion battery, is designed for 1,000 to 5,000 cycles while other batteries such as BYD’s lithium-ironphosphate product can last up to 6,000 cycles and a vanadium redox flow chemistry can last well beyond 50,000 cycles.",{"type":574,"attrs":668,"content":669},{"textAlign":49},[670],{"text":671,"type":579},"Another key point is how much lithium-ion battery capacity will fall by over time. Gates explained that 500 cycles will reduce a lithium-ion cell to 80% capacity, however more recent R&D developments in the space are pushing the number closer to 1,000 cycles.",{"type":574,"attrs":673,"content":674},{"textAlign":49},[675],{"text":676,"type":579},"Taking Gates’ most conservative lithium-ion cycle number of 1,000, together with today’s average cost of a lithium-ion battery, $250/kWh, reduces the cost of energy to $0.25/ kWh – lower, but still not enough to tip the scales. It is also a figure that does not take into account the cost of buying and installing solar equipment.",{"type":574,"attrs":678,"content":679},{"textAlign":49},[680],{"text":681,"type":579},"Looking forward to 2018 and a forecasted average lithium-ion price of $200/kWh, with no cycling improvement, the cost of energy stored in a battery will drop to $0.2/ kWh. Should the life cycles of a lithium-ion battery improve to an average of 1500 while retaining 80% of its capacity, then stored energy at a cost of $0.13/kWh starts to compete on a serious level with fossil fuels.",{"type":574,"attrs":683,"content":684},{"textAlign":49},[],{"type":574,"attrs":686,"content":687},{"textAlign":49},[688],{"text":689,"type":579},"It is important to note that none of these parameters are finite. The lithium-ion cost and cycling targets and the price of energy competition are always moving, the latter especially skewed by subsidies.",{"type":574,"attrs":691,"content":692},{"textAlign":49},[693],{"text":694,"type":579},"It is also key to not directly compare consumer behaviour patterns with a smartphone to a utility battery. In consumer goods, especially smartphones, people usually see a drop off in battery performance after 1.5 years and this will then add pressure to replace the phone. However, in the utility market this consumer sensitivity is expected to be far lower.",{"type":574,"attrs":696,"content":697},{"textAlign":49},[698],{"text":699,"type":579},"There are also programs to apply used Nissan LEAF lithium-ion batteries, which have around 70% capacity, into new utility storage units for developing countries – a secondary use for lithium-ion batteries will also emerge.",{"type":574,"attrs":701,"content":702},{"textAlign":49},[703],{"text":704,"type":579},"While it appears too expensive to store renewable energy in lithiumion batteries at the moment, this will change quite rapidly over the next 3 years.",{"type":574,"attrs":706,"content":707},{"textAlign":49},[708],{"text":709,"type":579},"The big question remains whether the performance of lithium-ion batteries can improve as the production costs fall.",{"type":574,"attrs":711,"content":712},{"textAlign":49},[713],{"text":714,"type":579},"If there is no significant improvement, the door will be open for competing battery technologies in the utility space, especially for the commercial market.",{"type":574,"attrs":716,"content":717},{"textAlign":49},[],[719],{"slug":562,"name":563,"content":720},{"job_title":565,"image":721,"bio":568,"linkedin":569},{"filename":567},"\u003C!--#storyblok#{\"name\": \"article\", \"space\": \"\", \"uid\": \"75a883dd-df95-44f8-9792-60f4826850ac\", \"id\": \"\"}-->","article",[725,728],{"slug":726,"name":727},"batteries","Batteries",{"slug":729,"name":730},"critical-minerals","Critical Minerals","private",{"id":49,"alt":733,"name":733,"focus":733,"title":733,"source":733,"filename":734,"copyright":733,"fieldtype":735,"meta_data":736,"is_external_url":51},"","https://a.storyblok.com/f/287943243085208/655b948e3f/bm-screen-shot-2016-07-21-at-134922.png","asset",{"alt":733,"title":733,"source":733,"copyright":733},"Jul 21, 2016","21st July 2016",[],[],1789748882706]