Volta''s 2025 Battery Report: Costs keep falling, boosting BESS
Volta''s annual report now stretches to 750 pages, diving deep into many technical areas, along with the usual focus on battery energy storage systems (BESS).
Ember provides the latest capex and Levelised Cost of Storage (LCOS) for large, long-duration utility-scale Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) across global markets outside China and the US, based on recent auction results and expert interviews. 1. All-in BESS projects now cost just $125/kWh as of October 2025 2.
Battery storage prices have gone down a lot since 2010. In 2025, they are about $200–$400 per kWh. This is because of new lithium battery chemistries. Different places have different energy storage costs. China's average is $101 per kWh. The US average is $236 per kWh. Knowing the price of energy storage systems helps people plan for steady power.
The projections are developed from an analysis of recent publications that include utility-scale storage costs. The suite of publications demonstrates wide variation in projected cost reductions for battery storage over time.
Figure ES-2 shows the overall capital cost for a 4-hour battery system based on those projections, with storage costs of $147/kWh, $243/kWh, and $339/kWh in 2035 and $108/kWh, $178/kWh, and $307/kWh in 2050 (values in 2024$).
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