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Comment by Manuel_D

1 hour ago

Cost is influenced by demand. To put this in perspective about 60 TWh of electricity is used globally per day. About 1 TWh of lithium batteries were produced last year.

Even if every country tried to provision just one day of storage, that would cause a massive spike in demand that would inevitably drive up prices. Not to mention it would make EVs more expensive which would have its own negative consequences for emissions reductions.

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Manuel_D

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crote  1 hour ago

Alternatively: the spike in demand will result in a similar spike in production capacity, leading to overall lower prices due to better economies of scale.

Battery costs have declined by 99% in three decades. Solar isn't much different. Demand for both have exploded during that time period.

Besides, the current battery storage tech is just a side-product of the EV revolution. If grid battery storage becomes the main solution we'll undoubtedly see cheaper and easier-to-scale alternative tech like iron redox flow batteries be adopted. Bulky, lossy, impossible to transport? Don't care - it's cheap!