Bloomberg NEF Forecasts Falling Battery Prices Enabling Surge in Wind and Solar to 50% of Global Generation by 2050

Wind and solar power generation will surge to almost 50% of world generation by 2050 (“50 by 50”), supported by precipitous reductions in cost, and the advent of cheaper and cheaper batteries that will enable electricity to be stored and discharged to meet shifts in demand and supply, according to the new annual Bloomberg NEF New Energy Outlook (NEO) 2018.

This year’s outlook is the first to highlight the significant impact that falling battery costs will have on the electricity mix over the coming decades.  BNEF predicts that lithium-ion battery prices, already down by nearly 80% per megawatt-hour since 2010, will continue to tumble as electric vehicle manufacturing builds up through the 2020s.

"We see $548 billion being invested in battery capacity by 2050, two thirds of that at the grid level and one third installed behind-the-meter by households and businesses.

The arrival of cheap battery storage will mean that it becomes increasingly possible to finesse the delivery of electricity from wind and solar, so that these technologies can help meet demand even when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining.  The result will be renewables eating up more and more of the existing market for coal, gas and nuclear."

—Seb Henbest, head of Europe, Middle East, and Africa for BNEF and lead author of NEO 2018

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