Brookfield Renewables reports falling grid-scale battery costs

The cost of grid-scale battery storage has decreased significantly over the past 24 months, according to Brookfield Renewables. CEO Connor Teskey noted that while short-term input cost fluctuations may cause minor variations, the long-term levelized cost of energy (LCOE) for large batteries is expected to continue falling as supply chains scale and technology improves.

This decline in cost is making renewable energy projects more bankable by allowing solar and wind farms to store output for high-value periods rather than facing curtailment during negative price events. In Australia, the trend toward solar-and-battery hybrids is becoming standard, with industry players moving toward eight-hour storage durations.

However, the rapid expansion of Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) presents operational challenges. As capacity grows—exemplified by the jump from 194 MWh at the Hornsdale Power Reserve in 2020 to 3.2 GWh at the Edwards & Sanborn project in 2025—the complexity of managing these assets increases. Experts warn that the effectiveness of AI tools used to manage these portfolios depends heavily on data quality. Specifically, inaccuracies in State of Charge (SOC) data can lead to unreliable modeling and financial errors in monetizing battery assets.