The cost of battery energy storage fell 20 percent in the past year, as the price of solar energy generation continued to drop.
The statistics are included in the CSIRO’s draft annual GenCost report, which was released for public consultation today.
CSIRO Director of Energy Dietmar Tourbier said GenCost provided cost benchmarks using the best available and verifiable data.
Dr Tourbier said the annual assessment of Australia’s future electricity generation costs used in infrastructure planning was a technology-agnostic and policy-neutral report.
He said it focused on cost estimates for new-build electricity generation, storage, and hydrogen technologies, providing business leaders and decision makers with updated capital costs and data comparisons for their planning and financing studies.
“The draft report found renewables continue to have the lowest cost range of any new-build electricity generation technology, for the seventh year in a row.
“It also found inflationary pressures continue to ease but the impact on each technology’s unique raw material inputs and supply chains remains mixed.”
Dr Tourbier said large scale solar photovoltaics (PV) capital costs had fallen eight percent two years in a row, while battery costs recorded the largest annual reduction with capital costs falling 20 percent.
He said onshore wind generation costs increased two percent.
“But at a reduced rate from an eight per cent increase last year, reflecting ongoing but moderate increases in equipment and installation costs.”
Dr Tourbier said gas turbine costings increased 11 percent, reflecting the additional cost of being hydrogen-ready which is now an industry standard.
CSIRO Chief Energy Economist and GenCost lead author Paul Graham said the draft report also found no unique cost advantage in nuclear technology.
“Similar cost savings can be achieved with shorter-lived technologies, including renewables, even when accounting for the need to build them twice,” Mr Graham said.
“The lack of an economic advantage is due to the substantial nuclear re-investment costs required to achieve long operational life.”
View the draft GenCost 2024-25 report.
