Wood Mackenzie: Four-hour battery storage now cheaper than gas peakers in all 43 markets studied
A new Wood Mackenzie levelized cost of electricity report finds four-hour battery storage beats open-cycle gas turbines on cost in every one of 43 markets analyzed worldwide. In the Middle East and Africa, storage costs are projected to drop a further 33% to $80/MWh by 2035, while China remains the cheapest storage market, over 55% below the rest of Asia Pacific. Separately, single-axis tracker solar is now the lowest-cost new-build power source in 43 of 48 markets studied, with onshore wind leading in the remaining five.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
The findings suggest that gas peaking plants, long used to meet short-term demand spikes, may lose their economic edge to batteries as manufacturing scale and falling component costs continue to push storage prices down. Wood Mackenzie's Ahmed Jameel Abdullah frames this as a 'decisive and widening' shift, implying utilities and grid planners worldwide could increasingly favor storage over new gas capacity. If accurate, this could accelerate renewable integration, though actual investment decisions will also depend on local policy, grid reliability needs, and financing conditions not addressed in the report.
- Four-hour battery storage is now cheaper than open-cycle gas turbines across all 43 markets modeled by Wood Mackenzie.
- China remains the global benchmark for low storage costs, over 55% cheaper than the rest of Asia Pacific.
- Single-axis tracker solar leads as the cheapest new-build technology in 43 of 48 markets, with Saudi Arabia and UAE solar costs projected below $20/MWh by 2033.
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Published there as: “4-hour battery storage is cheaper to install than gas turbines all across globe”
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