Energy · The hall
A battery for $108
BloombergNEF’s 2025 survey: lithium-ion packs at $108/kWh, 93% below 2010. Stationary storage packs hit $70. This is the other learning curve, and it is why batteries ate the peak-gas plant.
- Li-ion pack price per kWh, 2025
- $108
- Versus 2010
- −93%
- Stationary storage packs
- $70
- China average
- $84
The second collapse
BloombergNEF, 9 December 2025: the volume-weighted average lithium-ion pack is $108/kWh, down 8% on the year, 93% below 2010. Stationary storage — the bit that sits next to a substation — fell 45% in a single year to $70/kWh. China averages $84. LFP $81, NMC $128. The lowest observed cells were $36. This is the companion curve to solar’s 90% collapse. Together they are why 2025 was the year renewables overtook coal, and why 108 GW of new batteries were bolted down in a year.
A $70 pack is a different grid
Pair this with Batteries eat the peak-gas plant and The cheapest electron. At $70/kWh, four-hour storage starts to look like a peaker, not a science project. The investing implication is rude to gas-fired merchant plants in sunny markets and kind to anyone who makes cells, inverters, or interconnects in a hurry. It is also a China story: the price is the industrial policy. Everyone else is a price-taker or a tariff.
The long view is still chemistry plus a queue
Learning curves flatten. $108 will not become $10 on the same slope. Sodium-ion, sodium-ion hype, and a metal spike can all happen. What will not un-happen is the order of magnitude. Size storage as infrastructure. Size lithium as a trading market. Do not confuse the two.
Investing lens
Horizon 5–12 years · Educational, not advice
Pack prices at $108 (and $70 for storage) change the grid. Own cells, inverters and interconnection, not a $1,200/kWh mental model.
Where the map points
- Cell and pack makers with an LFP cost floor
- Inverters, EMS, and storage developers with a queue position
- Selective short of undispatched gas peakers in high-solar markets
- Lithium only with a surplus-proof balance sheet
What can break it
- A metal spike that reverses a year of the curve
- Oversupply that lasts
- Fire and insurance repricing of large packs
CHART does not recommend securities, funds or trades. Figures can be revised by their publishers. Do your own research and consider regulated advice before allocating capital.
Sources
Every headline number traces to a named publisher. Contextual sources inform the essay, not the key stat.
- 01PrimaryBloombergNEF2025-12-09Lithium-ion battery pack prices fall to $108/kWh
Volume-weighted average pack $108/kWh in 2025, −8% y/y, 93% below 2010. Stationary storage packs $70/kWh (−45%). China average $84/kWh. LFP $81, NMC $128.
- 02PrimaryInternational Energy Agency2026Technology: Battery storage — Global Energy Review 2026
108 GW of new battery storage in 2025, +40%. Installed capacity eleven times 2021. China ~60% of additions.
- 03PrimaryIRENA2026-07Renewable power generation costs in 2025
Solar PV LCOE USD 44/MWh in 2025, unchanged from 2024. Onshore wind $33/MWh, offshore $78/MWh.
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