Energy storage to reach cost 'holy grail', mass adoption in 5 years

Article  produced by the Deutsche Bank. Major findings in the report:

• Predicted that energy storage is the missing link of solar adoption. This will be cheap enough and technologically ready to be deployed on a large scale within the next 5 years.
• Solar plus batteries will be a clear financial choice in mature solar markets in the future
• Currently, according to Deutsche, the cost of a typical lead-acid battery may be as low as ~$200/kWh, while best in class lithium-ion technology was producing commercial/utility packages in the ~$500/kWh range at end 2014 – half the cost of the ~$1000/kWh 12 months prior.
• Commercial scale market is one of the first areas where battery deployment will flourish due to clear economic rationale.
• If properly incentivised, utilities could begin to aggregate neighbourhoods of solar plus batteries to behave as a single source of load reduction.
• Overview of storage techniques

Currently, according to Deutsche, the cost of a typical lead-acid battery may be as low as~$200/kWh, while best in class lithium-ion technology was producing commercial/utilitypackages in the ~$500/kWh range at end 2014 – half the cost of the ~$1000/kWh 12 monthsprior.