| Capacity: | 400 MWh – 28.000 MWh |
| Power: | 100 MW – 2.800 MW |
| Efficiency: | 80%+ |
| CAPEX: | €140/KWh – €500/KWh (depends on size and geology) |
| Lifetime: | 100+ years, with unchanged performance |
Often the cost/kWh is compared with that of batteries, which are now cheaper than in previous years. The CAPEX for batteries listed in the latest Lazard LCOS report* is $225-$469, which is quite similar to the manufacturing cost of Gravity Energy AG’s Gravity Power Pump Storage (GPPS).
But the CAPEX is a poor comparison. Batteries do not scale well. GPPS become cheaper/kWh the bigger they get. Batteries do not do this! Batteries also wear out much faster than GPPS.
The LCOS tries to consider all life cycle costs of a storage system, not only the capital costs, and thus illustrates the cost advantage of GPPS much better. The LCOS for batteries is $132-$245/MWh* of released energy or 13.2 to 24.5 $cents/kWh (depending on assumptions). The LCOS model for our GPPS shows 17.3 $cents/kWh on the smallest scale (400 MWh) and 2.6 $cents/kWh of a larger scale (6400 MWh), so large GPPS are about 5-10 times better than batteries in terms of storage costs.
* Lazard’s Levelized Cost of Storage Analysis, ver. 6.0 from Nov. 2020