• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
One Step Off The Grid

One Step Off The Grid

Solar, storage and distributed energy news

  • Solar
  • Battery/Storage
  • Off-Grid
  • Efficiency
  • Software
  • Podcasts
  • Tariffs
  • Electric Vehicles
  • Electrification

Tesla already forcing down battery storage prices in Australia

June 9, 2015 by Giles Parkinson 12 Comments

Tesla announcement has already forced battery storage pricing in Australia to come down by one third, with further rapid falls to follow.

RenewEconomy
The release of the Tesla battery storage concept at the end of April has certainly changed the discourse around battery storage, and caused some to rethink their energy business models. And it appears it is already having an impact on prices in the nascent Australian battery storage market.
Two wholesale pricing announcements have caught the eye in recent weeks. One is the pricing on the 7.2kWh Legato product from AU Optronics that AGL Energy is making available to consumers in Queensland this month.
legato pricing
According to wholesale pricing offers, the 7.2kWh system is being offered at around $A14,000. The significance of this? At around $A2,020/kWh, it is down by more than one-third of the price offered for similar battery storage applications just six months ago. The average pricing last November had been around $A3,200/kWh.
That experience is repeated in the latest pricing news from solar wholesaler and distributor Solar Juice, which is offering a 3.6kWh Samsung battery storage product, with inverters and smart meters, for $AS7,999.
samsungAndrew Burgess, co-founder and director of Solar Juice, says the pricing came down 30 per cent during negotiations, which had lasted six months. “The roadmap is for reduction of 25 per cent per annum moving forward for the short term. Exciting times.”
Hugh Bromley, from research firm Bloomberg New Energy Finance, says Tesla has effectively brought forward the pricing of battery storage by anything from 5 to 7 years.
Asian firms can compete with the proposed Tesla battery storage product on price, it’s just that they will likely have to forgo their planned recouping of R&D expenses in the next few years.
This graph below illustrates how the Tesla pricing has changed the pricing estimates of battery storage. On the left is the Tesla battery system, plus inverter costs and balance of system and installation costs.
Immediately to the right is the result of BNEF’s pre-Tesla price check (in US and Australian dollars), and further to the right is its (pre-Tesla) pricing estimates for the next five-year blocks.
Basically, BNEF says Tesla has effected a price cut of around 50 per cent in $A terms. For the other manufacturers to match that, they will have to sacrifice attempts to get “R&D payback” in the first years of deployment. Like companies associated with Tesla founder Elon Musk companies, be it with Tesla or Solar City, they will have to play the long game and look to get their R&D payback over time via the mass market.
bnef battery costs
The payback period for consumers, illustrated below, is interesting because, although it should be noted that this is based on “pre-Tesla” pricing, it’s also important to note that it is an average, and will depend on other factors such as the size of export tariffs.
Other estimates have pointed to payback period as low as six years in some states, depending on the tariff and battery size. But that accounts for post-Tesla pricing. This graph does underline the point that the bigger the battery storage installed, the longer the payback period, although the difference is virtually obscured by 2030.
BNEF battery payback
This last graph is interesting to note because it puts the Australian market in some global context. While Australia is considered to be one of the key markets in the world, it is not because of its size, but because its growth is likely to be “organic” and not subsidised – although tariff structures will have an influence.
In fact, Australia does not even rate in the top 10 battery storage countries in the world by volume, by 2020, based on this. Mostly this is because other countries have created specific targets and incentives to accelerate the roll-out of battery storage, particularly those with high renewable energy penetrations.
According to BNEF, Australia is likely to have around 104MW of capacity, or 256MWh, of battery storage by 2020. This is expected to be split evenly between behind-the-meter users such as households and businesses, and “end-users” such as network operators.
BNEF world storage install
This article was first published at RenewEconomy.

Giles Parkinson
Giles Parkinson

Giles Parkinson is founder and editor of One Step Off The Grid, and also edits and founded Renew Economy and The Driven. He has been a journalist for 35 years and is a former business and deputy editor of the Australian Financial Review.

Filed Under: Battery/Storage, Solar

Primary Sidebar

Sign up for our weekly newsletter

Emissions Counter

Renew Economy

RSS Energy News from Renew Economy

  • Tindo signs five-year deal to export Australian made solar panels to Vietnam
  • Neoen starts powering up its second-largest solar farm in Australia
  • I’ve seen the energy future and it’s in China, and Australia must ditch its distrust and collaborate
  • Utilities want control of consumer solar and batteries to help reverse price spikes they just engineered
  • We need more batteries: Spain turns to new technologies after thermal plants fail in blackout

RSS Electric Vehicle News from The Driven

  • The gaping cybersecurity hole in non-Tesla public EV charging facilities
  • The city betting big on wireless charging for electric taxis and last mile deliveries
  • Two “social leasing” programs for zero-emission vehicles  that actually work
  • Nissan launches next generation Leaf, with more range, a new plug, and V2L
  • Mitsubishi to trial battery swap technology for electric trucks and buses

Press Releases

  • Huge luxury Saudi resort goes 100pct renewables with one of world’s biggest batteries
  • How solar + storage can be a game-changer for people with disabilities

Footer

Technologies

  • Solar
  • Battery/Storage
  • Electric Vehicles
  • Energy Efficiency
  • Software/Gadgets
  • Other Renewables
  • Policy
  • Tariffs
  • Contact
  • Advertise with us
  • About One Step Off The Grid
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 · OneStep Genesis on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in