Why Cheaper Renewable Electricity Is Driving Demand for Battery and Electrochemistry Research

Why Cheaper Renewable Electricity Is Driving Demand for Battery and Electrochemistry Research

How declining solar, wind and battery-storage costs are increasing demand for battery research, electrochemistry, energy storage and advanced laboratory equipment.

Key Takeaways

  • Battery storage costs fell to a record $78/MWh in 2025 (BloombergNEF), down 27% year-on-year — making renewable-plus-storage the cheapest new power in many markets.
  • A Nature Energy study projects electricity could reach 66% of final energy by mid-century, tripling demand for energy storage and battery research.
  • Active research areas include lithium-ion, sodium-ion, solid-state, lithium-sulfur, zinc-based and flow batteries, plus CO₂ electroreduction and hydrogen electrolysis.
  • CO₂ electrolysis has advanced from lab prototypes to pilot scale, with labs reaching >1 A/cm² at >80% Faradaic efficiency.
  • Reliable battery testing and electrochemistry research equipment — gloveboxes, coin cell tools, cyclers, potentiostats, operando cells — is now central to advancing the energy transition.

The energy transition is now an electrochemistry problem

Every so often a study reframes the whole conversation. A landmark paper in Nature Energy by Luderer and colleagues at the Potsdam Institute concluded that reduced renewable costs and climate policy will make electricity the cheapest energy carrier — and that electricity could account for roughly two-thirds of global energy use by mid-century.

For anyone working in battery research or electrochemistry, this is more than a climate headline. An economy that runs on electrons instead of molecules is an economy that runs on electrochemistry — and that shift lands directly on the researchers and laboratories developing next-generation energy storage.

Why cheaper electricity increases battery research

Why does cheaper electricity increase battery research?
As renewable electricity becomes less expensive than fossil fuels, batteries become essential for storing intermittent energy from solar and wind. This increases global demand for better battery materials, electrochemical testing methods, and laboratory research equipment such as gloveboxes, battery cyclers and coin cell assembly systems.

The old story of the energy transition was one of trade-offs — cleaner energy at a premium. The new story is economic. Cost degression in photovoltaics, wind power and battery storage has been faster than anticipated, and in a 1.5 °C scenario with limited bioenergy, electricity could account for 66% of final energy by mid-century — three times current levels. When the cheapest option is also the cleanest, adoption accelerates on its own.

Battery research equipment sits at the centre of the shift

Those falling cost curves don’t bend on their own. They bend because researchers systematically improve energy density, cycle life, safety and materials cost. Researchers working on lithium-ion, sodium-ion and solid-state batteries rely on coin cell assembly systems, gloveboxes, battery cyclers and electrochemical workstations to evaluate new materials — and on operando characterization cells to understand how those materials behave under real cycling conditions. Every coin cell assembled, every impedance spectrum measured, every operando XRD scan run is a small push on the global cost curve.

What’s changed since 2022: the evidence is now stronger

When Luderer’s team published, the cheap-electricity thesis was a projection. Several years on, the data has caught up — and in places outrun the model.

  • Battery storage costs hit record lows in 2025. BloombergNEF’s Levelized Cost of Electricity 2026 report found the benchmark cost of a four-hour battery storage project fell 27% year-on-year to $78/MWh — the lowest since tracking began in 2009. Co-located solar-plus-storage delivered power at $57/MWh.
  • New battery chemistries are arriving on schedule. The IEA projects lithium-ion costs falling a further ~40% from 2023 to 2030, with sodium-ion (up to ~30% cheaper than LFP) reaching market and solid-state batteries on track for commercial availability. Each chemistry demands its own rigorous testing and characterization.
  • Electrification is reaching hard-to-abate sectors. Research in Nature Energy shows that at battery prices of $100/kWh, electrifying container-shipping routes under 1,500 km is already economical — sectors once considered un-electrifiable are entering the frame.
  • CO₂ electrolysis has moved from bench to pilot. A 2025 Nature Reviews Clean Technology assessment reports CO₂ electrolysis advancing at the cell and catalyst level toward pilot-scale demonstrations, with lab systems reaching current densities above 1 A/cm² at Faradaic efficiencies over 80%. A Nature Energy perspective draws the direct parallel to solar PV — arguing the field needs consistent testing conditions, third-party accreditation and transparent certification to scale.
  • Scale-up is now a manufacturing problem. A 2026 Nature Reviews Materials perspective notes that replacing even ~2% of fossil-based ethylene globally would require roughly 10 tonnes of catalyst annually — shifting the frontier from “does it work?” to “can it be made at scale, reproducibly?”

Built by scientists, for scientists

At Beyond Battery, we work with researchers developing lithium-ion, sodium-ion and solid-state batteries, fuel cells, electrolysers and CO₂ electroreduction systems across universities and industrial R&D laboratories worldwide. We know that reproducible results depend on trustworthy materials and tools — which is why we offer high quality battery research materials, and build battery research and electrochemistry tools designed for the accuracy of these experiments demand.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is electrification important for battery research?
Electrification increases demand for energy storage technologies, driving research into higher-performance batteries and electrochemical systems. As solar and wind supply more electricity, batteries are needed to store it — expanding the need for battery materials research and testing equipment.

Why are batteries essential for renewable energy?
Solar and wind power are intermittent. Batteries store excess electricity when generation is high and release it when generation is low, stabilising the grid and enabling widespread use of renewable energy.

What laboratory equipment is used in battery research?
Researchers commonly use gloveboxes, battery cyclers, coin cell assembly equipment, potentiostats, impedance analysers, operando characterization cells and materials processing equipment to develop and test new battery materials.

How does electrochemistry support decarbonization?
Electrochemistry converts electrical energy into chemical energy and vice versa. It enables batteries, hydrogen production, fuel cells, CO₂ electroreduction and sustainable chemical manufacturing — all central to reducing emissions.

What battery chemistries are receiving the most research?
Lithium-ion, sodium-ion, solid-state, lithium-sulfur, zinc-based and flow batteries are among the most active research areas, each addressing different needs for cost, energy density, safety or grid-scale storage.

Explore battery and electrochemistry research equipment

If your laboratory is developing next-generation batteries, electrolysers, CO₂ reduction technologies or electrochemical materials, choosing reliable research equipment is just as important as choosing the right materials. Explore Beyond Battery’s range of:

Beyond Battery — By Scientists, For Scientists. Advancing the tools that advance battery and electrochemical research.

References

Luderer, G. et al. Impact of declining renewable energy costs on electrification in low-emission scenarios. Nature Energy 7, 32–42 (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41560-021-00937-z
BloombergNEF. Levelized Cost of Electricity 2026 report (Feb 2026) — four-hour battery storage benchmark at $78/MWh.
IEA. Batteries and Secure Energy Transitions (2024) — lithium-ion cost projections, sodium-ion and solid-state outlook.
Kersey, J. et al. Rapid battery cost declines accelerate the prospects of all-electric interregional container shipping. Nature Energy 7, 664–674 (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41560-022-01065-y
Diverging maturity and converging challenges of water and CO₂ electrolysis in 2025. Nature Reviews Clean Technology (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s44359-025-00132-3
Translating insights from progress in photovoltaics to accelerate industrial-scale CO₂ electroreduction. Nature Energy (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41560-025-01953-z
Scaling electrocatalysts for reduction of CO₂ or CO to multicarbon products. Nature Reviews Materials (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41578-025-00875-2

Beyond Battery Blogs