Why we are on the verge of a major battery revolution that will fundamentally transform Czech energy

By 2019, a revolution in energy storage could take place, thanks to a significant drop in lithium-ion battery prices to as low as 200USD/kWh.This view is shared by leading expert Sven Bauer, CEO of BMZ Group, Europe’s largest manufacturer of Li-Ion batteries. Sven Bauer will speak about market developments and new trends in energy storage at the Smart Energy Forumconference in Prague on 26 October 2017.

What will drive the battery boom?

The sharp growth in new manufacturing capacity and the emergence of further innovations will drive down Li-Ion battery prices. According to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, several giant battery factories are currently being built in Chinawhich, once they come into operation in 2020, will increase manufacturing capacity by more than 520%. For comparison, this is almost six times the capacity of Tesla’s new gigafactoryin the US, which is due to be completed in 2018.

However, Europe, including the Czech Republic, will soon join the battery boom. Since September, a new “European gigafactory” battery project, TerraE, has been taking shape in Germany, with planned capacity of up to 38 GWh per year. Thanks to a new investment, construction of a new HE3DA battery factory with a capacity of 1 GWh began in northern Moravia in recent days. HE3DA co-owner Radoslav Prus will speak about the company’s plans at the Smart Energy Forumconference.

Are we on the verge of a new energy sector?

Electricity generation from photovoltaic power plants and its low-cost storage will bring a fundamental breakthrough in the energy sector. Generating electricity from the sun is almost free, and thanks to storage, households or businesses can use up to one hundred percent of the energy produced for their own consumption. This will not only reduce energy bills, but also make it possible to achieve a high degree of energy self-sufficiency.

Thanks to cheap batteries, however, businesses and householdswill save not only on electricity, but also on “circuit breakers”. It is precisely because of circuit breakers that customers pay high charges for so-called reserved capacity, often unnecessarily. Another incentive to acquire a battery system is a rapidly starting backup power source.

Last but not least, cheap batteries will also make electric vehicles more affordable, andpeople will power them with the cheapest fuel – their own solar energy. The energy produced will soon be shared between households within virtual networks, enabled by new European legislation (the so-called Winter Energy Package).

Leading German expert Florian Mayr, a partner at Germany’s Apricum, will discuss the new business models that the new era of energy will bring thanks to low-cost energy storage in his presentation at the Smart Energy Forum.

Is it worthwhile?

Thanks to new subsidies for households and businesses, investment payback periods will often be cut in half.