Lithium shortage to slow Europe's battery growth
Volatile power prices have boosted revenues, but new entrants faced with higher capex thanks to spiking lithium prices
Volatile power prices are boosting revenues for batteries in Europe, but spiking lithium prices may be slowing new investments, according to analysts. “Intraday price spreads have more than doubled over the past couple of years, driving higher energy arbitrage revenues,” says Anuoluwa Omojola, research associate for European power markets at consultancy Aurora Energy Research. “Frequency response revenues have also spiked.” As a result, a one-hour battery asset that came online in 2020 in the UK could see its payback period shorten by 2–3 years, according to Aurora’s data. “Intraday price spreads have more than doubled over the past couple of years” Omojola, Aurora "However, it is ve

Also in this section
14 May 2025
Deal with Calpine shows oil and gas major ExxonMobil has no intention of curbing its CCS ambitions, despite US policy risks and broader scepticism over the energy transition
13 May 2025
Volatile tariffs add new risks for a sector already struggling to achieve economies of scale
30 April 2025
State administrations are using a flawed metric to justify green energy projects
29 April 2025
Spain’s unprecedented blackout highlighted the risk for green hydrogen producers with exposure to Europe’s creaking power grids