Joe O'Connor
Jul 22, 2017 · 1 min read

Sam,
You raise a good point. The majority of Li-Ion batteries are expensive from distributors right now and I am seeing the $1000+/kWh price too. That’s because the products have not been streamlined for mass production. I have a running $/kWh spreadsheet for different products and the best I am currently getting is $500/kWh from manufacturers and about $700/kWh from distributors. Reliability is questionable, since I have not seen any reviews or testing reports.

Brand new 18650 cells cost about $150–200/kWh right now. There is a big price gap because making high quality, safe, reliable battery modules is still challenging. We’ll get there, but the products need to mature.

If you want to talk more about acquiring lithium-ion cells for you project contact through my website: www.OCONEnergy.com/Contact

    Joe O'Connor

    Written by

    Business Development Engineer at @NuvationEnergy. Author of Off Grid Solar. Fellow @NYUReynolds. Consultant, speaker, writer on solar.