{"id":1222,"date":"2026-01-29T01:34:31","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T01:34:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.esplaza.com.cn\/?p=1222"},"modified":"2026-01-29T01:34:31","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T01:34:31","slug":"even-for-eight-hour-storage-lithium-ion-is-still-the-tech-to-beat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.esplaza.com.cn\/index.php\/2026\/01\/29\/even-for-eight-hour-storage-lithium-ion-is-still-the-tech-to-beat\/","title":{"rendered":"Even for eight-hour storage, lithium-ion is still the tech to beat"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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In late 2023, investor optimism<\/a> about long-duration energy storage hinged largely on the success of the solar and EV markets, an influx of Biden-era federal funding \u2014 and a widespread assumption that lithium-ion would be too expensive at eight-plus-hour durations, eventually making advanced chemistries more economical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But as of early 2026, the market dynamics have shifted. Lithium-ion battery pack prices have plummeted<\/a> to well below 2023 forecasts and interest rates have risen, making it harder to deploy capital-intensive new technologies. And counter-intuitively, lithium-ion batteries have emerged as the LDES tech to beat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an analysis of the LDES market published today by Sightline Climate, the top two LDES providers today globally are Tesla and Chint Power, both of which make lithium-ion batteries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report analyses companies and their technologies based on \u201ctechnology\u201d (round-trip efficiency), \u201cfinances\u201d (total capital mobilized), \u201cdeployment\u201d (measured in post-FID megawatts), and capex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tesla\u2019s eight-hour lithium-ion remains at the top of the leaderboard, boasting the highest round-trip efficiency, while leveraging the same global manufacturing base that already serves short-duration batteries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That combination of efficiency, proven deployment, and falling costs makes the Tesla Megapack the benchmark that other technologies must beat on both price and performance, explained Lukas Karapin-Springorum, a research analyst at Sightline; the company has long dominated the market especially in the U.S., and its storage division has thrived<\/a> even as its electric vehicle sales have plummeted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A much bigger surprise, Karapin-Springorum said, is Chint Energy \u2014 a Chinese OEM mostly focused on power conversion systems \u2014 coming in a close second.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is really the sign of the industry\u2019s immaturity,\u201d he explained. Chint\u2019s spot on the list is partly the result of being chosen for one of Australia\u2019s first major first eight-hour projects. That project gives Chint real, post-FID megawatts, Karapin-Springorum explained, which boosted its score in the \u201cdeployment\u201d category.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Image credit: Sightline Climate<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Next-gen contenders<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

But the other companies topping Sightline\u2019s scoreboard span a wide range of technologies, with Italian startup Energy Dome\u2019s CO2-based mechanical storage system<\/a> coming in third, followed by Highview Power\u2019s liquid air energy storage and Hydrostor\u2019s compressed air energy storage rounding out the top five. Close behind are both ESS\u2019s iron flow batteries and Sage Geosystems\u2019 pumped geomechanical storage<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Energy Dome\u2019s high rank comes down to a mix of bankable projects, including one high-profile contract with Google<\/a>, and good economics in the duration window regulators are most focused on: its 10-hour liquid CO2 system enables \u201cintraday\u201d projects that can soak up excess renewables and shift them to another time on the grid, Karapin-Springorum added.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Image credit: Sightline Climate<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Energy Dome\u2019s normalized capex is among the best in the sector, mostly thanks to a new project in India that comes in at around half the cost of its first-of-a-kind plant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to deployments, Highview Power\u2019s liquid air energy storage currently leads the pack, beating out both Tesla and Chint Power in the category with about 60 megawatts post FID. Hydrostor, however, is likely to jump up in the rankings over the course of this year: It only has about 2 MW post FID today, but is developing a 200 MW project in Australia and a 500 MW project in the U.S., which \u2014 if they move into construction \u2014 together would make Hydrostor by far the vendor with the most deployed capacity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The future of LDES<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Today\u2019s rankings are notably diverse in terms of technology types, but that likely won\u2019t last long. Karapin-Springorum expects the industry to start consolidating in the medium term, based on where governments decide to lend support<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One key barrier for LDES, he said, is that often a project is \u201ctoo expensive relative to what it can get on the market, so it doesn\u2019t get built.\u201d In other words, the electricity markets still aren\u2019t ready for LDES<\/a>. If governments step in and provide long-term contracts, projects are more likely to reach FID, he added, pointing to projects in California and Australia as well as upcoming announcements in other parts of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI expect to see a small number of vendors really start to capture market share, because, like with many technologies, the vendors who deploy the first couple hundred megawatts start to come down their cost curves\u2026will have performance improvements,\u201d Karapin-Springorum said. \u201cThey\u2019ll have lower capex, and will be a more mature technology that\u2019s generally viewed more favorably by market participants.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, there will be \u201ca single leading vendor,\u201d before their market share starts to splinter among vendors competing in that same technology class \u2014 as evidenced by the more mature lithium-ion market today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLong duration energy storage is going through a step change right now,\u201d Karapin-Springorum said. As of January, there\u2019s only around half a gigawatt of operational capacity outside of China. That said, Sightline is tracking up to 9.3 GW in contracts that are expected to be signed in the next five months \u2014 as much as 20 times as much capacity is currently online. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those projects will take several years to get built, but will eventually take LDES from essentially zero to tens of gigawatts overnight, he added: \u201cThat\u2019s a large number by some regards, but compared to short duration energy storage, it\u2019s still kind of a rounding error.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In late 2023, investor optimism about long-duration energy storage hinged largely on the success of the solar…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1223,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.esplaza.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.esplaza.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.esplaza.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.esplaza.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.esplaza.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1222"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/en.esplaza.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1224,"href":"https:\/\/en.esplaza.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1222\/revisions\/1224"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.esplaza.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.esplaza.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.esplaza.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.esplaza.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}