Co-located solar and storage among the ‘most cost-competitive’ options

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Reddit
Email
Brent Wanner speaking at the Energy Storage Summit.
“[Batteries] are adding to reliability and grid security, but in many cases, they aren’t fully monetised,” said Brent Wanner. Image: Solar Media.

Co-located solar PV and battery projects have become some of the most cost-competitive power sources in the renewable energy transition, but markets need to be designed to take advantage of these technological innovations.

This was a key conclusion drawn by Brent Wanner, head of the World Energy Outlooks’ power sector unit at the International Energy Agency (IEA), who provided one of the opening addresses at Solar Media’s Energy Storage Summit conference, held today in London. While the majority of the conference will focus on the battery sector, there are a number of lessons for other renewable power industries, and Wanner suggested that co-located projects are a more compelling investment case than ever before.

This article requires Premium SubscriptionBasic (FREE) Subscription

Try Premium for just $1

  • Full premium access for the first month at only $1
  • Converts to an annual rate after 30 days unless cancelled
  • Cancel anytime during the trial period

Premium Benefits

  • Expert industry analysis and interviews
  • Digital access to PV Tech Power journal
  • Exclusive event discounts

Or get the full Premium subscription right away

Or continue reading this article for free

“Paired with solar PV, we see now [batteries are] becoming one of the most cost-competitive options in major markets around the world, competing with coal and natural gas,” said Wanner. His comments reflect a report from BNEF, published earlier this year, which found that the levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) for fixed-tilt solar PV fell by 21% in 2024, and that it could fall by an additional 11% by the end of 2025.

“This raises a very important point about market design, which is how do we make sure that markets are designed to value the contributions of energy storage?” asked Wanner. “They’re adding to reliability and grid security, but in many cases, they aren’t fully monetised.”

These market inefficiencies have been laid bare in the recent trend of increasing numbers of low and negative power prices, particularly in markets that are at the forefront of Europe’s solar sector. In 2024, Germany registered 457 hours of negative power prices, up from 301 hours in 2023; while in Spain, wholesale power prices collapsed from €293/MWh (US$306/MWh) in March 2022 to less than €14/MWh in April 2024, a historic low.

Last year, analysts from JLL wrote about these trends for PV Tech, and called on governments to encourage more diverse and flexible approaches in market design and grid structure.

‘Batteries are an enabler’

However, Energy Storage Summit chair Roger Harrabin said that, at least in the UK, a relatively scattershot approach to energy investment had taken attention and investment away from key technologies, such as storage.

“The UK government, instead of saying ‘we need storage’ is saying ‘we’re going to do all this other stuff, then do storage’,” said Harrabin in his opening speech. “There’s massive hype about hydrogen … backed by gas of course. Then we have nuclear, which governments have been trying to build for god knows how long – Boris Johnson was promising to build one a year for the next ten years – it’s absolutely ludicrous.”

Both speakers suggested that focusing on technologies for which there is the most compelling financial argument – namely storage and established renewable power technologies such as solar – a market and investment environment will be delivered that will enable the world to meet its clean energy goals.

“The market designs we have are for an era that was built out of coal, gas, nuclear and hydropower, and we’re moving into an era where it’s wind, solar and storage, but those market designs are not really fit for the future,” added Wanner. “Batteries are an enabler to much bigger markets.”

“They’re an enabler for solar and wind … if we look to the COP28 goals to tripling renewable capacity by 2030, energy storage and grids are key to make the most of that renewable capacity that’s being added,” continued Wanner. “To get there, we need to increase energy storage capacity sixfold from 2023.”

The Energy Storage Summit, hosted by our publisher Solar Media, takes place in London, UK, this week (18-19 February). Visit the event site for more details including the agenda and how to get tickets.

2 December 2025
Málaga, Spain
Understanding PV module supply to the European market in 2026. PV ModuleTech Europe 2025 is a two-day conference that tackles these challenges directly, with an agenda that addresses all aspects of module supplier selection; product availability, technology offerings, traceability of supply-chain, factory auditing, module testing and reliability, and company bankability.
10 March 2026
Frankfurt, Germany
The conference will gather the key stakeholders from PV manufacturing, equipment/materials, policy-making and strategy, capital equipment investment and all interested downstream channels and third-party entities. The goal is simple: to map out PV manufacturing out to 2030 and beyond.

Read Next

September 8, 2025
France has awarded 971MW of ground-mount solar capacity, to 165 projects, in the eighth round of the PPE2 PV tender.
September 5, 2025
Scientists from Germany and Saudi Arabia have discovered that perovskite thin-film cells are compatible with current industry standard silicon solar cells, which they claim is a “crucial step toward the industrialisation of perovskite silicon tandem solar cells”.
September 4, 2025
Fraunhofer ISE has completed testing work of grid-forming inverters currently available in the energy industry.
September 4, 2025
Gavin Newsom has signed an executive order to accelerate the permitting of energy generation projects that could be set to lose IRA support.
September 4, 2025
The Czech national cybersecurity agency has warned that Chinese solar inverters represent a threat to the country’s data security.
September 3, 2025
Developers Alight Neoen have commissioned the 100MWp Hultsfred Solar Farm in Småland, southern Sweden.

Subscribe to Newsletter

Upcoming Events

Solar Media Events
September 16, 2025
Athens, Greece
Solar Media Events
September 30, 2025
Seattle, USA
Solar Media Events
October 1, 2025
London, UK
Solar Media Events
October 2, 2025
London,UK
Solar Media Events
October 7, 2025
Manila, Philippines