Battery storage prices fall as demand grows in Italy, says industry

From pv magazine Italia

To explore the key issue of pricing for energy storage systems in Italy, pv magazine Italy spoke with several distributors active in the market. All were in agreement: prices declined in 2024, and while the trend is expected to continue in 2025, the drop will be more modest.

The voices of the distributors interviewed were aligned and engaged.

“In recent years, we’ve seen the market shift from the residential segment to commercial and industrial [C&I] as well as utility-scale,” said Daniele Trabuio, product marketing manager for Renewable Energy at Sonepar Italia. “Already in 2024, battery prices, for both residential and C&I applications, began a slow but steady decline, and that trend will certainly continue into 2025.”

Trabuio highlighted a relevant market dynamic: “In mid-2024, the CEOs of BYD and CATL, two global giants in battery manufacturing, announced that EV battery production would reach such high volumes that economies of scale could lead to price reductions of up to 50%. Naturally, this will also bring price drops for BESS solutions, more modestly for residential systems, and more significantly for C&I applications.”

He added that during the SNEC 2024 trade show in Shanghai, batteries were already being presented at significantly lower prices than what is currently available in the European market, though these models have not yet arrived in Europe due to certification and compatibility requirements, as well as logistics.

Representatives from Duowatt reported an even sharper downward trend. “Battery prices fell significantly in 2024, and we expect stable pricing for 2025,” a spokesperson for the Lombardy-based company told pv magazine Italy. “After a few years of growth, thanks to the Superbonus [tax credit] and rising gas and electricity prices, solar PV has slowed somewhat in Italy, and it’s difficult to make predictions for the current year.”

Enrico Pistillo, sales director for Southern Europe at Wattkraft, a Huawei Value Added Partner in Italy, noted that storage solutions—particularly in the C&I and utility-scale segments—are experiencing strong growth and momentum in Italy, with prices expected to fall further.

“The outlook is fairly clear,” he said. “When Terna identifies the need for new storage capacity—both in terms of volume and geographic location—it can procure it through mechanisms like the Capacity Market or, more recently, MACSE. The introduction of the latter has generated strong interest in storage solutions, highlighting the strategic role they will play in the years ahead.”

Pistillo explained that, as far as pricing is concerned, the forecast is for a moderate decline over the coming months, significantly slower than the decline seen over the past 18 months.

“This slowdown is tied to cost levels that already make investments viable, creating a favourable balance in the market,” he said. “Competitiveness will no longer be driven by price alone, but by the ability to offer integrated systems. The combination of products and services from a single vendor will provide significant advantages in terms of efficiency and business model optimisation.”

He added that attention is increasingly shifting away from initial costs toward overall system performance. “There will be a growing focus on long-term reliability,” he said.