Battery Boom to Attract $620 Billion in Investment by 2040 (Corrected)

The battery boom is coming to China, California, and basically everywhere else—and it will be even bigger than previously thought.

Employees work on the roof of an electric bus at the BYD Coach and Bus factory in Lancaster, California.

Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg

The global energy-storage market will surge to a cumulative 942 gigawatts by 2040, according to a new forecast from Bloomberg NEF published Nov. 6, and that growth will necessitate $620 billion in investment. Sharply falling battery costs is a key driver of the boom. BNEF sees the capital cost of a utility-scale lithium-ion storage system falling another 52 percent by 2030.

Bloomberg NEF

But cost isn’t the only factor. Governments from China to California are spurring demand, as is the ...