Solar panels are cheap but batteries are very expensive.

Batteries are dirt cheap already and getting cheaper all the time. Pakistan would be buying them at the Chinese prices without a lot of tariffs or nonsense that might be misleading you into believing otherwise.

Think a bandwidth of 50-80$ per kwh cost levels for the manufacturer with a margin on top in a market where there's over production and prices are still trending down and margins are probably under quite a bit of pressure. That's the widely publicized cost levels for Chinese manufacturers that dominate the world supply currently. Some of the sodium ion batteries that are coming to market now are already at the lower end of that price bandwidth and could go to 10-20$/kwh over the next 5-10 years; maybe faster.

At those prices, anyone can afford plenty of battery to survive the sun not shining for days/weeks. Which in places like Pakistan would be redundant. It's far south and you can count the number of days that you shouldn't be wearing sunglasses outside per year on the fingers of one hand. Even when it's cloudy, there's plenty of light filtering through in that part of the world..

Prices you might be seeing in the US tell you more about the local politics there than the economics of batteries. The US has it self to blame for bad economics like that. Places like Pakistan aren't going to slow down because the US can't figure out all this new stuff. For them this is economic growth unlocked by vastly more energy than they've ever had access to. All they'll ever need basically.

"Batteries are dirt cheap already" they absolutely are not.

Multiple people have now explained you are in error here. I expect you will not repeat this falsehood going forward.

Installed costs for residential battery storage typically range from $800-1,200/kWh in the US market as of 2024-2025.

ROI for 24/7 solar+battery is negative in almost all residential cases using current technology and prices.

Unless you are proposing the laws of physics are different in the US, this is just a matter of market friction and blockages from regulations and tariffs. You know, the sort of things nuclear bros dismiss with a wave of their hand?

Batteries are cheap in developing world prices, cheap in rich country prices. They continue to become cheaper every year.

EDIT: I meant they're on the expensive side for the developing world, but cheap for rich countries. If you aren't stupid enough to tariff them.

They can be depending on your needs. Lithium iron phosphate batteries are pretty cheap for their capacity. If you build your own power station with them you'd be surprised how far your money goes.

It is much more expensive that just buying electricity from the grid at night.

In Australia, if you have the space for rooftop solar, it's far cheaper in the long run to buy solar+battery. We did the math for our household and even if grid prices are stable (which they aren't, they're fast increasing) we're still going to make money back on the investment in less than 4 years.

Granted this includes a government rebate for the battery, but overall the prices have plummeted. Any government that isn't pushing for renewables and energy storage at this point is actively working against it's citizens.

Does that take into account the free electricity?

No, and once the Solar Sharer scheme kicks in it'll be very helpful in avoiding leaning too hard on the grid in the evening after rainy or overcast days.

It's a fantastic way to solve oversupply; give it to everyone, including those who have batteries in areas where the weather restricts solar output.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11-03/energy-retailers-offe...

The free electricity seems ideal to charge batteries with.

It's worth the price if you live in an area where grid stability is not a given.

You can order 2kWh of plug-in-ready battery for 400€ or so on Amazon. That's single digit cents per kWh over the lifetime of the battery. Bigger systems are cheaper.

Battery modules (not home scale, but utility scale) are around $50/kWh in China. If we assume a 20 year lifespan and 50% charge/discharge once a day, that adds (ignoring interest) $0.013/kWh to the energy cycled through the batteries (plus a small add from efficiency being not quite 100%).

This is quite cheap compared to (say) the fully loaded cost of energy from a nuclear power plant.

Smaller units will be more expensive per kWh, but not so enormously so as to render them impractical. And they will get cheaper quickly like all electronics do.

Installed costs for residential battery storage typically range from $800-1,200/kWh in the US market as of 2024-2025.

ROI for 24/7 solar+battery is negative in almost all residential cases using current technology and prices.

For $800 you can get a complete 2kWh system, including cells, inverter and panels shipped to your home in Europe, so if you're paying more than that for half the storage either your government or contractor is fleecing you.

I can confirm that prismatic 1kWh LFP cells cost ~$60 in single digit numbers.

What is the US doing differently that it is so expensive there?