Batteries are now cheaper than natural gas turbines used at many data centers
Battery storage is now cheaper than a type of natural gas power plant favored by many data center developers, according to a new report from Wood Mackenzie. On every continent and in each of the 43 markets that Wood Mackenzie surveyed, four-hour duration batteries were less expensive than open-cycle gas turbines.
根据伍德麦肯兹（Wood Mackenzie）的一份新报告，电池储能目前已比许多数据中心开发商青睐的天然气发电厂更便宜。在伍德麦肯兹调查的每一个大洲和 43 个市场中，四小时储能电池的成本均低于开式循环燃气轮机。
The consultancy predicts that the cost of electricity from batteries will continue to decline while electrons from gas turbines will only grow more expensive in the coming decades. The report lands as energy prices in the U.S. and elsewhere continue to rise, fueling inflation as data centers push electricity demand to new heights.
该咨询公司预测，未来几十年，电池发电的成本将持续下降，而燃气轮机的电力成本只会越来越高。这份报告发布之际，美国及其他地区的能源价格持续上涨，随着数据中心将电力需求推向新高，这进一步加剧了通货膨胀。
Prices for gas turbines have been driven up by AI data center developers, which have been buying any model they can get their hands on. The effects have been more acute for open-cycle gas turbines, which are more readily available but less efficient and more expensive to operate.
燃气轮机的价格已被人工智能数据中心开发商推高，他们正在抢购任何能买到的型号。对于开式循环燃气轮机而言，这种影响更为严重，因为它们虽然更容易获得，但效率较低且运营成本更高。
Those turbines are often used by utilities as peaking power plants, which step in to generate electricity in periods of high demand. As prices for those turbines rise, it can raise costs for utilities, too. Open-cycle turbines are simpler to make than closed-cycle turbines, but even they now take two to four years to procure.
这些涡轮机通常被公用事业公司用作调峰电厂，在需求高峰期介入发电。随着这些涡轮机价格上涨，公用事业公司的成本也随之增加。开式循环涡轮机的制造比闭式循环涡轮机简单，但即便如此，现在的采购周期也需要两到四年。
Waitlists for closed-cycle turbines now extend into the early 2030s. Both backlogs have been spiking prices for all new natural gas power plants. That’s not the case for every generating technology. Solar is now the cheapest form of new power in every market in Wood Mackenzie’s survey.
闭式循环涡轮机的等待名单已排至 2030 年代初。这两类积压订单导致所有新建天然气发电厂的价格飙升。但并非所有发电技术都是如此。在伍德麦肯兹调查的每个市场中，太阳能现在都是最便宜的新型电力形式。
While solar remains cheapest even in North America, the situation remains complicated there. Solar prices are “under pressure” from tariffs and import restrictions, according to Wood Mackenzie, though utility-scale solar is expected to fare better.
尽管太阳能在北美依然是最便宜的，但那里的情况仍然复杂。据伍德麦肯兹称，太阳能价格受到关税和进口限制的“压力”，不过公用事业规模的太阳能预计表现会更好。
There, 168 gigawatts is largely protected from those near-term price shocks thanks to safe-harbor provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill, which kept tax credits for projects that have begun construction or are completed before the end of 2027. The market for U.S. natural gas will narrow in the coming decade.
得益于《通胀削减法案》（One Big Beautiful Bill）中的安全港条款，168 吉瓦的电力项目在很大程度上免受了近期价格冲击的影响，该法案保留了在 2027 年底前开工或完工项目的税收抵免。未来十年，美国天然气市场将会萎缩。
In the Middle East and Africa, four-hour batteries will be 33% cheaper by 2035, “displacing gas peaking on cost across every gas market in the region.” In China, energy storage costs are 55% below its neighbors’. “This economic shift is decisive and widening,” Ahmed Jameel Abdullah, principal analyst at Wood Mackenzie, said in a press release.
在中东和非洲，到 2035 年，四小时电池的成本将降低 33%，“在整个地区的每个天然气市场中，其成本都将取代天然气调峰电厂。”在中国，储能成本比周边国家低 55%。伍德麦肯兹首席分析师艾哈迈德·贾米尔·阿卜杜拉（Ahmed Jameel Abdullah）在新闻稿中表示：“这种经济转变是决定性的，且正在扩大。”