Renewables and storage: costs moving in different directions in 2025

In 2025, the cost of energy technologies will trend less uniformly than expected. While in recent years the dominant narrative has been one of a steady decline in renewable energy costs, today a more nuanced picture emerges, with signs of stabilization, recovery, and further decline coexisting, depending on the technology considered.

On the one hand, photovoltaic and wind power are experiencing a reversal in some cost components, mainly due to rising financing costs and global market dynamics. On the other, storage systems continue to decline in cost, helping to strengthen the role of renewables in energy systems.

Photovoltaic and wind power: rising costs, but still competitive

In detail, the average cost of energy produced by photovoltaic systems has recorded an increase on an annual basis , while remaining at competitive levels compared to fossil fuels.

This increase is not linked to an increase in pure technological costs, which remain substantially stable, but to external factors such as:

• the increase in the cost of capital
• transformations of the global production chain
• the progressive construction of plants in less performing areas

Wind power is also following a similar trend , with average costs increasing globally, influenced by geographical factors and the quality of resources available in new projects.

Despite this, renewables continue to maintain a competitive advantage over gas and coal, confirming their central role in the energy mix.

Storage: the true accelerator of competitiveness

While the generation front shows mixed signals, the most significant trend is emerging in storage . Battery costs for stationary applications have dropped significantly, reaching levels that reinforce the viability of integrated systems.

This trend is encouraging the spread of projects in which photovoltaic and storage are developed jointly, improving energy management and increasing system stability. In 2025, the growth of co-located systems confirms this trend, with models increasingly focused on optimizing self-consumption and load management.

In this context, the value of storage is no longer merely technological, but systemic: it allows renewables to be more predictable, programmable, and integrated into complex energy systems.

Implications for the HVAC industry and energy design

For the HVAC world, these dynamics translate into a shift in design perspective. The growing integration of electricity generation, storage, and thermal systems requires an increasingly comprehensive approach to energy management.

The variability of costs highlights how the economic factor can no longer be interpreted linearly. Instead, it becomes essential to evaluate:

• the real consumption profile
• the capacity for self-consumption
• the integration between technologies

In this scenario, the plant system is no longer composed of independent elements, but of interconnected components that must be designed in a coordinated manner.