Lead-acid batteries: What to track

How fast it is replaced, and how cleanly it is recycled

What this tab covers The attributes worth tracking regularly, with the latest value, the direction of travel and why each matters.

For lead-acid, track how fast it is being replaced and how cleanly it is recycled, rather than its cost curve.

Category	Attribute	Latest	Trend	Why it matters
Techno-economic	LCOS trajectory	About USD 660/MWh capital-only (calculated from 2021 cost of USD 447/kWh and 675 cycles); no recent benchmark²³	→ stable	Little cost learning left; lithium-ion keeps getting cheaper, so the gap widens.
Techno-economic	Capacity fade and state of health	250-2,000 cycles; about 3-4 years at one cycle per day¹³	→ stable	Depth of discharge and temperature control decide replacement timing.
Supply chain	Critical mineral cost and geopolitical concentration	No lead concentration figure in the sources used; the EU's 85% recycled-lead minimum from 2031 shows how far supply can rely on recovered metal¹¹	→ stable	Supply risk is low because most lead is recycled; price affects margins of recyclers.
Market	Ancillary service market saturation	Mainly backup and capacity roles, not frequency markets²	→ stable	Lead-acid is not competitive for fast cycling services.
Compliance	Safety and environmental compliance	EU lead-acid recycling efficiency 75% by end-2025; NFPA 855 applies to VRLA above about 70 kWh; up to 50% of batteries in LMICs recycled informally⁴⁶⁹	↗ improving	Tighter recycling rules raise costs for informal operators.
Impact	Lifecycle carbon payback period	No sourced figure⁴	→ stable	High recycled content lowers embodied carbon, but short life means frequent replacement.
Technology-specific	Substitution by lithium and sodium batteries	Sodium-ion starter batteries in development; lithium-ion stationary packs USD 70/kWh (2025)⁵⁷	↗ improving	Faster substitution cuts lead exposure and improves backup economics.
Technology-specific	Recycled lead content	EU minimum 85% from 2031¹¹	→ stable	Indicates how closed the loop is in each market.

Sources

Sodium-ion batteries: Technology brief (includes lead-acid and lithium-ion comparison data) IRENA, 2025
Lead-Acid Battery methodology, 2020 Grid Energy Storage Technology Cost and Performance Assessment PNNL / US DOE, 2020
2022 Grid Energy Storage Technology Cost and Performance Assessment US DOE / PNNL, 2022
EU Sustainable Batteries Regulation (2023/1542), policy summary International Energy Agency policy database, 2023
Energy resilience of households in a prepared union: the potential of a sodium battery-based solution European Economic and Social Committee, 2026
NFPA 855: 2026 edition updates and what they mean for energy storage projects Energy-Storage.news, 2026
Lithium-Ion Battery Pack Prices Fall to $108 per Kilowatt-Hour, Despite Rising Metal Prices BloombergNEF, 2025
A third of the world's children poisoned by lead, new groundbreaking analysis says (The Toxic Truth, UNICEF and Pure Earth) UNICEF, 2020
Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 concerning batteries and waste batteries (Official Journal text) EUR-Lex, 2023