The burgeoning battery-storage industry may become the latest to feel the sting of President Donald Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum.
Prices for lithium-ion battery packs dropped 24 percent last year as it became cheaper to make them, according to data from Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Steel tariffs could increase battery-installation costs by as much as 3 percent, but that shouldn’t have much lasting impact on the industry as other manufacturing costs decrease, Kelly Speakes-Backman, chief executive officer of the Energy Storage Association, said in a phone interview Wednesday. The batteries typically are protected with structures made of metal.