Battery energy storage systems are now growing faster than electric vehicles as a driver of global lithium demand, a milestone shift in the market that is accelerating a lithium price recovery after three years of deep losses and reshaping the strategic calculus for producers including Ghana’s newly ratified Ewoyaa project.
Demand for Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS), the large-scale rechargeable installations that power data centres and store renewable energy for grid balancing, surged 51 percent in 2025 compared to 26 percent growth for electric vehicles (EVs), according to researcher Benchmark Minerals Intelligence. While EVs still account for approximately 75 percent of total global battery demand, the rapid acceleration of BESS deployment signals a structural change in who is driving lithium consumption.
The primary engine behind the BESS surge is artificial intelligence. Data centres powering large language models and AI applications require stable, uninterrupted energy supply, and lithium-iron phosphate batteries are emerging as the preferred solution for managing power spikes during intensive AI training cycles.
Energy storage capacity is expected to exceed 100 gigawatts globally this year and double to 200 gigawatts over the coming decade, according to BloombergNEF analysts, helped by falling equipment prices now less than a third of what they were three years ago.
The demand surge has translated directly into price recovery. Lithium prices climbed 120 percent over six months, reaching approximately US$20,000 per tonne in late February from US$9,000 per tonne in August 2025, when China’s CATL suspended operations at its key Jianxiawo mine following licensing issues, removing roughly 6 percent of global supply from the market.
SC Insights founder Andy Leyland expects lithium demand to grow 24 percent in 2026 while supply expands by only 19 percent, forecasting a tightening market over the next two to three years.
The timing has direct implications for Ghana. Parliament ratified the Ewoyaa Lithium Project mining lease on March 19, 2026, making Ghana the first country in West Africa to grant and ratify a lithium mining lease. The project, operated through Atlantic Lithium’s Ghanaian subsidiary Barari DV Ghana Limited, is designed to produce spodumene concentrate, the raw form of lithium extracted from hard rock deposits, over a 12-year mine life. Spodumene prices have already recovered more than 130 percent since mid-2025, providing a significantly stronger revenue outlook than analysts projected when the lease process stalled two years ago.
Africa is rapidly emerging as a major new supply hub, with new output from the continent exceeding that from the rest of the world in 2025, led by Zimbabwe and Mali, with production also rising sharply in South Africa and Nigeria. Ghana’s entry through Ewoyaa positions it to compete in this expanding continental supply landscape at a moment when BESS and AI-driven demand are providing a demand floor that was absent during the market’s three-year downturn.
