A new Wood Mackenzie study finds that four-hour battery storage has a lower levelized cost of electricity than open-cycle gas turbines as a peaking resource in all 43 markets it compared, spanning Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa. In the Middle East and Africa the four-hour storage cost is about $120/MWh in 2026 and is expected to fall 33% to roughly $80/MWh by 2035; China has the lowest grid-scale storage costs globally, more than 55% below the Asia-Pacific average of $134/MWh. The report stresses it compares levelized peaking costs rather than equipment purchase prices, and that batteries must be charged first, so they cannot alone supply a data center around the clock.