The increase in the use of alternative energies depends on efficient ways to store the energy generated by intermittent renewable sources such as the sun and wind. Li batteries are among the most used strategies to fulfill this task, but improvements in the efficiency and safety of these Li devices are still required. In this work, the density functional theory was used to study the adequacy of boron phosphide nanotubes as active anodes in Li batteries. Using the (5,5) nanotube as a prototype it is shown that these thermodynamically stable nanotubes can adsorb Li atoms at all of their hollow sites with binding energies around 0.12 eV. For an increasing number of adsorbed Li atoms, a tendency to Li clusterization is observed. Further, the Li adsorption is accompanied by a significant distortion of the nanotube structure, which is seen to be reversible when the nanotube is delithiated. A relatively low activation barrier, 0.19 eV, for Li diffusion on the nanotube surface is determined. Open circuit voltages of approximate to 0.10 V, and theoretical specific capacities of 641 mAh/g are obtained, showing that these nanotubes are promising candidates for anodes in Li batteries