Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

NedS

The Guardian is today reporting China's latest solar and wind deployments for the month of May:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/26/china-breaks-more-records-with-massive-build-up-of-wind-and-solar-power

China installed 93 GW of solar capacity last month – almost 100 solar panels every second, according to an analysis by Lauri Myllyvirta, a senior fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute. Wind power installations reached 26 GW, the equivalent of about 5,300 turbines.

To put that in perspective, the daily UK demand peaked at ~38GW last January and varies between 26-38GW per day, throughout the year.

It's hard to comprehend the speed at which China are adding renewable generation capacity.

QrizB

NedS said:

It's hard to comprehend the speed at which China are adding renewable generation capacity.

If we assume annual generation of 1kWh per Wp of panel, the solar PV capacity that China added in MAY ALONE would equal ~30% of the UK's total current electricity demand.

How many years until the usual media voices switch from "why should we reduce our carbon emissions when China is still polluting?" to "why do we need to reduce our emissions when China is making such huge improvements"?

Sorry, might be getting a touch political there.

Edited for a typo and for confusing 2024 with MAY!

ed110220

QrizB said:

NedS said:

It's hard to comprehend the speed at which China are adding renewable generation capacity.

If we assume annual generation of 1kWh per Wp of panel, the solar PV capacity that China added in 2024 would equal ~30% of the UK's total current electricity demand.

How many years until the usual media voices switch from "why should we reduce our carbon emissions when China is still polluting?" to "why no we need to reduce our emissions when China is making such huge improvements"?

Sorry, might be getting a touch political there.

Probably many years unfortunately. It wasn't that long ago that people were still saying "global warming ended in 1998" or some other long passed year. What is depressing is how out of touch with reality these voices have become. They're still stuck in a world where renewables are expensive, niche luxuries and fossil fuels are inexpensive if we ignore the externalities. And just when solar and wind are about to cover all of the world's increase in electricity demand and then push FF into absolute decline because almost everywhere they are cheaper, these voices are getting louder and louder here.

Perhaps it's a sign of the desperation of the FF industry and political forces that have attached their identities to it. If they get their way it won't make much change to the world's transition, but it will add to Britain's existing trend towards stagnation by choosing more expensive, less secure energy that is more vulnerable to price shocks. Sorry, might have got a bit political too.

Martyn1981

Sticking with the fun stats, the US now has approx 250GWp of installed PV, whilst China installed ~280GWp just in 2024.

NedS

PV magazine are reporting China has now surpassed the 1TW milestone, with total installed capacity of 1080GW (4 times the US figure quoted by @Martyn1981 above)

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2025/06/23/china-hits-1-tw-solar-milestone/

Martyn1981

NedS said:

PV magazine are reporting China has now surpassed the 1TW milestone, with total installed capacity of 1080GW (4 times the US figure quoted by @Martyn1981 above)

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2025/06/23/china-hits-1-tw-solar-milestone/

Just a silly thought, and I appreciate that the May figure is a big spike and anomaly, but 93GW in a month, is equal to an annualised rate of 1.12TWp. Utterly mind blowing.

NedS

Martyn1981 said:

NedS said:

PV magazine are reporting China has now surpassed the 1TW milestone, with total installed capacity of 1080GW (4 times the US figure quoted by @Martyn1981 above)

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2025/06/23/china-hits-1-tw-solar-milestone/

Just a silly thought, and I appreciate that the May figure is a big spike and anomaly, but 93GW in a month, is equal to an annualised rate of 1.12TWp. Utterly mind blowing.

Agreed, they are unlikely to sustain that monthly rate, but the overall rate of growth is still jaw dropping. China already have over a quarter of global installed solar capacity, and with these rates of growth could soon have half of global installed capacity.

I wonder why the spike in May. I wonder if it is tariff related, less exports of Chinese solar panels equals more domestic supply?

Martyn1981

Big money, and big upgrades for the grid on their way.

UK grid set for £8.9bn expansion

Ofgem has today given the provisional green light to a multi-billion-pound investment to power the biggest expansion of the UK’s electricity grid since the 1960s.

An initial £8.9bn investment is being committed to Britain’s high-voltage electricity network, with a further £1.3bn ready to go. 

The draft settlement is the first step in an estimated £80bn investment programme boosting electricity network capacity, protecting UK households from the volatile international gas markets that caused the massive fluctuations in energy bills in recent years.  

The investment in the grid, which will rise to around four times the current spending levels, will allow for 80 transmission projects and all associated works right across the country to be completed within five years.

Martyn1981

Big grids will need big batts ...... and an auction for large scale battery capacity in China has attracted incredibly low prices, some as low as $51/kWh.

[Edit - Note that some of the figures given contain errors. $US51.59/kWh should read $US51/kWh, and $US59c/kWh should read $US59/kWh. The article relates to a source article that quoted figures per Wh, for example $0.059/Wh, and has made a bit of a mess adjusting them to per kWh. M]

This article comes from Renew Economy (Aus) and goes on to explain the ramifications of these falling costs on other types of / and duration storage technologies, and also gas generation.

“Watershed moment:” Big battery storage prices hit record low in huge China auction

The latest auction in China offered 25 gigawatt hours of capacity for lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries over a range of storage periods – 1 hour, 2 hour and 4 hours – and the results (the first time they have been broken down on storage duration) have stunned even seasoned onlookers.

The knockout price was a bid of $US51.59/kWh for a four hour battery (the average was $US59c/kWh), which Energy Storage News says represents a 30 per cent drop from 2024 levels, and others side was a 15 per cent fall from recent record lows.

Marek Kubik, co-founder of US-based battery storage supplier Fluence, and now a director at the Saudi-based halo project Neom, also described the auction results as a new milestone, noting that the prices reflected a full energy storage system, and not just cell prices. They do not, however, include civil construction costs.

Coastalwatch

Martyn1981 said:

Big grids will need big batts ...... and an auction for large scale battery capacity in China has attracted incredibly low prices, some as low as $51/kWh.

This article comes from Renew Economy (Aus) and goes on to explain the ramifications of these falling costs on other types of / and duration storage technologies, and also gas generation.

“Watershed moment:” Big battery storage prices hit record low in huge China auction

The latest auction in China offered 25 gigawatt hours of capacity for lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries over a range of storage periods – 1 hour, 2 hour and 4 hours – and the results (the first time they have been broken down on storage duration) have stunned even seasoned onlookers.

The knockout price was a bid of $US51.59/kWh for a four hour battery (the average was $US59c/kWh), which Energy Storage News says represents a 30 per cent drop from 2024 levels, and others side was a 15 per cent fall from recent record lows.

Marek Kubik, co-founder of US-based battery storage supplier Fluence, and now a director at the Saudi-based halo project Neom, also described the auction results as a new milestone, noting that the prices reflected a full energy storage system, and not just cell prices. They do not, however, include civil construction costs.

Thanks for posting this Mart, those prices are very impressive, however I am a little confused as it states 

The knockout price was a bid of $US51.59/kWh for a four hour battery while the average was $US59c!

So presumably $US59 and not $US0.59 as I first read $US59c?