Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

Martyn1981

More storage news, as the rate of deployment continues to grow fast.

BNEF has estimated that 92GW and 247GWh of energy storage, excluding pumped hydro, will be installed worldwide in 2025, a 23% increase in megawatt terms from the 2024 total of about 70GW and more than double the 44GW BNEF reported for 2023. Around 85% of additions this year will be grid-scale systems, the firm said.

Further growth of about 33% is expected next year, with BNEF predicting 123GW/360GWh of installations during 2026, and then around a 23% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in gigawatt terms between now and 2035.    

That 23% CAGR literally jumped off the screen, and sent me reaching for my calculator, and an eye popping potential 1TW of storage deployment p.a. in 2035(ish). Of course I should have just scrolled down as it's all there.

The article goes on to speculate at the changing technologies and potential for longer duration storage capturing more of the share.

Global energy storage deployments on track for record year in 2025, BNEF says

The latter part of this decade will see energy storage scale up in markets including India, Southeast Asia, Italy and Latin America and by the mid-2030s, BNEF forecasts cumulative installed capacity worldwide to reach 2TW/7.3TWh.

Whilst on the subject, and just for fun at the other end of the scale - thought I'd mention that sodium batteries are now being sold by Midsummer Energy. Not a recommendation, and atm the prices are no better than similar Li products. But I just thought it was worth mentioning as this technology has the potential of being significantly cheaper than Lithium, maybe half to one third the cost.

But it needs to scale first, and that requires huge investment, complicated (ironically) by the fact that Li batts are so cheap. But at least we know that in the long(er) term, storage costs will keep falling as we are still in the early days.

Netexporter

I think the huge advantage of sodium batteries is that they don't require heating, even outside, so their slightly lower energy density is balanced out by not having to squander some of their capacity on maintaining a suitable temperature.

I, too, was disappointed that they don't appear to offer any great price advantage at the moment. I'm sure some competitors will come along soon.

Martyn1981

Netexporter said:

I think the huge advantage of sodium batteries is that they don't require heating, even outside, so their slightly lower energy density is balanced out by not having to squander some of their capacity on maintaining a suitable temperature.

I, too, was disappointed that they don't appear to offer any great price advantage at the moment. I'm sure some competitors will come along soon.

If you (or anyone else) is interested, I've just watched a good vid discussing sodium batts, it was just at my level, not too much science. It suggests that the final cost will be lower, but of course needs time and investment to catch up. The vid suggested that some Na batts will get cheaper than some LFP batts around 2030 onwards, with the industry as a whole probably dipping under LFP around 2035. That includes the continued falling cost of LFP.

All good news, and a good buffer, as it means that research and investment in Na will go up, anytime Li costs go up, or don't fall. Certainly suggests that storage costs will continue to fall, no end in sight yet, as other technologies are available.

Sodium Batteries Power Grid Storage Revolution

Netexporter

I seem to remember CATL predicting sodium batteries will come down to $10/kWh, at cell level. As the world's largest battery maker, by a good margin, I'm inclined to believe them.

Although, having now watched the video, it may not be so clear cut. Seems that horses for courses will be the order of the day.

Martyn1981

This week's Carbon Commentary newsletter from Chris Goodall:

1, Enhanced Rock Weathering. UK company UNDO says it has agreed a deal with Microsoft to capture almost 29,000 tonnes of CO2 via the weathering of very small particles of wollastonite, a silicon-based rock. This is the third purchase from UNDO by Microsoft. In this contract, 90,000 tonnes of wollastonite particles will be spread over about 30,000 acres/12,000 hectares of Canadian agricultural fields. (ERW helps add fertility to most soils). Calculating exactly how much CO2 in rainwater has been captured and turned into a bicarbonate is the critical issue. Microsoft said ‘Enhanced rock weathering is a promising pathway to gigatonne-scale carbon removal’ and it expressed confidence in UNDO scientific rigour on carbon measurement.

2, Green cement. French supplier Hoffmann Green Cement said it had achieved full technical authorisation for the use of its low carbon product to make wind turbine foundations, a world first. A typical turbine base will use about 700 cubic metres of concrete and the continuous stresses from the wind mean that the material has to be of the highest quality. So this authorisation makes it likely that Hoffmann will be able to sell its cement to almost all industries. The company makes its product from the wastes of steelworks, among other sources, and claims to reduce the heat needed in manufacturing by 90% or more. As importantly, no CO2 is added to the atmosphere in the process of making the cement, unlike conventional Portland cement manufacturing in which limestone decomposition drives off carbon dioxide. Zero carbon cement will probably reduce the already very low footprint of wind power by at least 25%.

3, Low carbon steel. The likely route to decarbonisation isn’t looking any clearer. Sweden’s Stegra said it would raise another €1bn to fund overruns on the construction of its new plant in northern Sweden, amid growing pessimism about the cost of the hydrogen that will used to make its steel. However competitor Salzgitter said last week that it expects that the metal will be cheaper to make using hydrogen rather than coal early in the next decade, depending on how the prize of hydrogen evolves. Across the Atlantic, Electra, which will make iron using by dissolving the ore in an acidic aqueous solution and then passing electricity through the liquid to separate out the metal, announced that it would open a small demonstration plant at its Colorado headquarters. The iron will be bought by Nucor, the largest US steelmaker, and other manufacturers for conversion into steel. Separately, Meta said it would buy environmental certificates from Electra to improve its own environmental record, presumably because of the huge carbon footprint of the steel in new data centres. Electra will be a very small producer indeed over the next few years but its relatively simple process will probably use far less than energy than either the coal or hydrogen routes. It can also use lower grade ore than Stegra will need in Sweden.

4, Wood ‘vaulting’ or burying. Wood buried several metres underground is extremely slow to rot. The bacteria that usually digest fallen wood do not prosper in anaerobic conditions. So instead of gradually releasing captured CO2 as it rots, wood would near-permanently store the carbon. Some scientists suggest that wood ‘vaulting’, which is the technical term for preserving the carbon captured during the growing process, may provide the lowest cost route to net emissions reduction. A recent study estimated that permanently storing the large amounts of wood debris produced globally in managed forests, particularly as the trees are cut down and initially processed, could reduce net emissions by over ten gigatonnes a year, or about a quarter of man-made greenhouse gas flows into the atmosphere. The only cost to this process would arise from the need to dig holes that might be three metres deep into which the waste wood would dropped. There are the usual problems, of course: who will pay this limited cost and what guarantee do we have that the wood will stay undisturbed? Nevertheless, this option has to be pursued assiduously.

5, Iridium in PEM electrolysers. Iridium is needed for PEM electrolysers, a plausible candidate for dominance of the technologies for making clean hydrogen. I used to say that an iridium shortage was the most likely material bottleneck in the move to clean technologies, but it looks like I was wrong. (Let’s discuss copper shortages at another time). Iridium is currently only produced as a by-product of platinum mining and just 7 tonnes is sold each year across the world. Rapid growth of PEM electrolysers would use that up very quickly and as platinum production declines as a result of declining use in catalytic converters in cars, the position can only get worse. Iridium is a significant fraction of the manufacturing cost of a PEM electrolyser and the growing shortage would add further to costs. But manufacturer Plug Power and Netherlands nano-material specialist VSPARTICLE said that new research has reduced the amount of iridium needed by up to 90%. This will have a very significant impact on the eventual cost of green H2.

6, Vertical farming. A slew of financial failures has dented enthusiasm for vertical farming. But, as usual with new low carbon industries, this hasn’t stopped China. A new 200 sq. metre 20 storey farm produces 50 tonnes of salad a year, about 200 times the productivity of a conventional horizontal farm. One striking aspect is that the farm operates entirely without human labour. Another innovation is the use of a light spectrum that generates more rapid growth in the plants, raising energy efficiency.

7, E-scooters in Africa. Spiro raised $100m to continue its breakneck growth across Africa. It sells or leases electric scooters that act as taxis with the passenger sitting at the back. The core innovation Spiro has brought is battery swapping stations that enable drivers to work near-continuously during the working day. By the end of this year, Spiro expects to have 100,000 scooters in its network across six countries, four times the level at the beginning of the year. The e-scooters are cheaper than the gasoline alternatives and cost less to run. As the CEO says, India has 13 times the number of motorbikes as Africa’s 25m despite having a similar population. The wide opportunity for the rapid development of an entirely new zero carbon industry in Africa that doesn’t have to overturn an existing technology is obvious.

8, Heat batteries. Whether or not the economics of heat batteries are appealing, interest is rising in their use for medium (and longer) duration storage. Newly installed conventional batteries still tend to only offer 4 hours at most. Rondo Energy announced the completion of the world’s largest dispatchable heat store, providing 100 MWh of up to 1000 degree heat created by resistive heating inside a huge pile of bricks and then by blowing air through the installation which is used to generate steam. Unfortunately, in this first commercial heat battery that steam is being used to increase production at a Californian oil field but Rondo can’t be too picky about how its customers use its product. The electricity here comes from on-site solar array but most of Rondo’s customers will probably use overnight low prices for power to ‘charge up’ their heat stores for the next day.

9, Textile recycling. Textile waste is an apparently intractable problem with less than 1% being fully recycled in the EU. (About 25% is reused but is mostly turned into lower value products). A very large recycling project showed that a much higher percentage is possible. Dutch recycler Boer ran a project over 8 months that collected 24 tonnes of clothing (50,000 garments) in France before separating the individual textiles by colour and fibre type in the Netherlands and then spinning the yarns and remaking clothing in Italy. Each new item contains about 70% recycled textiles. Dutch retailer Zeeman sold the clothing saying that ‘we have proven that post-consumer textile waste can be turned into new, high-quality products that our customers love to buy’. Sweaters were a particular success, said the retailer.

10, Unconventional pumped hydro. Italian start-up Sizable Energy raised €8m to build a pumped hydro site in the sea off Sicily, Italy. The company’s approach is to use surplus power to raise heavy salt-saturated water from the deep ocean to the surface in a closed loop. When electricity is needed, the water is allowed to sink back hundreds of metres to the sea floor, driving turbines as it falls. Sizable claims that it can build gigawatt scale systems at costs that are even lower than future lithium-ion batteries. Several ideas such as this are floating around. In North Wales, for example, a mining company proposes to work with RheEnergise to use very heavy fluids from the 280m deep mine as the energy storage medium. The logic is that fluids heavier than 100% water can provide more gravitational energy, making smaller installations potentially more financially feasible. (Thanks to Jonathan Dean).

Martyn1981

I thought the numbers/scale of this news was very impressive.

The 30% battery subsidy in Australia since the summer, has already helped to accelerate the level of storage being installed by 2GWh, and if my maths is correct, at a rough average of 20kWh per property.

Quick Google suggests that Aus has 1/3 of the dwellings compared to the UK, so that would be equivalent to an additional ~6GWh of distributed storage in the UK, though of course the comparison may not be as simple as that.

And if it's the lower price, rather than our love for a bargain, driving this, then it may also suggest that ~30% reduction in cost is now all that's needed to massively accelerate demand side storage deployment.

Australia’s Cheaper Home Batteries Program reaches 2GWh of storage capacity

Australia’s Cheaper Home Batteries Program has surpassed 100,000 installations, with households and small businesses now benefiting from subsidised battery installations totalling 2GWh of distributed energy storage capacity.

The initiative, launched by the Albanese government in July 2025, has increased Australia’s home battery capacity by more than 50% in less than four months of operation, the government claims.

The initiative is also a means to bolster the country’s budding distributed energy resources market. Rooftop solar PV is already a staple of the energy mix, having surpassed 26.8GW in H1 2025. Despite this, battery attachment rates have traditionally lagged behind.

To help solve this, the Australian government confirmed the Cheaper Home Batteries Program would commence on 1 July 2025, following consultation with various industry stakeholders and state governments.

The programme targets households and small businesses with existing or planned solar installations, providing upfront discounts based on battery usable capacity. Eligible systems must meet specific technical standards and installation requirements, with approved retailers and installers required to pass discount benefits directly to consumers at the point of sale.

The scheme operates through the existing Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme infrastructure, leveraging established administrative processes to minimise implementation complexity.

Exiled_Tyke

Well this won't be believed by a lot of people. But at least it's positive news. 

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/oct/28/wind-power-cut-uk-energy-costs-ucl-study

silverwhistle

On my feed The Daily Telegraph typically came up with a headline about adding up to £1.1bn to bills due to wind. The shadow energy secretary was complaining about 20 year contracts etc etc.. Does she not know how long and how much has been promised for new nuclear..?

michaels

Martyn1981 said:

I thought the numbers/scale of this news was very impressive.

The 30% battery subsidy in Australia since the summer, has already helped to accelerate the level of storage being installed by 2GWh, and if my maths is correct, at a rough average of 20kWh per property.

Quick Google suggests that Aus has 1/3 of the dwellings compared to the UK, so that would be equivalent to an additional ~6GWh of distributed storage in the UK, though of course the comparison may not be as simple as that.

And if it's the lower price, rather than our love for a bargain, driving this, then it may also suggest that ~30% reduction in cost is now all that's needed to massively accelerate demand side storage deployment.

Australia’s Cheaper Home Batteries Program reaches 2GWh of storage capacity

Australia’s Cheaper Home Batteries Program has surpassed 100,000 installations, with households and small businesses now benefiting from subsidised battery installations totalling 2GWh of distributed energy storage capacity.

The initiative, launched by the Albanese government in July 2025, has increased Australia’s home battery capacity by more than 50% in less than four months of operation, the government claims.

The initiative is also a means to bolster the country’s budding distributed energy resources market. Rooftop solar PV is already a staple of the energy mix, having surpassed 26.8GW in H1 2025. Despite this, battery attachment rates have traditionally lagged behind.

To help solve this, the Australian government confirmed the Cheaper Home Batteries Program would commence on 1 July 2025, following consultation with various industry stakeholders and state governments.

The programme targets households and small businesses with existing or planned solar installations, providing upfront discounts based on battery usable capacity. Eligible systems must meet specific technical standards and installation requirements, with approved retailers and installers required to pass discount benefits directly to consumers at the point of sale.

The scheme operates through the existing Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme infrastructure, leveraging established administrative processes to minimise implementation complexity.

Sadly in the UK it would require installation under an 'approved scheme' and the overall price to the consumer would be no lower than installs without the scheme but cowboy firms would make a killing in substandard installs before disappearing.

Martyn1981

michaels said:

Martyn1981 said:

I thought the numbers/scale of this news was very impressive.

The 30% battery subsidy in Australia since the summer, has already helped to accelerate the level of storage being installed by 2GWh, and if my maths is correct, at a rough average of 20kWh per property.

Quick Google suggests that Aus has 1/3 of the dwellings compared to the UK, so that would be equivalent to an additional ~6GWh of distributed storage in the UK, though of course the comparison may not be as simple as that.

And if it's the lower price, rather than our love for a bargain, driving this, then it may also suggest that ~30% reduction in cost is now all that's needed to massively accelerate demand side storage deployment.

Australia’s Cheaper Home Batteries Program reaches 2GWh of storage capacity

Australia’s Cheaper Home Batteries Program has surpassed 100,000 installations, with households and small businesses now benefiting from subsidised battery installations totalling 2GWh of distributed energy storage capacity.

The initiative, launched by the Albanese government in July 2025, has increased Australia’s home battery capacity by more than 50% in less than four months of operation, the government claims.

The initiative is also a means to bolster the country’s budding distributed energy resources market. Rooftop solar PV is already a staple of the energy mix, having surpassed 26.8GW in H1 2025. Despite this, battery attachment rates have traditionally lagged behind.

To help solve this, the Australian government confirmed the Cheaper Home Batteries Program would commence on 1 July 2025, following consultation with various industry stakeholders and state governments.

The programme targets households and small businesses with existing or planned solar installations, providing upfront discounts based on battery usable capacity. Eligible systems must meet specific technical standards and installation requirements, with approved retailers and installers required to pass discount benefits directly to consumers at the point of sale.

The scheme operates through the existing Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme infrastructure, leveraging established administrative processes to minimise implementation complexity.

Sadly in the UK it would require installation under an 'approved scheme' and the overall price to the consumer would be no lower than installs without the scheme but cowboy firms would make a killing in substandard installs before disappearing.

That's why I quoted the paragraphs confirming that the Australian installs operate under an approved scheme:-

The programme targets households and small businesses with existing or planned solar installations, providing upfront discounts based on battery usable capacity. Eligible systems must meet specific technical standards and installation requirements, with approved retailers and installers required to pass discount benefits directly to consumers at the point of sale.

The scheme operates through the existing Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme infrastructure, leveraging established administrative processes to minimise implementation complexity.