How batteries are reshaping the solar power business model

{"text":[[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":0.5,"text":"Welcome back."}],[{"start":7.36,"text":"We’re still waiting for definitive confirmation of what caused this week’s horrific flash flood in northern Nepal, but early indications point to the partial collapse of a massive glacier. The disaster, which has killed at least 469 people and left more than 1,400 missing, has drawn global attention to the lethal risks from the Himalayas’ melting ice and thawing permafrost — something I saw up close during a prior visit to the region."}],[{"start":34.64,"text":"Like other climate threats, this one has kept growing as humanity has kept pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Getting global emissions down to net zero — what’s needed to stabilise atmospheric concentrations at a level that’s already hazardously high — still seems a distant prospect. Could we at least be approaching the point where annual emissions start heading downwards?"}],[{"start":56.72,"text":"Below you’ll find new data that sheds fresh light on that question. First, we look at the latest signs of how a battery boom is reshaping global clean energy investment."}],[{"start":57.22,"text":"Co-location, co-location . . ."}],[{"start":70.64,"text":"Interesting news this week from Africa’s biggest copper mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo, highlighting one of the hottest global trends in green energy investment."}],[{"start":80.12,"text":"Green power developer CrossBoundary Energy has started supplying power to the Kamoa-Kakula mining complex from a plant that combines 357,000 solar panels with 180 shipping-container-sized battery units. This will provide 30 megawatts of firm “baseload power” for at least 95 per cent of all the minutes in a year, it says."}],[{"start":101.4,"text":"The size of the project is not earth-shaking, supplying a bit more than a tenth of the mining complex’s overall power demand. But it’s part of a surge of investment into “co-located” solar and storage projects that are now the fastest-growing type of power plant in much of the world, according to new research by BloombergNEF."}],[{"start":116.94,"text":"The model received a boost in recent years from provincial governments in China, which had grown concerned about the amount of solar and wind capacity that was going to waste. They introduced rules pushing developers to build or commission storage capacity to go with new renewable plants. That helped drive a decline in battery prices, which is now driving a boom in co-located solar and storage in the rest of the world."}],[{"start":141.44,"text":"Investment outside China into this type of project amounted to $25bn in the first half of the year, according to BloombergNEF — nearly triple the figure a year before."}],[{"start":152.44,"text":"Co-located batteries are an obvious response to many of the headaches that power plant and grid operators have been encountering as renewable power generation has surged. On a sunny day, solar plants can generate far more power than the grid demands at a given moment, leading to large-scale wastage and, in Europe, disruptive negative power prices. An on-site battery plant enables solar operators to store the surplus power and sell it when it’s needed later in the day."}],[{"start":179.24,"text":"Advances by Chinese manufacturers have sent the cost of utility-scale batteries tumbling — meaning that, in much of the world, co-located renewable and storage plants can now provide round-the-clock power more cheaply than fossil-fuelled ones, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency."}],[{"start":196.68,"text":"This is now showing up in the global numbers. The biggest growth boost came from the US, where developers have been rushing to take advantage of Joe Biden’s soon-to-be-defunct tax credit scheme. Investment in co-located solar and storage projects doubled to $14.8bn in the first half of this year."}],[{"start":215.08,"text":"Relative growth rates elsewhere were still higher: a near-sevenfold increase to $5.6bn in the Middle East and Africa (driven largely by Masdar’s vast Al-Dhafra project in Abu Dhabi); a doubling in Australia to $1.8bn; an 86 per cent increase in Europe (albeit to a relatively modest $800mn)."}],[{"start":235.28,"text":"Is this the dominant green power model of the future? Not so fast. In China, which started the trend, the central government last year moved to end the requirements for renewable plant developers to build or buy power storage. The idea was to open more space for competition among pure-play battery projects — a plan that seems to be working."}],[{"start":254.88,"text":"This is all part of a government drive to double the power capacity of “new-type energy storage” (mainly batteries) to 300 gigawatts by 2030, to support its shift towards renewable power generation. In one form or another, the global boom in big battery deployment is set to keep rolling on."}],[{"start":274.96,"text":"In pursuit of the peak"}],[{"start":278.12,"text":"First, the bad news: global greenhouse gas emissions are still increasing."}],[{"start":281.24,"text":"The less bad news: the rate at which they’re rising is slowing in a way that hints a long-awaited peak may now be drawing nearer."}],[{"start":288.68,"text":"This chart was published yesterday by Climate TRACE, a coalition of scientists and researchers:"}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":294.28,"text":"It shows a year-on-year rise in emissions of 0.2 per cent in the first half of this year, a relatively slow pace by the standards of recent years."}],[{"start":303.8,"text":"The new analysis showed a fall of 0.3 per cent in China, adding to the evidence suggesting that the country’s emissions — still the highest in the world — may have entered a downward trend."}],[{"start":314.56,"text":"That would be a big deal — but not necessarily enough to ensure a global decline if other big economies do not follow suit. The Chinese emissions drop was more than outweighed in this period by a 1.5 per cent rise in fast-growing India; Brazil and Vietnam registered even larger percentage increases. Emissions rose, too, in wealthier Germany and South Korea."}],[{"start":337.04,"text":"Much will depend on how quickly the world can drop its addiction to the combustion engine. Despite the growing market share of electric vehicles — and a shipping slowdown driven by the Strait of Hormuz crisis — road transport drove a 2 per cent increase in overall transport emissions:"}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":352.36,"text":"In contrast, emissions from power generation, by far the biggest sectoral source, edged down in the period — despite some countries’ increased use of coal power in response to soaring gas prices."}],[{"start":364.36,"text":"Future energy historians may end up viewing this period as an inflection point that preceded a desperately overdue structural decline in emissions. For now that’s far from certain."}],[{"start":375.24,"text":"Smart reads"}],[{"start":376.168,"text":"The US is suffering from the government’s reluctance to pursue tax evasion by companies and wealthy individuals, argues Columbia University professor Daniel Richman."}],[{"start":385,"text":"Meta has settled a court case over alleged child protection failures, agreeing to pay $18bn and make various changes to services including Instagram. But this is far from a full solution, warns the FT’s Lex column. “If Silicon Valley does indeed pose a risk to children, adults, ecosystems or electoral systems, it is foolish to think payouts and compromises will do the job.”"}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":416.15,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1787921837_3387.mp3"}