www.teitimes.com

November 2026 • Volume 19 • No 8 • Published monthly • ISSN 1757-7365

THE ENERGY INDUSTRY TIMES is published by Man in Black Media • www.mibmedia.com • Editor-in-Chief: Junior Isles • For all enquiries email: enquiries@teitimes.com

How efcient is your battery? Decarbonisation Series

Passing the annual battery capacity test

is a useful milestone, but it is not proof of

performance. Page 13

Are Asia-Pacic’s markets and regulatory

frameworks ready to attract the investment

needed to accelerate the transition?

Page 14

News In Brief

UNEP lays out emission cuts

needed for return to 1.5°C

With global temperature rise set to

exceed 1.5°C above pre-industrial

levels, urgent and stringent cuts to

greenhouse gas emissions are

needed to minimise the magnitude

and duration of overshoot and a

return to 1.5°C by the end of the

century, a new UNEP report nds.

Page 2

US states sue as EPA rolls

back emissions limits

A group of 21 US states and the

District of Columbia have begun

legal action against the US Envi-

ronmental Protection Agency

(EPA) over its repeal of major

greenhouse gas emissions limits

for fossil fuel-red power plants.

Page 4

China’s renewable energy

goals will have global

“knock-on effects”

China’s latest renewable energy

targets could increase pressure

on global supply chains, accord-

ing to experts at law rm Pinsent

Masons.

Page 5

Italian government takes

short and long term action

on power supply

The Italian parliament has given

nal approval to a law that will pave

the way for a new generation of

nuclear power plants.

Page 7

Industry in major push for

oating wind projects

The Global Wind Energy Council

(GWEC) has brought together

more than 50 of the world’s leading

organisations working in oating

wind to set out an industry action

plan for its commercial success.

Page 8

Technology Focus

Having been used in the Hubble

space telescope for several de-

cades, nickel-hydrogen battery

chemistry has now been commer-

cialised for terrestrial stationary

power applications. Page 15

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Although elevated, electricity prices have not surged as much as gas according to a recent

Eurelectric report. The ndings support the growing call for more clean energy and greater

electrication in cushioning the impact of volatile fossil fuels. Junior Isles

Utilities prioritise resilience and affordability

THE ENERGY INDUSTRY

TIMES

Final Word

Europe is working towards being

‘power proof’ but it’s not bullet

proof yet, says Junior Isles.

Page 16

Despite geopolitical tensions and ex-

treme weather, Europe’s electricity

system proved it can shield consumers

and industry from fossil fuel volatility,

according to Eurelectric’s Power Ba-

rometer 2026. The report, published by

the organisation that represents Eu-

rope’s electricity sector, reveals EU

power prices rose by 22.8 per cent

between February and August 2026,

while gas prices surged by 88.4 per

cent, showing how clean power gener-

ation cushioned the impact of the Mid-

dle East conict.

Following the blockade of the Strait

of Hormuz, gas prices rose 41 per cent

between February and May, while EU

electricity prices actually fell 7 per

cent. A record hot summer then

pushed power prices higher as gas

reached new highs, Nordic hydro-

power weakened and nuclear avail-

ability fell due to high river tempera-

tures, low water levels and planned

maintenance. Yet, over the full period,

electricity proved signicantly more

resistant to the fossil fuel shock.

Kristian Ruby, Secretary General,

Eurelectric, said: “2026 has seen se-

vere disruption of global energy mar-

kets, once again exposing the risks of

reliance on imported fossil fuels.

Amidst the turmoil, we’re seeing real

proof that Europe’s bet on clean elec-

tricity is paying off.”

The report nds that 72 per cent of

EU electricity generation was clean in

2026, limiting the impact of fossil fu-

els on power prices. However, the re-

port highlighted that fully harnessing

the benets of homegrown electricity

requires faster deployment of storage

and exibility solutions to strengthen

Europe’s resilience.

Bulgaria illustrates the impact of

storage: after developing 5.4 GW of

battery capacity, its wholesale power

prices moved from 21 per cent above

the EU average in 2024 to just 8.3 per

cent above in 2026, thanks to reduced

reliance on expensive fossil fuels

during peak demand periods. Yet, Eu-

rope is lagging behind: utility-scale

storage stood at 64 GW in 2025. Even

with 78 GW of planned additions, it

remains far below the EU’s 200 GW

target for 2030.

To strengthen Europe’s energy secu-

rity and competitiveness, Eurelectric

calls for accelerated permitting of

grids, storage and clean power, stron-

ger incentives for exibility, and a

stable investment framework that pre-

serves efcient market signals sup-

porting electrication.

The report follows ndings from the

International Energy Agency (IEA),

which show how electricity is playing

an increasingly central role in econo-

mies around the world. The report –

prepared at the request of Türkiye, the

COP31 President, and Australia, the

COP31 President of Negotiations –

examines the potential to accelerate

electrication globally and the extent

Continued on Page 2

New research from industrial AI soft-

ware provider IFS reveals a dramatic

shift across global energy and utilities

investment priorities, previously dom-

inated by sustainability and decarboni-

sation goals.

According to the research, ageing

infrastructure, affordability pressures,

and reliability challenges are forcing

utility leaders to adopt a more bal-

anced investment strategy to strength-

en core operations and advance the

energy transition. As a result, utilities

are turning to grid strengthening, new

energy sources and storage, and better

asset lifecycle management.

The new global study, conducted by

Censuswide and spanning 850 C-lev-

el and senior utility executives, high-

lights a sector operating under im-

mense multi-front pressures driven by

unprecedented load growth from data

centres and electrication and ex-

treme weather events.

Carol Johnston, VP of Energy &

Utilities at IFS, put the ndings into

perspective: “The pendulum in the

energy sector has swung fast. Sus-

tainability continues to be a critical

objective for utilities, but evolving

operational and geopolitical realities

are driving a more balanced invest-

ment agenda. Decades of under-in-

vestment, coupled with rigid regula-

tory rate cases and an ageing grid,

have created an operational environ-

ment where reliability, resilience,

and affordability must be addressed

simultaneously.”

The comments came just ahead of a

new report by McKinsey & Company

that nds there is no longer a single

“most likely” future for the sector and

that business leaders need to prepare

for a range of strategies that can per-

form across fundamentally different

energy landscapes.

McKinsey & Company’s ‘Global

Energy Perspective 2026’ suggests

that the ongoing energy transition –

impacted by the volatile market con-

ditions and a series of back-to-back

grey swan events that are becoming

more frequent – is increasingly be-

coming an energy expansion.

Global energy demand grew 2.7

per cent in 2025, with oil, gas, coal,

and renewables all increasing simul-

taneously, with data centres the fast-

est-growing load segment in OECD

power markets and projected to con-

sume 10-15 per cent of global power

by 2030. That shifts the central ques-

tion from whether the world will

need more energy, to what will sup-

ply that growth, at what cost, and

with what implications for security

and emissions.

Humayun Tai, Senior Partner and

Global Leader of McKinsey’s Energy

& Materials Practice, said: “Over the

past year, the energy transition has

become an energy expansion, with

total energy demand up 2.7 per cent

and every major energy source grow-

ing simultaneously. These combined

forces underscore that the cost of not

thinking broadly enough about the

range of possible outcomes has never

been higher. The ongoing disruption

in the Strait of Hormuz is the clearest

example of this risk: maritime trafc

through the world’s most critical ener-

gy chokepoint fell more than 90 per

cent, energy prices surged across fuels

and continents, and strategies built

around diversied liquied natural

gas (LNG) were tested in real-time.”

Clean power

cushions impact of

energy shocks

Photo by David Plas

Kristian Ruby, Secretary General, Eurelectric,

THE ENERGY INDUSTRY TIMES - NOVEMBER 2026

Junior Isles

With global temperature rise set to ex-

ceed 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels,

urgent and stringent cuts to greenhouse

gas emissions are needed to minimise

the magnitude and duration of over-

shoot and return to 1.5°C by the end of

the century, a new UNEP report nds.

The ‘Emissions Gap Report 2026:

The Point of Return’ looks at a “lowest

possible” 1.5°C overshoot scenario, in

which peak warming by around the

middle of the century is limited to 1.7-

1.8°C and global temperature rise is

returned to or below 1.5°C by 2100,

with about a 50 per cent chance.

To get onto this pathway, global

greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions

would have to be reduced by 18 per

cent by 2030, 45 per cent by 2035 and

69 per cent by 2040, all relative to

2025 levels. By contrast, the full im-

plementation of Nationally Deter-

mined Contributions (NDCs) would

only reduce emissions by 5-8 per cent

by 2030 and 11-15 per cent by 2035,

relative to 2025 levels. This implies

average annual reduction rates of 5.7

per cent for 2025-2035, higher than

the old Sixth Assessment Report

(AR6) pathways laid out by the IPCC,

which required annual reduction rates

of about 5 per cent.

“Overshoot is not surrender. We can

still keep it as small and as short as

possible – and bring temperatures back

below 1.5 °C by the end of the century,”

UN Secretary-General António Gu-

terres said in a message on the report.

“The new Emissions Gap Report from

the United Nations Environment Pro-

gramme shows us what it will take:

Cutting global greenhouse gas emis-

sions by 18 per cent by 2030 and 45

per cent by 2035 – compared with 2025

levels.”

350.org said that the UNEP report

makes the immediate task for world

leaders clear – deliver concrete plans

to phase out fossil fuels at the upcom-

ing UN Climate Change Conference

(COP31). “Declarations are not

enough: leaders need to urgently act on

earlier commitments to transition away

from fossil fuels and triple renewable

electricity capacity,” it said.

Ahead of the report Saudi Arabia,

India and China called for the post-

ponement of some IPCC reports until

2029, meaning key information on

climate change would not be available

for the UN COP summit in 2028, when

a critical assessment of each nation’s

efforts to deal with climate change is

due.

In response, Ministers and ofcials

led by EU Climate Commissioner

Wopke Hoekstra, the UK’s Katie

White, Canadian minister Julie Dab-

rusin, France’s Monique Barbut and

Germany’s Carsten Schneider, re-

leased a statement arguing that “time-

ly information” from the reports was

“critically needed”.

to which progress could be acceler-

ated by sector and region. It assess-

es the implications of faster electri-

cation for energy security and

climate goals, as well as the broad-

er benets and trade-offs.

The report served as the basis for

discussions at the latest IEA

COP31 High-Level Energy Tran-

sition Dialogue in New York last

month in the context of the United

Nations General Assembly, as

countries considered the adoption

of a global electrication target of

35 per cent.

Based on technologies available

today and energy prices at the lev-

els seen before the onset of the

current supply shock, the report

nds that electricity could cost-ef-

fectively meet 33 per cent of the

world’s nal energy consumption

by 2035, up from 23 per cent today.

This would put the 35 per cent goal

that is under discussion within

striking distance, according to the

report. Energy prices at their cur-

rent levels, amid the Strait of Hor-

muz crisis, would make even more

of the world’s energy consumption

cost effective to electrify.

In a scenario in which fuel-im-

porting countries around the world

speed up the electrication of their

economies considerably, their en-

ergy import bills could fall by more

than $400 billion by 2035 com-

pared with 2025 levels. By then,

faster electrication could mean

the world is using 18 million few-

er barrels of oil per day than it

would have done otherwise, main-

ly the result of a rapid uptake of

electric vehicles in this scenario.

Electrication also offers a major

opportunity to tackle emissions

associated with energy use in trans-

port, buildings and industry, which

together account for more than half

of all energy-related carbon diox-

ide (CO

) emissions.

In the faster electrication sce-

nario, CO

emissions from those

three main sectors fall by 40 per

cent by 2035, a rate of decline

which is aligned with international

climate goals. This decline would

be sufcient to put total energy-re-

lated CO

emissions on a down-

ward trajectory, regardless of the

electricity generation mix. A rapid

expansion of domestically based

low-emissions power supply

would further amplify the energy

security and emissions benets.

Electrication supports the inter-

national goals of doubling the rate

of energy efciency improvements

and tripling the total capacity of

renewables.

Amid this year’s Strait of Hormuz

crisis, the second major energy

shock in the past ve years, momen-

tum behind key electric technolo-

gies is growing. Many countries are

considering how they can further

leverage electrication to reduce

their dependence on imported fuels

while lowering emissions.

However, realising this potential

will require wider action to accel-

erate electrication in line with

what is economically competitive.

Avoiding bottlenecks – and ensur-

ing electrication supports afford-

able and secure energy systems –

will require scaling up investment

in generation and grids, alongside

the implementation of smarter and

more exible power systems.

Evolving threats to electricity se-

curity will also need to be ad-

dressed. These include concentrat-

ed supply chains for key

technologies and critical minerals;

cybersecurity risks; and natural

disasters and climate hazards.

Continued from Page 1

More than 3.5 TW of global wind and

solar capacity is operational, but as

rst-generation equipment ages, a

further 2.5 TW of projects will face a

stark decision for owners by the 2040s:

abandon the site, invest to extend its

life, or renew it entirely. How that de-

cision plays out will have a profound

impact on renewable energy targets,

power prices and the economics of

the energy transition, according to

Wood Mackenzie’s latest ‘Horizons’

report.

According to the report, ‘Renewing

renewables: The next chapter in the

energy transition’, decommissioning

has already begun in the wind indus-

try. By the end of 2026, more than 30

GW of wind capacity will have been

decommissioned worldwide, two-

thirds of which was brought ofine

between 2022 and 2026. Solar began

its rapid deployment later than wind,

but its ageing eet is set to overtake

wind before 2040.

Repowering offers a compelling

economic case. Because a site already

has an existing grid connection, plan-

ning approval and community accep-

tance, new equipment can reach the

market faster than a greeneld proj-

ect, bypassing the queue and permit-

ting delays that have slowed new

development in many markets. The

capital and operating expenditures are

broadly similar to greeneld develop-

ment, but the economic advantage of

repowering extends to other factors,

such as the location, cost efciencies

and power output.

The quality of established sites

makes that advantage signicant. In

Germany, the wind speeds at sites

decommissioned so far this decade

are 4 per cent higher than those at

greeneld projects coming online on

average and the gap can be as wide as

30 per cent. A 4 per cent increase in

wind speeds translates into roughly 7

per cent higher capacity factors and 7

per cent lower levelised cost of ener-

gy (LCOE), all else being equal.

This dynamic is already reshaping

how companies approach the market,

says Wood Mackenzie. A growing

number of developers are acquiring

operational projects in prime loca-

tions, decommissioning the existing

equipment and installing an entirely

new project on the same site – a trend

that is becoming increasingly com-

mon in markets such as Europe and

the US, where land availability, grid

capacity or planning approval for new

development is constrained.

“We are entering a new chapter in the

energy transition, one dened not just

by power demand growth, but by re-

newal,” said Søren Lassen, Head of

Wind at Wood Mackenzie. “Without

installations replacing decommis-

sioned projects, global wind and solar

deployment would continue to decline

year-on-year. By acknowledging this

impact, it will fundamentally change

the long-term trajectory and narrative

of renewables and hopefully also com-

pany and government strategies.”

The report notes that governments

across the world are setting renewable

capacity targets without accounting

for decommissioning and that blind

spot could make already ambitious

goals even harder to reach. At the

same time, policy incentives for re-

powering are limited to a handful of

wind markets, incentivising asset

owners to pursue longer operational

lifetimes instead of reinvesting in

their operational portfolios.

The European Commission has tar-

geted 500 GW of wind power by 2030,

requiring roughly 37 GW of annual

additions between 2023 and 2030.

Wood Mackenzie forecasts that 17

GW will be decommissioned in that

same period, meaning the bloc must

add an extra 2 GW per year on average

simply to offset losses, on top of a

build rate it is already failing to meet.

Wood Mackenzie’s latest global report

on levelised cost of electricity (LCOE)

shows that advancing technologies and

market dynamics continue to drive

divergent prices, with 4-hour battery

storage now less expensive than

open-cycle gas turbines in all 43 mar-

kets where both technologies were

modelled.

In the Middle East and Africa, where

utility-scale solar already leads at $37/

MWh, 4-hour storage is forecast to fall

a further 33 per cent to $80/MWh by

2035, displacing gas peaking on cost

across every gas market in the region.

China remains the global storage cost

benchmark at more than 55 per cent

below the rest of the Asia Pacic aver-

age, illustrating how manufacturing

scale is redrawing the global cost map.

“This economic shift is decisive and

widening,” said Ahmed Jameel Abdul-

lah, principal analyst at Wood Mack-

enzie. “Gas turbine shortages and ris-

ing fuel volatility are driving up

peaking costs, while expanding battery

manufacturing continues to push stor-

age costs down.”

Abdullah notes a similar transforma-

tion has already reshaped baseload

economics. Single-axis tracker solar is

now the lowest-cost new-build tech-

nology in 43 of 48 modelled markets,

with onshore wind leading in ve. In

the most competitive markets, Saudi

Arabia and the UAE, solar LCOE is on

track to fall below $20/MWh by 2033.

The Wood Mackenzie reports cover

the regions of Europe, North America,

Latin America, Asia Pacic and the

Middle East and Africa.

Solar PV retains its position as the

cheapest power technology in Europe,

with xed-tilt LCOE forecast to fall

22 per cent by 2060 as capital costs

decline and technology improves, de-

spite a 14 per cent capex increase in

2026 driven by higher PV module

costs.

Battery storage turnkey capex rose

about 2 per cent, the rst increase in

three years, as battery cell prices re-

bounded around 10 per cent from their

2025 low on stronger demand and

higher lithium prices. Capex is forecast

to fall 12 per cent by 2031, before the

pace moderates as lithium prices

roughly double in 2029 when oversup-

ply clears and demand outgrows new

mine and rening capacity.

Headline News

Battery storage LCOE cheaper than gas

turbines, says new report

UNEP lays out emission cuts

needed for return to 1.5°C

n Emissions cuts of 18 per cent needed by 2030

n World leaders must deliver concrete plans

to phase out fossil fuels

Strategies addressing ageing rst-generation

equipment will impact renewable energy goals

Photo by Pexels

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October 2026 • Volume 19 • No 7 • Published monthly • ISSN 1757-7365

THE ENERGY INDUSTRY TIMES is published by Man in Black Media • www.mibmedia.com • Editor-in-Chief: Junior Isles • For all enquiries email: enquiries@teitimes.com

Delivering grids at speed Energy Transition Investment

Series

Building grids quickly and at scale was at the

heart of discussions at this year’s CIGRE

conference in Paris. Page 13

France has all it needs for a successful

energy transition but will it be enough going

forward? Page 14

News In Brief

Decision to scrap US power

plant emissions limits faces

legal challenges

The decision to scrap carbon stan-

dards for power plants in the US

looks set to face a long legal battle.

Page 2

Brazil anticipates solar PV

boom

Brazil’s solar energy market is set

to grow to $13.19 billion by 2034,

according to a new research report

from Inmarc, up ve-fold from

2025.

Page 4

Philippines to auction nearly

4 GW of natural gas projects

The Department of Energy is pre-

paring to auction 3800 MW of gas

red mid-merit generating capaci-

ty, considered a critical component

of the Philippines’ shift to clean

energy.

Page 5

Europe’s wind installers

want fair competition with

China

Danish wind farm developer Ørsted

has called for the EU to take action

against Chinese wind turbine mak-

ers that benet from “unfair” state

support.

Page 7

Electricity generation cost

‘constantly above $100/MWh’

The complexity of increasingly di-

versied electricity systems is push-

ing up the cost of new generation

beyond $100/MWh in most coun-

tries, a new report has found.

Page 8

Companies prepare to

exploit SMR market

opportunity

Equipment and technology provid-

ers are forming alliances, making

strategic investments as interest in

small modular reactors grows.

Page 9

Tec hno log y Per spe ct ive

Modern data centres can shed large

load within milliseconds during

transmission faults, driven by auto-

mated protection schemes never

designed with grid stability in mind.

Ireland’s response to this stability

challenge is MPID345, EirGrid’s

Grid Code modication.

Page 15

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The European Commission has re-iterated that it must electrify its economy, but has been

warned it must re-energise its plan for energy independence from Russia. Junior Isles

Renewables rising but fossil fuels here for the

foreseeable future, says S&P Global report

THE ENERGY INDUSTRY

TIMES

Final Word

Some people are just old fossils,

stuck in time, says Junior Isles.

Page 16

The European Court of Auditors

(ECA) has said REPowerEU, the

EU’s plan for energy independence

from Russia, is faltering just as Eu-

rope’s energy security is facing re-

newed threats from the turmoil in the

Middle East.

Designed to phase out Russian fos-

sil fuel imports and accelerate the

shift towards clean energy, the ECA

stressed that the plan struggles to de-

liver overall. It said it has had little

resonance so far across national pol-

icies, as the 27 EU member states

have committed not even a fth of

the €300 billion in additional invest-

ments needed to meet its objectives.

Consequently, the auditors warn

that, without a major boost, the RE-

PowerEU plan will be unable to reach

its ambitious goals.

The agship REPowerEU plan was

presented in May 2022. Its main goal

is to phase out Russian fossil fuel im-

ports through a set of actions and ob-

jectives, such as diversifying fossil

fuel supplies, increasing the produc-

tion capacity of renewables, and

strengthening cross-border energy

interconnectivity.

The European Commission esti-

mated that some €300 billion in addi-

tional investments would be required

by 2030, and made this amount avail-

able from the COVID recovery cash

pot (RRF). Member states could add

dedicated REPowerEU chapters to

their recovery plans for delivering

REPowerEU’s objectives. However,

the governance framework lacks ef-

fective tools to steer the implementa-

tion of the plan and reliably track re-

sults, say the auditors.

“Four years after its launch, RE-

PowerEU has stalled, even though

several hundred billion euros have

been made available”, said Mihails

Kozlovs, the ECA Member in charge

of the report.

“We must learn the right lessons

now, as the new geopolitical tensions

and their impact on energy markets

underscore the need to accelerate di-

versication and prevent future

over-reliance on a single supplier.

That is why we are calling for coordi-

nated efforts to re-energise the plan.”

The auditors note that REPowerEU

was barely taken up by EU countries.

Their national energy and climate

plans were meant to steer REPowerEU

on the ground. In reality, most did not

include any specic actions or targets

to bolster the plan’s objectives. In ad-

dition, EU countries committed only

€54.3 billion out of the €300 billion

made available under the RRF for RE-

PowerEU. For the auditors, such a

huge gap indicates either that invest-

ment needs were wrongly estimated

Continued on Page 2

Although renewables are rising fossil

fuels are not going away any time

soon, according to a report by S&P

Global Energy.

While electrication and low-car-

bon energy sources are likely to ex-

pand, fossil fuels could still provide

more than half of global energy by

2060, it said. Coal, oil and natural gas

are expected to continue underpin-

ning power systems, industrial pro-

duction and energy security alongside

renewables.

In one of three scenarios, its “current

realities pathway” predicts the world

will need nearly $14 trillion of capital

investment in upstream oil and gas

supply through 2060. But more than

$11 trillion would still be needed in

the “emissions reduction pathway”, a

higher number than the researchers

expected.

Nick Lowes, Vice President, con-

sulting, S&P Global Energy said the

size of the gap was a “little bit of a

surprise.” He added: “It gave us a

good indication of what’s being spent

to maintain or replace declines in ex-

isting oil and gas elds.”

The report says electrication is es-

sential for emissions reductions, but

comes at a cost. Renewables such as

solar and wind, alongside electrica-

tion, drive emissions reductions. If the

world is to aggressively pursue decar-

bonisation, solar and wind capacity

must rise eight times globally and 18

times in emerging markets and devel-

oped economies (EMDEs) by 2060.

But full-speed electrication is

likely not possible, it claims. Once

renewables generation rises above 50

to 60 per cent, the power system – in-

cluding transmission and storage –

would require $50 trillion in invest-

ments by 2060, the report nds.

Alternative technologies such as car-

bon capture and hydrogen will be ad-

opted but are not silver bullets.

Meredith Bennett, Senior Director

of energy transition consulting at S&P,

noted, however, that the picture could

change if long-duration batteries were

to become more commercial and

mainstream. “A fair bit of that addi-

tional cost is to make sure there’s suf-

cient adequacy beyond your typical

shorter-duration battery,” he noted.

Wor ry in gl y, the r ep or t say s tha t

even if the aggressive decarbonisation

pathway is taken, global emissions

will settle at 35 per cent of current lev-

els. Some advanced economies may

be net zero by 2060, but most EMDEs

cannot get there until the end of the

century.

The ndings come as the Interna-

tional Energy Agency’s latest update

on the coal sector sees higher natural

gas prices spurring a shift towards

coal in some regions in 2026, with the

Strait of Hormuz situation key for the

2027 outlook.

In the IEA’s Mid-Year Update, en-

ergy market disruptions caused by

the conict in the Middle East are

pushing global coal demand higher

this year as sharp rises in natural gas

prices prompt countries to turn to al-

ternative sources.

EU plan for energy independence from

Russia faltering, says European Court

of Auditors

Photo by Pixabay

THE ENERGY INDUSTRY TIMES - NOVEMBER 2026

Europe News

Janet Wood

The Italian parliament has given nal

approval to a law that will pave the

way for a new generation of nuclear

power plants.

Italy shut down its nuclear pro-

gramme after the 1986 Chernobyl

disaster. But Prime Minister Giorgia

Meloni’s government sees domestic

nuclear power as critical for the coun-

try’s energy security and its econom-

ic competitiveness.

“Italy must return to nuclear power,

a eld in which it once played a lead-

ing role,” former Industry Minister

Carlo Calenda, now a senator from the

centrist Azione party, said ahead of

the vote. Calenda urged the govern-

ment to act fast to “undo the damage”

caused by the shutdown.

The new nuclear law – approved by

the Senate with 81 votes in favour

versus 51 against – empowers Rome

to issue decrees on the construction

and operation of a variety of nuclear

installations, including small modular

reactors, as well as setting out rules

for managing spent fuel and safety.

Energy Minister Gilberto Pichetto

Fratin called the law “a historical day

for Italy”.

However, the opposition party said

nuclear will take years to deliver and

is a distraction from Italy’s slow prog-

ress on renewables.

Meanwhile Italy has reached a deal

with the European Commission that

allows it to lower electricity prices to

help tackle high energy bills, hit by

the surge in fossil fuel prices.

Meloni said that the deal allows the

country “to intervene in how electric-

ity prices are determined, addressing

the impact that the cost of gas has on

those prices”.

The mechanism will apply once the

gas price rises above €59/MWh. The

Italian government would lower pric-

es and compensate gas red genera-

tors for the difference between market

prices and the €59/MWh reference

cost. This would be paid for through

additional levies on consumers’ bills.

The wholesale gas price is currently

about €90/MWh.

In September Italian wholesale elec-

tricity prices were 45 per cent higher

than in France or Spain, where cheap-

er nuclear and renewable energy play

a larger role.

The agreement reached in Brussels

is signicantly different from Melo-

ni’s initial proposal, which had been

to subsidise gas red generators for

the cost of EU carbon levies. The

mechanism agreed with Brussels is

“inspired” by the so-called “Iberian

exception” agreed with Spain and

Portugal in 2022, an EU ofcial said.

But Simone Tagliapietra, an energy

expert at Brussels-based think-tank

Bruegel, commented: “Given Italy’s

high reliance on gas for electricity

generation, the system will end up

being unsustainably costly and have

a series of side effects spanning from

boosting gas demand to exporting

subsidised electricity to neighbouring

countries.”

Eurelectric, the organisation represent-

ing Europe’s electricity sector, has

written to António Costa, President of

the European Council and Members

of the European Council, with a shop-

ping list of measures it says will “sup-

port a predictable, investment-oriented

Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) with

a meaningful carbon price that pro-

vides a clear and stable long-term sig-

nal for decarbonisation and industrial

transformation”.

The group said its members “are set

to invest trillions by 2050 in the clean

energy, energy efciency, infrastruc-

ture and technologies needed to deliv-

er a decarbonised, resilient and com-

petitive EU economy”. It said the EU

ETS was a ‘core part’ of a stable long-

term framework. It wants the EU to:

ensure stability with a predictable cap

trajectory and rules-based market sta-

bility reserve; reinvesting ETS reve-

nues in industrial decarbonisation and

the energy transition; balance climate

action and competitiveness with “tar-

geted and conditional” free alloca-

tions that protect against carbon leak-

age; and ensure that international

carbon credits do not substitute for EU

emissions reductions.

It welcomed initiatives such as the

Investment Booster, the Industrial De-

carbonisation Bank and the Innovation

Fund, saying they can “help turn the

carbon price signal into concrete proj-

ects in Europe”. These instruments

should prioritise mature and scalable

decarbonisation solutions, including

direct electrication, it said.

Greenvolt Power has started construc-

tion of the 600 MW/2.4 GWh Siedlce

battery in Poland. The project will be

the country’s largest battery and one of

the largest in Europe, with commercial

operation scheduled to begin by the end

of 2027. BYD Energy Storage will

supply the battery technology.

Siedlce is part of Greenvolt’s grow-

ing battery storage portfolio, which

currently has a pipeline of approxi-

mately 4.6 GW, including around 2.4

GW in Poland.

Meanwhile in Germany GIGA Stor-

age announced that its 350 MW/1400

MWh Project Albatross near Neuen-

kirchen, Lower Saxony, is now ready

to build. A nal investment decision is

currently planned for Q4 2026. Con-

struction is expected to begin in the

rst half of 2027, with commissioning

planned for 2028.

The battery, developed with Isenau

Projects, will connect directly to the

high-voltage transmission grid.

Albatross is one of three 350

MW/1400 MWh German energy stor-

age projects acquired by GIGA Storage

from Isenau, including Pelican and

Kingsher. Together, the three projects

being developed by GIGA Storage and

Isenau represent more than 1 GW of

power and 4 GWh of energy-storage

capacity in Germany. GIGA Storage

said it intends to own and operate the

projects over the long term.

Kevin Dijkers, CEO of GIGA Stor-

age, said: “Reaching Ready to Build

with Project Albatross turns our ambi-

tions in Germany into results. With

Projects Pelican and Kingsher ex-

panding our pipeline here, we’re an-

other step closer to operating multiple

gigawatts of storage across Europe.”

Terna Energy and Saitec Offshore

Technologies are developing a oating

offshore wind pilot in Greece’s Aege-

an Sea, with three 15 MW wind tur-

bines mounted on concrete oating

platforms.

The project was selected for funding

support under the European Commis-

sion’s Innovation Fund. The award

covers site characterisation, platform

design, installation, grid connection

and operation. The project is also re-

ceiving support from the European

Investment Bank through its Project

Development Assistance programme.

Saitec’s so-called ‘Swinging Around

Twin Hull’ (SATH) platforms are de-

signed to improve stability and align

with wind and wave conditions, while

reducing structural loads in deep wa-

ters. The rst full-scale SATH oating

wind platform was deployed in 2023

off the Basque coast. The Aegean

project aims to demonstrate the tech-

nology at pre-commercial scale

Meanwhile France’s Matignicourt

oating solar project has begun con-

struct. Developed by Neoen, the proj-

ect has a total capacity of 35 MWp,

including 28 MWp of oating solar

power plant installed on a former quar-

ry lake that is no longer in operation.

Ciel & Terre EMEA is responsible

for the design of the oating solar

plant and its anchoring system and

installation.

“At Matignicourt, the environmen-

tal constraints directly inuenced

both the project design and the organ-

isation of the construction site. We

have a very short window to carry out

the anchoring works, which requires

us to carefully anticipate each stage

and adapt our resources accordingly,”

explained Vincent Pinchou, Head of

project.

Janet Wood

A new Electricity Networks Sector

Growth Plan published in the UK has

said the sector, which is expanding to

accommodate more renewable energy

and electrication of demand, will add

48 000 jobs in the sector to bring the

total to 210 000.

The Plan, created jointly by Energy

Networks Association (ENA) and

supply chain association BEAMA,

includes detailed regional break-

downs and also sets out practical mea-

sures to strengthen Britain’s industri-

al capabilities by providing greater

transparency around planned up-

grades for manufacturers.

Lawrence Slade, Chief Executive,

ENA, said: “Network Operators are

working hard to deliver a once in a

generation transformation of the grid

to enable the connection of more clean,

secure and affordable energy, power-

ing new industries and unlocking new

development across the UK.”

Cordi O’Hara, Co-Chair of the Elec-

tricity Networks Sector Growth Plan

and President, National Grid UK, add-

ed: “We’re upgrading the grid to

strengthen energy security and con-

nect homegrown energy to power

homes and businesses, but it’s also a

once in a generation opportunity to

drive growth across the country,

strengthening UK manufacturing and

supply chains, attracting investment

and creating good jobs.”

The launch came as the Secretary of

State gave the go-ahead for a new gas

eld in the North Sea, to be tapped.

The long-awaited decision caused de-

bate in the UK as it risked signalling

a setback in the UK’s green energy

ambition.

RenewableUK’s Chief Executive

Tara Singh said: “Oil and gas will con-

tinue to play a role in our energy mix

during the transition, and the North Sea

provides job and tax revenue benets

as it does so.” She said that the simul-

taneous announcement of a new Ener-

gy Wealth Fund “is potentially an

important part of the energy transition”.

She added: “Renewables already pro-

vide more than half our electricity, and

the pipeline of new projects coming

online over the next few years will

keep that momentum going.”

The decisions come as actions taken

by GB’s National Energy System Op-

erator are under scrutiny as the costs

of balancing supply and demand rise.

An independent report found that al-

legations NESO ‘covered up’ actions

taken were not substantiated. But it

highlighted the growing complexity of

managing the system while the slow

pace of grid expansion limits energy

ows. It highlighted the need to up-

grade operating systems and said con-

trol room operators believed their

concerns over system operation had

been undervalued by NESO manage-

ment. System operation had come

close to breaching limits over frequen-

cy and voltage for signicant periods

and staff feared that NESO had held

back from using tools such as market

notices of ‘insufcient margin’ for

reputational reasons.

UK grapples with hard

realities of energy

transition

New battery projects hit GWh

capacity in Poland and Germany

Eurelectric wants long term stability and European investment from ETS review

Floating renewables onshore and

offshore help address land issues

n New North Sea gas eld approved

n Concern over grid expansion to accommodate

green energy

Italian government takes short and long

term action on power supply

n New law paves the way for nuclear n European Commission green light for action on gas price

Photo: Jack Moik

Wärtsilä has broadened its role in sev-

en power plant projects under two

contracts for Brazilian energy compa-

ny Origem Energia, expanding previ-

ously announced engine supply to also

include process EPC activities above

ground level.

The power plant projects, awarded

in Brazil’s 2026 Reserve Capacity

Auction, represent 371 MW of exi-

ble capacity needed to provide bal-

ancing power.

The seven power plant projects –

Pilar Nova, Pilar and Manguaba I–V

– are located in Northeastern Brazil

and will operate using Origem Ener-

gia’s own onshore natural gas re-

sources. The plants will use 36 Wärt-

silä 34SG balancing engines.

The equipment delivery and con-

struction timetables are expected to

align with the commissioning sched-

ules for the respective power plants:

the Pilar Nova and Pilar plants are

scheduled to commence commercial

operation in October 2028, and the

Manguaba I-V plants in August

2029.

In addition, Wärtsilä signed an

agreement with Water-en Ener-

giebedrijf Aruba (WEB Aruba), the

Caribbean island’s energy provider,

to integrate, optimise, and control

Aruba’s power generation assets.

This includes EPC work to install a

35 MW / 70 MWh Battery Energy

Storage System (BESS), as well as a

services agreement. The order is

scheduled for completion by Q2

2028.

Siemens Energy and Dynamis Power

Solutions have signed an agreement

for the supply of 119 gas turbine cores

to be integrated into Dynamis’ mobile

power generation solutions, which

will be used for a range of different

applications to support power needs in

the USA. SGT-400 cores, each with

an output of about 15 MW, will be

supplied over several years, with the

rst batch to be delivered in 2027.

The Siemens Energy cores will be

integrated into the Dynamis DT18,

the company’s newest next-genera-

tion hypermobile power package.

The gas turbine cores will be manu-

factured at Siemens Energy’s facility

in Lincoln, UK.

Amazon has signed an agreement with

American Electric Power (AEP) and

X-energy for a 960 MW nuclear pow-

er facility in Indiana, USA, that will

consist of 12 SMRs at the site of a

former coal red power plant. The

facility would supply electricity to

Amazon’s data centres, with any ex-

cess going to the regional grid.

The proposed plant would use 12

Xe-100 reactors from X-energy, each

designed to generate 80 MW. Ama-

zon will help fund project develop-

ment. If approved, the facility would

be located at the former Breed Gen-

erating Station site in Sullivan Coun-

ty, Indiana.

If the Xe-100 SMR receives regu-

latory approval, it will use TRISO

fuel, which X-energy claims will

provide passive safety characteristics

to prevent core melting.

Nordex Group has won its rst order

in New Zealand from Mercury.

Mercury has ordered 40 N133/4.8

wind turbines with a total capacity of

192 MW for the Puke Kapo Hau wind

farm in the Otago region of New Zea-

land’s South Island. The contract also

includes a 30-year service agreement.

Installation of the rst turbine on a

90 m tubular steel tower is scheduled

to begin in early 2028, with commis-

sioning of the rst unit planned for

mid-2028.

Alberto Perez, Managing Director

Australia of the Nordex Group said:

“Entering the New Zealand market

with Mercury as our rst customer

represents an important step for the

Nordex Group. New Zealand has

excellent wind resources and ambi-

tious renewable energy opportuni-

ties, making it a very attractive mar-

ket for us.”

T&T Group and Vinacom Investment

and Trading Company have signed a

Memorandum of Agreement for the

development and operation of the 495

MW Savan 2 wind power project in

Savannakhet province, Laos. The

project is valued at about $750 million.

Savan 2 is scheduled to start com-

mercial operation by December

2028.

T&T Group developed the 300

MW Savan 1 site, which started

commercial operation in December

2025. The site has supplied 0.9

TWh annually across the border to

Vietnam.

T&T Group said that Savan 2 will

benet from the foundation provided

by Savan 1 in terms of experience,

implementation techniques, infra-

structure, and the specially-built 70

km transmission system connecting

to Vietnam via the 220 kV Lao Bao

substation.

AFRY has been appointed as the In-

ternational Technical Advisor (ITA)

for the 1.5 GW Quynh Lap LNG Ther-

mal Power Plant project in Tan Mai

Ward, Nghe An Province, Vietnam.

AFRY’s scope includes Front-End

Engineering Design (FEED) for the

onshore LNG receiving terminal and

associated marine infrastructure, as

well as Environmental and Social

Impact Assessment (ESIA) services

for the entire plant. The assignment

covers key elements including jetty

design, onshore LNG terminal facili-

ties, associated infrastructure, and

onshore and offshore surveys.

The planned development will

comprise an onshore LNG receiving

terminal supplying natural gas to a

1.5 GW power plant, forming an in-

tegrated large scale LNG-to-power

development.

Wärtsilä will supply engines for a 59

MW power plant extension in Moom-

ba, South Australia. The project will

modernise ageing gas eld infrastruc-

ture by replacing the compression at

seven gas-driven compressor stations

with a single centralised electric-driv-

en station.

The power plant will operate with

ve Wärtsilä 31SG engine generator

units running with gas from the local

Moomba elds. In addition to the

engines, which are scheduled for de-

livery in mid-2027, Wärtsilä will

provide advisory services to support

the project.

Kari Punnonen, Energy Business

Director, Australasia at Wärtsilä En-

ergy, said: “The Wärtsilä 31SG has

high efciency and is particularly

suited to applications where optimis-

ing the cost of gas production is a

priority. It is used in numerous instal-

lations worldwide.”

Global Energy Services (GES) has

won four contracts to deliver three so-

lar clusters and one standalone solar

plant in Aragon and the Valencia region

of Spain. The projects consist of a com-

bined installed capacity of 583.41 MW

and has a total contract value of €225

million.

The rst cluster involves construc-

tion of two solar PV plants in the

province of Zaragoza, with a com-

bined capacity of 93.52 MW. The fa-

cilities are expected to enter opera-

tion in H2 2027.

The second contract, also located in

Zaragoza, covers construction of a

single 132.92 MW solar PV plant.

The remaining two contracts relate

to construction of two solar clusters

that comprise nine solar PV plants

with a combined capacity of 356.97

MW. Three of these plants will be lo-

cated in Aragon and account for

159.47 MW, while the remaining six

facilities in the Valencia region will

contribute a further 197.5 MW.

Hamburger Energienetze has awarded

three high-voltage cable projects to

NKT as part of the expansion and mod-

ernisation of Hamburg’s 110 kV pow-

er grid to meet increasing electricity

demand driven by electrication and

the energy transition.

NKT will deliver as general con-

tractor across the full project scope,

from planning and cable production

through installation, testing and doc-

umentation to full commissioning.

The three projects are designed to

ensure an intelligent, robust and ex-

ible power grid capable of meeting

rising demand from renewable ener-

gy, e-mobility, heat pumps and new

industrial loads. The projects include

more than 50 km of 110 kV XLPE

power cables.

Nordex has won contracts to deliver 34

wind turbines totalling 175 MW across

France, Portugal, and Spain. These

orders include eight N175/6.X tur-

bines, four N163/6.X turbines, four

N149/4.X turbines, nine N133/4.8 tur-

bines, and nine N131/3.6 turbines. All

projects are scheduled for installation

and commissioning between 2027 and

2028.

Nordex also received a 42 MW or-

der from Navaris in Germany. The 42

MW Lambacher Höh wind farm

project is being built in Rhine-

land-Palatinate. The order comprises

the supply and installation of four

N163/6.X turbines and two

N175/6.X turbines.

In addition, Nordex has secured

several new orders totalling 389 MW

in Türkiye. The contracts include the

supply and installation of 56 wind

turbines of the Delta4000 series.

Each contract also includes a multi-

year service and maintenance agree-

ment designed to support high tur-

bine availability and efcient,

reliable operation over the long term.

Installation and commissioning of

the projects are scheduled to take

place in stages, beginning in the

course of 2027 and continuing

through to 2028, in line with the re-

spective project timelines.

The names of the customers and

projects have not been disclosed.

Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Energy has

announced plans to increase the total

capacity of its wind power plants to

more than 10 GW by 2030, strength-

ening wind energy’s role in the coun-

try’s energy mix.

New projects are planned in

Karakalpakstan and the Navoi,

Bukhara, Jizzakh and Samarkand re-

gions. The Ministry of Energy said

that in addition, at least 7 GW of so-

lar capacity expansion over the same

period was also planned.

One of the projects involved is the

500 MW Zarafshan Wind Power

Plant in the Navoi region, developed

with support from the Asian Devel-

opment Bank (ADB).

In addition, ACWA Power signed

$226 million in nancing agreements

for the 300 MW Bash II wind farm in

Bukhara region. The project is ex-

pected to start commercial operations

in H2 2027.

GE Vernova will provide gas power

technology for the new 372 MW Son-

gon combined cycle gas turbine power

plant, located in the Songon region near

Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. GE Vernova

will supply a 9E gas turbine and gen-

erator. China Energy International has

been appointed as the EPC contractor.

The facility is projected to represent

up to 12 per cent of the country’s to-

tal installed base upon its scheduled

2029 operational launch.

Wang Xiaoming, Deputy General

Manager (Acting CEO) for Songon

Energies, said: “The Songon Ener-

gies project is designed to strength-

en energy security and support fu-

ture growing electricity demand

growth in the Greater Abidjan re-

gion while reinforcing the country’s

position as a regional energy hub in

West Africa.”

Engineering consultancy IDOM has

been selected by Shanxi Installation

Group to undertake detailed engineer-

ing design for the 500 MW Al Kamil

Solar I, a major renewable energy de-

velopment planned in South Al Shar-

qiyah Governorate, Oman.

Located in the Al Kamil Wal Wa

area of South Al Sharqiyah Gover-

norate, the independent power proj-

ect will supply electricity to Nama

Power and Water Procurement Com-

pany (Nama PWP) under a long-term

power purchase agreement.

IDOM’s scope of work covers de-

tailed engineering services for the

utility-scale photovoltaic facility,

alongside the denition of initial site

studies essential to the project’s suc-

cessful implementation.

The Al Kamil Solar I project is be-

ing developed by a consortium com-

prising EDF Power Solutions, Oman

National Engineering & Investment

Company (ONEIC) and OQ Alterna-

tive Energy (OQAE), the renewable

energy arm of OQ Group.

GE Vernova has won a contract to pro-

vide rotor life extensions for ve GE

Ve rn o va 9F g as t ur bi n es a t t he K ur e i-

mat, Nubaria, and Cairo North power

plants in Egypt. Under the agreement,

it will extend the operating life of the

ve turbines, which have a total capac-

ity of about 1250 MW, by 13-15 years.

The relevant services will be executed

between 2028 and 2035.

Americas

Asia-Pacic

Wärtsilä expands role in

Brazilian projects

Amazon plans 960 MW

nuclear plant in Indiana

Nordex wins 192 MW

New Zealand order

T&T to develop 495 MW

Laos wind farm

GES to build 600 MW

solar in Spain

Uzbekistan plans 10 GW

of wind power by 2030

Côte d’Ivoire strengthens

power capacity

GE Vernova undertakes

GT life extension in Egypt

IDOM wins Oman solar

design contract

HVAC onshore cable

projects for Hamburg

Nordex secures Europe,

Türkiye orders

AFRY technical advisors

for Vietnam project

Wärtsilä engines for

Moomba upgrade

Mobile solutions for US

power growth

International

Europe

THE ENERGY INDUSTRY TIMES - NOVEMBER 2026

Tenders, Bids & Contracts

resistive heating as current ows

through cables, power conversion

systems (PCS), and cells. They grow

faster as power rises, and scale with

energy throughput.

HVAC is a special case as it belongs

to both groups. Its base load keeps

the batteries within their operating

window and shifts with ambient

temperature, creating xed losses.

But its cooling systems also adapt to

work harder when high power cre-

ates more heat, creating variable

losses.

The operating prole decides

which group dominates. A site cy-

cling fully every day at rated power

spreads its xed losses over a lot of

energy, meaning that variable losses

dominate. A site that mostly holds

reserve is idle for long periods, so the

same xed losses are spread over

very little energy.

This is why RTE cannot just be

viewed as a xed property of a bat-

tery. It shifts with power level, idle

time, and season. A test that measures

all of these at a single setting cap-

tures little of the operational reality.

There are several reasons why the

RTE test doesn’t give the full picture.

Capacity tests are designed for

comparability. They typically in-

clude a dened pre-conditioning

phase followed by a standardised full

cycle, charging from 0 per cent to

100 per cent SOC (state of charge,

the ‘fuel gauge’ metric of the bat-

tery), followed by a full discharge.

Methodology can skew the results.

In some cases, only the energy

charged or discharged above a cer-

tain power is considered. We have

even seen HVAC load excluded from

RTE testing.

BESS rarely operates under these

conditions. A battery could be tested

at full power, but have an RTE as

much as 20 percentage points lower

when it runs at low power. During

voltage response (when the battery

adjusts its output to support the grid),

RTE has been measured as low as 47

per cent. The test also ignores the

weather. The seasons affect how

hough market mechanisms

vary across customers and con-

tinents, most battery energy

storage system (BESS) business cas-

es rest on a simple transaction: buy

energy, store it, sell it later.

Round-trip efciency (RTE) is a

metric used in contracts and perfor-

mance reporting to show how much

of the energy you buy is actually left

to sell. It’s the ratio of energy dis-

charged to energy charged. If you

charge a battery with 100 MWh and

can discharge 90 MWh, your RTE is

90 per cent.

On paper, most assets perform well

in this regard. ACCURE’s 2026

Banking BESS report, based on data

from more than 50 BESS projects,

found that the RTE measured during

site acceptance testing (SAT) beat

the contractual guarantee by a medi-

an of 4.5 percentage points.

At rst glance, this sounds reassur-

ing. RTE looks like it tends to sit

comfortably above the bare mini-

mum required by contracts. On

closer inspection, it raises a question

– is the bar being set too low?

Passing the test does not equal

good performance. Despite being

one of the most critical warranty and

performance parameters for BESS,

RTE is often discussed only once a

year, during a site’s annual capacity

test. The RTE result is checked as a

simple pass or fail against the OEM

warranty and offtake agreements,

and rarely examined further. This is

despite ACCURE’s report showing

that a ‘pass’ can vary between 83 and

88 per cent+. Since most sites appear

to pass the test, it isn’t too surprising

that many are comfortable with just

testing RTE annually.

However, this approach has two

major aws:

1) Flying blind, 364 days a year: RTE

is effectively unmonitored between

capacity tests. Any changes that go

unnoticed might already have signi-

cant nancial impact before the testing

schedule provides transparency and

enables informed decision-making.

2) Result granularity and interpreta-

tion: A simple pass/fail criterion at

site level is insufcient to make RTE

a usable control parameter. Also, us-

ing only site-level results might hide

or dilute the impacts of individual

underperforming inverter units.

The measured RTE of a capacity

test is still useful as a frame of refer-

ence. But it can’t tell you how the

asset performs between tests, under

its actual operating strategy, or how

different conditions are affecting that

performance.

Fixed and variable losses should

also be considered. How much energy

a BESS loses is determined not just

by its hardware but also by its opera-

tional context. Losses fall into two

groups that behave very differently:

n Fixed losses are the cost of being

switched on. Standby consumption as

well as monitoring and communica-

tions draw power regardless of

whether the battery is cycling or idle.

They accumulate with time and scale

with hours of operation.

n Variable losses are the cost of mov-

ing energy. These are mostly due to

hard cooling and heating systems

must work, obscuring how losses

affect RTE throughout the year.

This gap has a cost. A capacity test

is, in effect, a simulation of the best

day of the asset’s year. Feeding that

result into nancial forecasts or

trading decisions means modelling

every other day as if it were the best

one. Every forecast built on it is op-

timistic by design.

The effect on cost is direct. RTE

determines how much energy must

be bought for every megawatt hour

sold. At 83 per cent RTE, each MWh

discharged requires about 1.20 MWh

of charging. At 88 per cent, it requires

1.14 MWh, almost 6 per cent less.

Yet a site at either level could still

pass its capacity test.

Take an illustrative 100 MW / 200

MWh site running roughly one full

cycle a day. Over a year, the difference

between 83 per cent and 88 per cent

RTE adds up to around 5000 MWh of

additional charging energy. At an av-

erage charging price of $50/MWh,

that is roughly $250 000 a year spent

on energy that is essentially lost be-

fore trading decisions are made.

Finally, there is the cost of not

knowing. RTE guarantees are as-

sessed against the capacity test, so a

site that passes but under-performs

in daily operation has no contractual

remedy. Within the site, a single

under-performing unit can be dilut-

ed by the rest of the system and go

unnoticed until the next test. Only a

continuously tracked RTE makes

the problem visible early enough to

act on.

The key is to measure before you

act. Most sites already collect the

data needed to track operational

RTE. The real question is whether

asset managers can access it at a

useful level of detail: by unit, power

level and season, rather than as one

site-level number. Once they can,

four key levers for increasing RTE

become available:

1) Dispatch and settings.

- Idle PCS: units often stay ener-

gised during idle periods and keep

Passing the annual capacity test is a useful milestone, but it is not proof of performance. ACCURE Battery

Intelligence’s Philipp Richard, explains.

Why are battery operators only

testing round-trip efciency

once a year?

consuming energy. Where dispatch

comes in discrete blocks without re-

serve obligations, it may be possible

to switch idle units off.

- Load sharing: if the site runs be-

low rated power, distribute the load

so that the active PCS units operate

near their most efcient point.

- HVAC setpoints: a higher setpoint

may be acceptable, even if it mar-

ginally increases calendar ageing.

Weigh the energy saved against the

ageing cost.

- After changes: re-check settings

after rmware updates and on-site

maintenance.

2) Unit-level monitoring. Track RTE

per PCS and per rack so one weak unit

is not averaged away. When RTE

drops, establish whether the cause is

the PCS, the DC connections, auxilia-

ry load or the cells.

3) Optimiser and nancial model.

Feed in operational RTE, ideally by

power level and season, instead of the

capacity-test value.

4) Contracts. Where a systematic

equipment issue is found early, war-

ranty and remedy rights are far easier

to enforce with continuous data.

Check how RTE is dened, at which

boundary and power level, and wheth-

er it is assessed only once a year.

Passing the annual capacity test is

a useful milestone, but it is not proof

of performance. The good news is

that closing the gap just means using

the data already available, at a ner

level of detail, and more often than

annually.

Operators who do this can nd and

x problems early, make better dis-

patch and settings decisions, and

give their nancial models numbers

that reect reality. Investors and

lenders can ask for the same trans-

parency before they commit capital.

If you know what your RTE is 365

days a year instead of just one, then

you will know exactly what it is

costing you.

Philipp Richard is a Battery Perfor-

mance Expert at ACCURE Battery

Intelligence.

THE ENERGY INDUSTRY TIMES - NOVEMBER 2026

Industry Perspective

Richard: Passing the RTE test

does not equal good performance

the pace is more uncertain and may

vary substantially across economies

and scenarios. Another key variable is

the growth in demand from data cen-

tres. They potentially represent a ma-

jor source of power consumption, al-

though projections are currently

uncertain.

In past decades, power demand was

largely met by additional fossil-fuel

generation capacity. Over the past

few years, investment in clean energy

has accelerated sharply in many

economies in the region. The shift

toward solar and wind, as well as nu-

clear in a few countries, has been

driven by improving cost competi-

tiveness, low operating costs and re-

duced exposure to volatile fuel prices,

together with the broader energy

transition. Markets and regulators

must act as genuine enablers for this

momentum to be sustained.

The many challenges that Asia-Pa-

cic’s markets and regulators must

address fall into several areas. Four

sia-Pacic is the biggest con-

sumer of energy and electrici-

ty of any region worldwide. Its

share has sharply grown in the past

decade. The region accounted for 47.3

per cent of total global energy supply

in 2025, a rise of over ve percentage

points, based on calculations using

data from the Energy Institute.

The region’s power generation was

responsible for 52 per cent of the

global total, an increase of over nine

percentage points over 2015-2025.

Fossil fuels dominated electricity

generation, with a 61.5 per cent share.

This included 51.6 per cent from

thermal coal, 9.3 per cent from natural

gas, and 0.6 per cent from oil. Yet

clean energy accounted for a substan-

tial 38.5 per cent, including 19.9 per

cent from renewables, 12.2 per cent

from hydropower, 5 per cent from

nuclear and 1.4 per cent from others.

Asia-Pacic’s share will likely

continue to rise, and the region should

witness the largest absolute growth in

electricity demand in the world in the

coming decade, maybe even two de-

cades. Developed economies in

Asia-Pacic accounted for a mere 9

per cent of the total in 2025; almost 15

per cent if “almost-mature” econo-

mies such as South Korea and Taiwan

were to be included.

As such, about 85 per cent of elec-

tricity demand is from developing

economies, such as China, India, In-

donesia, and Vietnam. These econo-

mies will post strong demand growth

as consumption is driven by econom-

ic expansion, industrialisation and

electrication.

There are a variety of long-term

projections, ranging from public in-

stitutions like the International Ener-

gy Agency to commercial providers

such as Wood Mackenzie. Broadly

speaking, the various institutions put

power demand growth at about 3.5 to

5 per cent annually over the coming

decade. Growth should remain strong

into the following decade, although

lend themselves to appropriate regu-

latory reform: bureaucratic hurdles,

integrating solar into liberalised mar-

kets, auction design, and grid connec-

tion issues. Two others are more fun-

damental investment and nancing

challenges: cost-of-capital disparities

and off-taker creditworthiness.

The rst area for regulatory reform

is bureaucratic hurdles in processing

clean energy projects, where change

is urgently needed in many countries.

These hurdles take many forms.

In Australia, overlapping planning

and environmental requirements

have resulted in longer approval

times: in New South Wales, large

solar projects take over 1100 days on

average, and wind farms nearly

1400. In India, court cases, forest

clearances and right-of-way disputes

have considerably held up essential

infrastructure for renewables, partic-

ularly the Green Energy Corridor

transmission programme. In the

Philippines, complex permitting in-

volving more than 80 permits across

more than 25 agencies has hindered

offshore wind development.

Another area is integrating solar

into liberalised markets. Sharp cost

reductions in recent years have made

this renewable energy source highly

competitive. Generation typically

peaks around midday, depressing

wholesale electricity prices. In Aus-

tralia, as in China’s Shandong prov-

ince, prices have at times fallen below

zero amid abundant renewable output.

In Japan, they can fall to zero. Regu-

latory reforms are needed to make

these markets more exible, strength-

ening incentives for storage, demand

response and other resources that can

absorb surplus solar generation.

A third area is auction design. Gov-

ernments invite private-sector renew-

ables developers to bid for contracts

to supply a specied amount of ca-

pacity at a proposed price. Poorly

designed auctions can encourage un-

sustainably low bids, leaving winners

unable to achieve adequate returns

and potentially leading to construc-

tion delays or cancellation if develop-

ments become unviable or impossible

to nance. Auction-design and imple-

mentation problems have arisen in

China, India, Indonesia, the Philip-

pines and Vietnam, albeit in different

forms and for different reasons.

A nal area for regulatory reform is

grid connection issues. They include

physical bottlenecks, construction

lag, and queueing issues (when a

clean energy project developer se-

cures a construction approval but

does not go ahead to build). These

problems can be xed through regu-

lation, experience elsewhere shows.

To clear queues of projects that

hold approvals but never build, some

countries replaced “rst come, rst

served” with “rst ready” rules,

backed by deposits, progression

milestones and one-off penalty-free

exits; Britain, for example, expects

its queue to shrink by half or more.

Physical bottlenecks can be eased

through exible connections, as In-

dia permits, alongside published ca-

pacity maps and grid-enhancing

technologies. Construction lag can

be cut by allowing anticipatory

THE ENERGY INDUSTRY TIMES - NOVEMBER 2026

Decarbonisation Series

Can Asia attract the clean energy

investment it needs?

investment, creating Renewable En-

ergy Zones, as Australia and the

Philippines have done, and stream-

lining transmission permitting.

Two specic areas, cost of capital

disparities and offtaker creditworthi-

ness, are signicantly more complex

investment and nancing challenges.

They require action from govern-

ment, especially economic and -

nancial bodies, and coordination

with the public and private nancial

markets ranging from multilateral

development banks to commercial

banks and investors.

The rst is cost of capital, which

differs across jurisdictions because

each carries a different risk prole,

and investors require higher returns to

compensate for higher risk. Two clear

indicators are interest rates and sover-

eign credit ratings.

Central bank policy rates exceed 11

per cent in Pakistan and Mongolia. In

Japan and Thailand, they are at or

below 1.5 per cent. Sovereign ratings

vary just as sharply. Australia and

Singapore have AAA ratings from

credit rating agency S&P, reecting

strong institutions, sound public -

nances and robust external positions.

At the other end, Pakistan and Sri

Lanka are rated speculative grade,

commonly known as “junk”.

The second area is the creditworthi-

ness of the offtaker (the buyer of the

electricity). This area is intimately

linked to the cost-of-capital hurdle. In

Asia-Pacic, many buyers are state-

owned utilities. Weak utility nances

raise the risk of late or missed pay-

ments. Even in more advanced econ-

omies the problem can arise: South

Korea’s KEPCO saw its balance sheet

damaged by a tariff freeze in 2022

and 2023.

Investors respond by demanding

higher returns or protections such as

sovereign guarantees, payment secu-

rity mechanisms and multilateral risk

cover. Direct power purchase agree-

ments with creditworthy corporate

buyers offer another route around

weak utilities.

So, can Asia-Pacic attract the enor-

mous investment needed to accelerate

the transition? The answer is positive,

although timing and speed are uncer-

tain. The required regulatory reforms

are broadly recognised by those juris-

dictions in the region facing them.

Those that address them with more

urgency will attract a greater share of

the available capital.

The region started its transition a

little later than some other regions,

especially Europe. Yet the massive

growth in clean energy development

in most economies has proven the

region can catch up, though change

will neither be linear nor uniform

across markets. Given that the invest-

ment opportunity is massive, inves-

tors and the nancial markets will be

important drivers of change.

Joseph Jacobelli runs Bourne Impact

Capital and has spent more than 35

years in energy markets. He also works

to advance sustainable nance, host-

ing the Asia Climate Finance Podcast

and writing two books, most recently

‘Powering the Unstoppable Green

Shift’.

Asia-Pacic’s share of global energy and electricity

Regulatory reform and investment challenges

Asia-Pacic accounts for the largest projected increase in electricity demand worldwide. Fossil fuels will meet much of

the near-term growth, while clean energy will play a greater role over time. But are the region’s markets and regulatory

frameworks ready to attract the investment needed to accelerate the transition? Joseph Jacobelli argues they can.

torage is increasingly being

recognised as a key component

in power systems – whether to

support generators and grid opera-

tors faced with the challenges pre-

sented by growing amounts of vari-

able renewables on the network, or

helping data centre owners address

backup power requirements or rapid

uctuations in the electricity needs

of their facilities.

According to the International En-

ergy Agency (IEA), battery storage

is the fastest growing power technol-

ogy today. In 2025, 108 GW of new

battery storage capacity was de-

ployed worldwide, 40 per cent more

than in 2024. Installed capacity is

now 11 times higher than in 2021.

Of the various battery chemistry

technologies, lithium-iron phosphate

(LFP) batteries now account for

around 90 per cent of deployments.

Now there is a new kid on the

block – new in terms of terrestrial

grid scale deployment – the Aqueous

Metal Cell (AMC) based on nick-

el-hydrogen technology. The tech-

nology, recently commercialised by

US company EnerVenue, not only

offers longer storage duration than

LFP but can be cycled more fre-

quently, has a longer lifespan and

presents zero re risk.

While the technology has been

around for decades, it is only re-

cently that EnerVenue has managed

to develop systems for the power

sector.

Commenting on the technology’s

origins, Henning Rath, Chief Execu-

tive Ofcer of EnerVenue, said:

“Nickel-hydrogen technology started

in the ‘80s, developed by NASA for

the Hubble space telescope. Then a

group of Stanford University asked

the question: if we were to build the

perfect battery for stationary applica-

tions, what would it look like? So,

they redesigned the NASA technolo-

gy. Originally it had a platinum elec-

trode, which has high performance

but is super expensive. So the re-

searchers replaced it with nickel, and

also optimised form factor, energy

density, pressure regulation, etc.”

The AMC contains a nickel hy-

droxide cathode and a nickel alloy

anode in an alkaline electrolyte. On

charge, hydrogen gas is produced

and stored inside a sealed, large for-

mat cell. On discharge, the hydrogen

reaction is reversed. The system is

hermetically sealed. This all means

there is no liquid spillage, no venting

under normal conditions and no ther-

mal cascade pathway.

Ara Ake, New Zealand’s Future

Energy Development agency, con-

ducted an independent analysis of

more than ten battery chemistries

for stationary storage applications.

It found that nickel-hydrogen out-

performed every other chemistry

studied across technical, commer-

cial, safety, and environmental di-

mensions for applications under 12

hours.

The cell is designed for 30 000

charge cycles, equivalent to up to

three cycles a day for 30 years, com-

pared with a typical lithium-ion g-

ure of 8000-10 000 cycles, and it re-

quires no scheduled augmentation

across that life, according to Ener-

Ve nu e . A l it hi u m-ion installation is

typically replaced or augmented ev-

ery seven to ten years, which chang-

es the economics over the life of a

project.

The battery can operate in tempera-

tures ranging from -20° to +60°C,

needs no augmentation, no active

cooling and, where local codes al-

low, no re suppression system.

Subsequently, the auxiliary equip-

ment that usually adds cost and com-

plexity to a storage site is largely ab-

sent, and the levelised cost of the

energy it stores over 30 years falls

accordingly. The cell uses no lithium

and no rare earths. Its bulk materials

are steel, nickel, glass-bre compos-

ite and a water-based electrolyte, and

the nickel and steel can be recovered

and reused at end of life.

After coming across the battery

chemistry about a year ago, Rath,

“excited by the technology”, saw it

was time to commercialise. Outlin-

ing the road to commercialisation,

Rath said: “The Stanford team real-

ised they were sitting on a raw dia-

mond, so they spun the technology

off and founded EnerVenue.”

EnerVenue decided to develop

what it calls ‘generation IV’ – a bat-

tery with a 3 kWh capacity. The

business was then essentially trans-

formed from the R&D stage to a

commercial organisation by capital-

ising the business with a $300 mil-

lion Series B extension in April this

year. This allowed it to extend its

global footprint and enabled the

company to build its rst high-vol-

ume manufacturing line, located in

Changzhou, China. It is the rst high

volume manufacturing line built

anywhere in the world for the AMC.

The factory will produce 250 MWh

of AMCs per year in its rst phase,

which is around 300 cells a day at

full automation, with production

ramping to 1 GWh in 2027 and

multi-gigawatt-hour scale by 2028 as

capacity expands. It is the rst facili-

ty in the world to produce the AMC

at scale.

Notably, the factory ofcially be-

gan production the day after Ener-

Ve nu e s i gn e d i ts  r st m ul t i- me g a-

watt-hour commercial order.

Twenty-six Energy Prism storage

units, with a combined capacity of

11 MWh, will be installed at an oil-

eld in northern China, where they

will store electricity generated by an

onsite solar array and supply it back

to the operation. The rst three units

ship in December 2026 and the re-

maining 23 will follow in March

2027. The order was placed by a ma-

jor Chinese oil and gas producer for

one of its established production

sites. The project essentially shifts

daytime solar output into the hours

when the site draws power. The En-

ergy Prism units will be delivered as

complete containerised systems,

ready to connect to the site’s power

conversion equipment.

Rath said: “Having launched the

factory roughly eight months ago,

now we are in mass production and

in deployment. We signed the rst

large scale deal for an oil eld in

China; we have projects in the US,

Canada, Australia, Belgium and the

Middle East, so we are really ramp-

ing it up.”

In terms of market opportunities,

Rath, notes that he does not believe

it is in competition with lithium. In-

stead, he sees the market being in

three “big buckets”. Firstly, LFP for

a 2-4 hour standard application. The

second, which he says will come

next year, is sodium-based technol-

ogy. “This will cannibalise a little

bit of LFP when it comes to station-

ary storage, but will create its own

market.”

The last bucket is what he calls

long duration lithium-free storage,

which has chemistries such as iron-

air and vanadium ow batteries. This

is the market where Rath sees the

AMC competing.

“This market is roughly 30 GWh

this year and will increase to 120

GWh by 2030 – long duration, lithi-

um-free, very high re safety stan-

dards, and extreme temperature resil-

ience is the market that we are

playing in, said Rath. “So, we see a

lot of projects in the oil, gas, mining

and petrochemical industries. We see

a lot of projects in commercial and

industrial applications where there

are high power uctuations between

supply and demand. An example is

in factories that build electrolysers,

so we are buffering peak shaving.

And obviously data centres.

“With the battery cell capable of

discharging from 30 minutes to 24

hours and a chemistry that is well

positioned for high power cells… we

are designing cells for backup appli-

cations in data centres and for peak

shaving in data centres.”

In the US, where there is more of a

bias towards gas engines for data

centre backup, Rath points out that,

in addition to emissions and climate

change considerations, batteries can

react to changes in power demands

within milliseconds, as opposed to

the order of 10 minutes needed by

gas turbines and engines. This ability

to follow loads almost instanta-

neously, is especially important for

AI data centres. And when compared

to other battery technologies, Rath

believes AMC technology has other

advantages.

“Most other battery technologies

can react quite quickly,” he said,

“but they cannot multi-cycle per day.

Most technologies need resting time,

e.g. for server management; our bat-

teries don’t really need that since

you can run three, four cycles per

day, sometimes even ve.”

Rath stresses, however, that “there

is no perfect battery, only a perfect

battery for its application”. He there-

fore sees a real opportunity in the

long duration market. Compared

with vanadium ow batteries, AMC

batteries require a smaller footprint,

and have a total cost of ownership

that is about 40 per cent lower. De-

pending on its application, Rath cal-

culates they outperform levelised

cost of storage by 30-40 per cent.

He also compared nickel-hydrogen

cost with lead acid batteries for data

centres, noting: “It again depends on

the application. Are we talking about

[a battery] for uninterrupted power

supply (UPS); or is it a peak shav-

ing, grid stabilising, in-front-of-me-

ter battery? For UPS, the case is

quite straightforward – lead acid

needs to be replaced every 3-5 years.

Our battery will be deployed, main-

tenance free, for 30 years; so level-

ised cost of storage is very competi-

tive. For grid stabilisation, it really

depends on how you drive the bat-

tery – how many times you cycle per

day, because this where we shine.”

Currently, most traction is being

seen in oil wells, gas elds and pet-

rochemical facilities. “We are replac-

ing gensets and backup batteries to

manage load. In our project in north

China, we will power 40 per cent of

the oil eld with our battery,” said

Rath. “In terms of regions, the Mid-

dle East is an interesting market due

to the battery’s resilience at high am-

bient temperatures.” He added:

“China, Australia, Europe and the

US will all be key markets… The

US is very exciting when it comes to

data centres.”

Rath summed up: “…I am in the

perfect spot right now; we have an

amazing global team that is work-

ing extremely hard to turn a new

chemistry into reality. I believe we

are just getting started in creating

something the world has never seen.

Right now, we’re on a world road-

show to bring our technology closer

to the end customers.”

Having been used

in the Hubble

space telescope

for decades, nickel-

hydrogen battery

chemistry has now

been commercialised

for terrestrial

stationary power

applications.

Junior Isles explains

what it means.

A down to Earth approach

to battery storage

THE ENERGY INDUSTRY TIMES - NOVEMBER 2026

Technology Focus

Rath: The Stanford team

realised they were sitting on a

raw diamond

THE ENERGY INDUSTRY TIMES - NOVEMBER 2026

Final Word

urelectric’s ‘Power Barometer

2026’ makes interesting read-

ing. It comes at a time when

the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz

and the ongoing war in Ukraine con-

tinue to burden many European

households with sky-high energy

costs and crippling prices at the

pumps. But importantly, it nds that

clean power generation cushioned the

impact of fossil fuel volatility.

Rightly, the Power Barometer – this

year called ‘The Power Proof’ – high-

lights the need for grids and exibil-

ity to strengthen Europe’s resilience,

notably stressing that storage and

other exibility solutions are sorely

lagging.

Launching this year’s edition,

Kristian Ruby, Secretary of Eurelec-

tric, said: “The current situation is

very serious… what we are trying to

do is make sure that we take the right

decisions at this crucial moment in

time and that we draw the right con-

clusions from the evidence that we

have in hand.

“There are some interesting rays of

light in the data that we have collect-

ed… oil prices are on the rise, and

that will have a real impact on citizens

and industry. We are still far from that

critical moment in September 2022

when prices really went through the

roof.

“The story we are telling you with

Power Barometer is essentially that

we see ‘Power Proof’ in a double

sense: one as evidence, proof; and

two, as a shield. We are seeing in-

creasing evidence that electricity is

shielding our economy from the

rollercoaster effects of the geopolitics

that we are exposed to.”

Eurelectric’s examination of the

price evolution after the blockade of

the Strait of Hormuz shows that from

February to May, gas price jumped

by around 40 per cent but the price of

electricity actually went down.

“In those rst four months [after the

closure], prices of electricity actually

went down in Europe,” said Ruby.

“Whereas we are used to gas price

going up and electricity prices follow-

ing, we are seeing the beginning of a

break in that relation. That is a very,

very important nding of this year’s

Power Barometer.”

Ruby noted that even with the

added stress caused by an extremely

hot, dry, summer, power prices have

only increased by 22 per cent com-

pared with 88 per cent for gas. The

massive discrepancy is solid evidence

of the weakening link between gas

and electricity prices across Europe.

It is becoming increasingly clear that

this is being driven by a changing

energy mix that shows countries with

a higher share of clean power in the

generation mix are enjoying lower

electricity prices.

Comparing Spain and Italy, the

Barometer showed that although

power prices have increased in Spain

during the rst month of the blockade,

at no point in time have they reached

the levels that have been experienced

in Italy.

“There’s a very clear correlation

between carbon-free generation and

low prices,” said Ruby.

But another interesting story behind

breaking the price link comes from

Bulgaria. According to Eurelectric,

two years ago, the country’s power

prices were about 20 per cent higher

than the rest of Europe. Now the gap

has closed to just 8 per cent. This is

largely attributed to the installation

5.4 GW of battery storage. The result-

ing improved system exibility has

allowed Bulgaria to lower the evening

peak versus 2024 and atten the

country’s price prole.

While Bulgaria illustrates the im-

pact of storage, Eurelectric warns that

Europe is lagging behind: utility-scale

storage stood at 64 GW in 2025. Even

with 78 GW of planned additions, it

remains far below the EU’s 200 GW

target for 2030.

“The urgency that we are facing

today, is to reinforce the system – and

that has to do with storage,” said

Ruby. He noted that storage is key to

making renewables more protable

and, perhaps more importantly, cru-

cial to improving system resilience.

Russia’s war against Ukraine has

brought the importance of resilience

and energy security to the fore.

Last month’s Financial Times En-

ergy Transition Summit dedicated

several sessions to the topic. In the

opening panel of the session titled

‘Energy security in times of war –

exposure, price and dependence’,

Artur Lorkowski, Director Energy

Community Secretariat gave a con-

crete example of how the ongoing

geopolitical crises have impacted

energy policy.

“Moldova is one of the most im-

pacted by the Russian invasion of

Ukraine. The country used to be to-

tally dependent on Russian gas and

the electricity produced and transmit-

ted in the region, which is controlled

by Russia,” he said. “Now it is under-

going a rapid strategic change to re-

newables – investing in both wind and

solar capacity, combined with battery

systems – to make the system resilient

and less dependent on its neighbour-

ing countries, which are of course

Ukraine, where the situation is still

unstable, and Romania, where the

price of electricity is signicantly

high.”

Jeffrey Currie, Chief Strategy Of-

cer of Energy Pathways at The Carlyle

Group expressed his own personal

views during a keynote interview

following the panel. When asked

what was driving the energy transition

today, there was no hesitation: “Se-

curity.” Before explaining, he went

back to the origins of the term ‘ener-

gy transition’.

“It was coined by Jimmy Carter in

1977 as an energy security initiative

– the danger of fossil fuels and being

dependent upon another nation for

your energy source. And there were

two messages that he gave. The rst

speech… admitted the scarcity of

energy at that point in time,” said

Currie. “Following that, chaos ensued

– queues for energy because the world

was concerned we would run out.

From that point forward, every US

President and European policy mak-

er always pursued the illusion of

abundance. Never admit the scarcity.”

He went on: “Later that year he had

the MEOW speech – the moral

equivalent of war. That is when he

introduced the term ‘energy transi-

tion’. He said we need to develop

renewables, batteries and nuclear

power to wean ourselves off fossil

fuels for security reasons.”

Two countries heeded the advice,

said Currie: France and China. He

said the strategy “has paid China in

spades” over the course of the last

several months.

Currie joins the growing consensus

that security is now the main driver

of the energy transition and believes

it will accelerate the process.

“The energy transition was always

a security initiative… if you look at

the history of energy transition, when

security drives it, it goes faster and

you make a lot more money. When

environmentalists drive it, it slows

down. Another way to think about it

is, when defence departments fund

stuff, stuff gets done really fast,” he

said.

The problem Europe has, said

Currie, is batteries. “They have the

renewables and the capacity, [but]

they can’t deal with the intermittency.

So, if you now have defence focused

on batteries, I think it’s going to open

it up for Europe to really begin to

move and be in a dominant position.”

Whatever the driver, Europe must

speed up its energy transition – to

remain economically competitive on

the global stage and to secure its en-

ergy independence. Currie noted that

one of the main advantages that

China will gain is that the marginal

cost of operating its economy will go

to zero. He also added that the exi-

bility it will have in the system with

its already signicant and growing

number of electric vehicles, will

drastically cut oil demand.

For Europe, the battle is by no means

lost.

Currie summed up: “If Europe can

get the batteries, they’re actually up

there running near neck-and-neck

with China… [If we] stop calling it

clean-tech and start calling it se-

cure-tech, that will change the funding

and the focus immediately. The one

thing that Europe has is, it’s not in-

vested in ‘war kit 1.0’, it can go

straight to war-kit 2.0 – AI, drones

and the rest of it. The ability to not

have that legacy infrastructure is ac-

tually a benet in the current environ-

ment… people are now realising how

dangerous the world is and the need

to make these transitions… But the

key message here is that the state

needs to be part of it because it’s a

long duration type of investment.”

State sponsorship is something

China is very good at. But if Europe

can take a leaf or two from the Chinese

playbook, the power proof could

make its economy bullet proof.

Moving to war kit 2.0

Junior Isles

Cartoon by Jem Soar