Effective energy policy, heat as a service and fusion coming soon
In this issue:
Clean energy purchases dip
Purchases of clean energy by the corporate sector through PPAs took a small (10%) dip in 2025 from a 2024 high but still exceeded all other years reported, according to a recent analysis by BloombergNEF. Big tech buyers such as Google, Microsoft, Meta and Amazon accounted for 49% of the global market. Meta and Amazon were the biggest players, between them purchasing a volume sufficient to power Denmark.
Batteries never been cheaper
Another report from BloombergNEF tells us the cost of battery storage continues to fall, while other clean power technologies are experiencing price increases. The company’s Levelized (sic) Cost of Electricity 2026 report reveals a 27% drop in battery costs, with its benchmark four-hour project cost now sitting at $78/MWh. Costs for solar and wind nudged up in the year, with increases attributed to supply chain constraints.
Trilemma outdated and renewables to become stranded assets
We love discussion and debate and several interesting conversation starters have emerged from a recent thought piece commissioned by Barclays Bank, authored by Professor Niall MacDowell, Head of Climate Technology and Professor of Energy Systems at Imperial University. Among them is the suggestion we scrap the energy trilemma, to be replaced by an energy hierarchy, switch discussions to energy addition rather than energy substitution and that renewables could become stranded assets. Critics could argue it is an attempt to prolong the prominence of fossil fuels, others might suggest some of the arguments are mere semantics, but you can make up your own mind, the piece is at the end of this link.
Australians forging ahead with resilience and cost savings
It took 10 years for Australia to reach the milestone of 6GWh of home battery storage. It has now more than doubled that capacity in just 8 months under its Cheaper Home Batteries programme. More than a quarter of a million households now enjoy lower energy costs and stronger resilience because of the scheme with flow on benefits of load spreading and enhanced security for the grid. Looks like this could be money well spent.
Low carbon industrial heat without the capital cost
That’s what’s being promised by Good Heat who is offering Heat as a Service to industrial customers. The company’s proposition is premised on developing, financing and operating electrified thermal storage assets, allowing companies to enjoy much reduced emissions without the capital outlay required to acquire their own storage assets. The company has offices in Amsterdam and Sydney.
Fusion energy to go live
What is likely to be the world’s first commercial nuclear fusion energy plant has just been announced. A consortium comprising RWE, Proxima Fusion, the Max Planck Institute and the state of Bavaria has released a statement confirming the development of a demonstrator, to be followed by a full-scale plant on the site of an old fission plant in Gundremmingen. The demonstrator is expected to be operational in the 2030s and will be based on stellarator technology.
Did you know …..
LNG prices at the Dutch exchange shot up 70% at the start of this week? Of course you did, it’s an inevitable outcome of insecurity and disrupted supply lines. Precise percentages aside, spikes like this are entirely foreseeable.
