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Newsletter (copy 18)
US battery storage capacity to double in 2024
Good morning,
Some good news to get things started:
India has budgeted $9 billion for a programme to install rooftop solar systems on 10 million homes.
On three occasions over the past 10 days, renewables met all of California’s electricity needs. California is the world’s fifth-largest economy and a world leader in solar adoption.
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Battery storage capacity will nearly double in the US this year thanks in part to the incentives provided by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), according to the department of energy’s data agency, the EIA.
Developers plan to add 14.3GW of battery storage capacity to the grid in 2024, which would take total installations to nearly 30GW.
Texas and California are leading the charge, the EIA notes. One of the largest projects in the pipeline, the 460MW Menifee Power Bank in California, is being built at the site of a former gas-fired power plant.
“With the rise of solar and wind capacity in the US, the demand for battery storage continues to increase,” the EIA says, adding that the IRA is speeding things up.
The flagship climate package includes investment tax credits for stand-alone storage projects. Previously, batteries could only qualify for federal tax credits if they were co-located with solar plants.
- Read the full story here.
This free-to-attend online conference, a collaboration with the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership’s (CISL’s) South African arm, will look at the policies and projects that are leading the way to a better, more sustainable world.
We have a great line-up of speakers, including Ramón Méndez Galain, architect of Uruguay’s transition to circa 100% renewable electricity.
- Find out more and register here.
Taxing petrol cars more than electric ones has proven to be an effective way to fuel the transition to electromobility, according to a new analysis by Transport & Environment, a non-profit that advocates for cleaner mobility.
Through a ‘carrot and stick’ approach, European governments are sparking a move to electric vehicles (EVs) while also maintaining fiscal balance, Transport & Environment says in a note alongside the launch of its car tax analysis tool.
“There is no one single approach to how European governments have turned these principles into policy, but rather a great diversity of car tax recipes to sample from across the continent.”
Nevertheless, what’s clear is that “you don’t need to be rich… to have good policy.”
Malta, for instance, ranks second in southern Europe in the transition to zero-emissions cars — partly because it has the region’s highest tax differential between combustion-engine and electric models. All-electric models accounted for 17.3% of the country’s new car registrations in 2023.
On the one hand, Malta offers €11,000 purchase grants for EVs — the highest in Europe.
On the other hand, those subsidies are funded by purchase and ownership taxes on combustion-engine vehicles, which further incentivises the transition. The total tax burden for a small petrol-powered car is roughly €6,800 over ten years, according to Transport & Environment’s calculations.
This interpretation of the “polluter pays” principle is what propelled Norway’s world-leading EV shift, analysts say.
- Read the full story here.
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More than 100,000 households in Ontario have enrolled in the central Canadian province’s demand response programme, which rewards participants who reduce their electricity usage when demand is running high — particularly on hot summer afternoons when air-conditioners are on full blast.
The context: Grid operators, who must constantly maintain a balance between power supply and consumption, increasingly see demand reduction schemes as critical tools in their arsenals — akin in many ways to power plants that can ramp up quickly to help meet spikes in energy usage.
By turning thousands of homes into a single aggregated resource — known as a virtual power plant — a system operator can significantly trim load on the grid and avoid resorting to costly peaking plants, which tend to run on polluting gas.
The latest: Under its Peak Perks programme, which was launched in mid-2023, Ontario’s system operator (IESO) can remotely adjust how much energy participating households’ air-conditioners and heat pumps use, via their smart thermostat devices.
Participants receive C$75 when they enrol in programme, plus another C$20 for each additional year they stay enrolled. They also trim their energy bills by reducing consumption when power prices are high.
With more than 100,000 residents now enrolled, IESO says it can deliver a temporary demand cut of up to 90MW by raising household temperatures by up to two degrees Celsius (though participants can opt out of each “event” if they want to). That’s equivalent to taking a city the size of Kingston off the grid.
- Read the full story here.
The success of Seville’s cycling transformation lies in its prioritisation of safety, ease, and comfort, writes Mark Wagenbuur.
- Read the full story here.
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