We Start at the End
Today’s exit music is nearly as unhinged as Cheez-Whiz Mussolini after walking up a United Nations escalator but considerably more fun, and 52 minutes less time to make better points, thanks to Post Malone.
It is, if anything, underappreciated how cheap batteries are radically changing the game for renewables. But because the places that stand to make the most dramatic gains tend to be at lower latitudes than where a lot of global climate and energy punditry originates, even people who should know better - like me - can be surprised to hear how far things have gone.
And why the political equivalent of Spinal Tap (but evil) gigging at the UN can get away with playing all the old hits of “green energy scam” and “climate change con” and only get the occasional gasp.
[We’ll come back to that historic Stonehenge-level faceplant on the world stage.]
EMBER analyst Kostantsa Rangelova and co-founder Dave Jones, recently co-authored a series of reports for the energy think tank and show how, around the world from Mexico to West Africa to Muscat and beyond, tech and cost are no longer a barrier to achieving a proportion of electricity generation from solar (made dispatchable thanks to ever-cheaper, ever-more-reliable, battery setups) that asymptotically approaches 100% - the Holy Grail of the energy transition away from fossil fuels.
Just two examples should whet your appetite.
Mexico generates just under 7% from solar. EMBER models show that, thanks to batter + solar, that could conceivably be well over 90% — day or night, across the year.
Sierra Leone, on the other side of the Atlantic, in just 12 months imported so many Chinese solar panels that they could generate more than 60% of the existing grid’s official output. That. Is. Nuts.
While it’s early days compared to the data documenting the solar boom in Pakistan detailed by, among others, friend-of-the-show Jenny Chase of BNEF (watch our July chat here), the signs that Africa is on the runway and heading for takeoff - with transformative consequences for African economies and societies - are clear and real, according to EMBER.
So check out our conversation. It’s worth it.
In Conversation
01:33 24/7 Solar Power: A Game Changer
01:54 Advancements in Battery Technology
02:51 Economic Competitiveness of Solar and Battery
04:38 Challenges and Innovations in Battery Production 0
8:17 Global Adoption and Market Dynamics
15:20 Grid vs. Battery: The Trade-Offs
21:05 Solar and Battery in Different Climates
24:27 Implications for Policy and Future Outlook
26:09 Evolution of Battery Storage
27:29 Africa’s Solar Boom
27:59 Chinese Solar Exports to Africa
28:52 Utility Scale Solar in Africa
37:50 Challenges and Opportunities in Mexico’s Solar Sector
47:26 Global Solar Trends and Future Outlook
Keep tabs on their work at EMBER - and you will find Dave Jones a wise oracle on that platform of the Elect - BlueSky.
Coming Up
We’ve got more coming on that UN thing, and plenty besides. So subscribe and check your inbox.
Outros
If you’re enjoying our outro track curation, you can find the rest here:
