Again in 2015, the battery storage trade had put in solely a fraction of a gigawatt of battery storage capability throughout the US. That yr, it set a seemingly daring goal of including 35 gigawatts by 2035. The sector handed that objective a decade early this yr after which hit 40 gigawatts a few months later.Â
Prices are nonetheless falling, which might assist keep the momentum for the know-how’s deployment. This yr, battery costs for EVs and stationary storage fell but once more, reaching a document low, in keeping with information from BloombergNEF. Battery packs particularly used for grid storage noticed costs fall even sooner than the typical; they price 45% lower than final yr.
We’re beginning to see what occurs on grids with a lot of battery capability, too: in California and Texas, batteries are already serving to meet demand within the evenings, lowering the necessity to run natural-gas crops. The consequence: a cleaner, extra secure grid.
AI’s vitality funding inflow
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The AI growth is sophisticated for our vitality system, as we coated at size this yr. Electrical energy demand is ticking up: the quantity of energy utilities equipped to US information facilities jumped 22% this yr and can greater than double by 2030.
However no less than one optimistic shift is popping out of AI’s affect on vitality: It’s driving renewed curiosity and funding in next-generation vitality applied sciences.
Within the close to time period, a lot of the vitality wanted for information facilities, together with those who energy AI, will doubtless come from fossil fuels, particularly new natural-gas energy crops. However tech giants like Google, Microsoft, and Meta all have objectives on the books to scale back their greenhouse-gas emissions, in order that they’re on the lookout for alternate options.
Meta signed a deal with XGS Vitality in June to buy as much as 150 megawatts of electrical energy from a geothermal plant. In October, Google signed an settlement that may assist reopen Duane Arnold Vitality Middle in Iowa, a beforehand shuttered nuclear energy plant.
Geothermal and nuclear may very well be key items of the grid of the long run, as they will present fixed energy in a method that wind and photo voltaic don’t. There’s a protracted solution to go for most of the new variations of the tech, however extra money and curiosity from massive, highly effective gamers can’t damage.