What matters

Bigger than solar: Batteries now fastest growing energy technology in human history 🤯

What happened: Thought solar was impressive? Batteries grew 50% last year. Hit 300GWh in 2025. 450GWh forecast in 2026 
One killer fact: Batteries likely to provide >1% of global electricity on a daily basis by end 2026 (Renew Economy)
Behind the headline: Battery price drops of c50% in last 18 months.
Why it matters: Wind + solar scale fast; batteries mean the power’s ready when you need it. That’s the “later button.”
Read more: PV Magazine

Batteries mean India is skipping fossil fuels entirely.

Huh? China industrialised using coal - India isn’t even going there. Straight from wood to solar, wind & batteries.
Why does this matter? Scaling cheap power is critical to rising living standards. India is doing this faster than anyone has ever done it below.
Read more: Distilled on California. Ember’s “India’s electrotech fast-track” is a must-read

Batteries are also great at grid stabilisation. Looking at you, Spain 👀 🇪🇸

Behind the headline: Spain’s big blackout was not caused by renewables - but terrible planning and a weak network.
What matters: More wind/solar means fewer ‘rotating’ power stations that stabilise the grid. Guess what can also stabilise the grid? Yes… batteries 🥁
Read more: GridStrategies explains what happened in Spain and how batteries would have prevented it.

The Scoreboard

Battery costs have drop 20% a year for a decade. Still dropping.

One thing to worry about

What do batteries need more than anything else?

Sadly, governments & grids.

• Firstly, we need markets to make batteries investable. Germany, Italy and the UK have moved. Rest of the world, less (SolarPowerEurope)

• Batteries need connections. Grids are so congested that it can take up to fifteen years. In Australia a massive coal plant is going to stay on for two years as it can’t be replaced with renewables thanks to the grid (The Guardian)

Tech is ready. Investors are ready. Governments are slow.

One thing to be optimistic about

You’ve heard of (and own) lithium batteries.

Now meet sodium-ion. In other words, made of salt.

Cleaner. Safer. Less reliance on lithium supply chains.

CATL says 2026 is when it rolls out sodium at scale.

If you’ve got more time…

How cheap is battery storage? Ember has done the work for you.

Short answer: Cheap.

Ember crunched real data (Italy / Saudi / India) and found utility-scale storage is now roughly:

• $125/kWh all-in to build 4+ hour grid batteries (outside China + the US)

• That translates to about $65/MWh

• Move half of a solar day into the night and you add only ~$33/MWh to the cost of solar power

Boom. We’re on.

The Bottom Line

When people say new energy tech “can’t this or can’t that” - be wary.

Never bet against human ingenuity.