It has been an interesting year in the energy industry so far. Here are some key recent developments:

• Trump indicates US intent to withdraw from the Paris climate accord…
• … But China(!) and India(!) seem to be taking the lead in tackling their coal use.
• Gigafactories are coming to Europe – Bloomberg expects battery manufacturing capacity to double by 2021.
• The march of promising battery technologies continue – this time a 94-year old professor and co-inventor of the lithium ion battery introduces a new glass electrolyte solid state lithium battery with 3 times the energy density.
• In a competitive auction, Germany awarded contracts to 70 wind farms (807 MW total) at about US$0.06 per kWh – and 93% of the contracts went to community (i.e. citizen-owned) projects! This shows that community ownership and financial benefit does not have to translate into high energy prices.
• Despite Trump’s stated intentions, renewables continue to grow in the USA. In March, solar and wind generated 10% of US energy for the first time.
• In South Africa, Eskom has proposed a 19.9% electricity tariff hike for 2018 (and a 27% tariff hike to municipalities for bulk electricity).

Until next time! The PowerOptimal team