The Pixie dust is called China. BNEF is tracking 7.9 TWh of annual battery manufacturing capacity for the end of 2025 [1]. Chinese manufacturers' all-in costs for BESS are now down to $66/kWh and still dropping [2]. We (or at least China) have crossed the "knee" of the exponential for battery production, and loads of people don't seem to realize this.
> the cheapest additional nuclear capacity costs more than the most expensive grid scale batteries.
Nuclear capacity and grid batteries do different things, so the word capacity is rather too imprecise. Otherwise one could argue that a lightning rod has higher capacity and is cheaper than a battery.
matthewdgreen|9 months ago
[1] https://about.bnef.com/blog/china-already-makes-as-many-batt...
[2] https://cleantechnica.com/2024/12/24/what-are-the-implicatio...
Schiendelman|9 months ago
chickenbig|9 months ago
Nuclear capacity and grid batteries do different things, so the word capacity is rather too imprecise. Otherwise one could argue that a lightning rod has higher capacity and is cheaper than a battery.
barbazoo|9 months ago