Battery adoption is on the rise and prices are dropping but this backlog is putting a damper on momentum. What ideas and solutions are out there to mitigate this and speed up the process?

It’s a beast, with a pair of 800 kW electric motors fitted in each of the rear drive axles managed by advanced drive systems for coordinated, calculated power output that delivers real-time power matching across axles. 1,400 kWh battery with fast charging from 10 to 90% capacity in just 25 minutes, significantly reducing downtime compared to the hundreds-of-gallons diesel top-off the ICE-powered competition needs. Full autonomous operation with EACON’s full technology stack and a suite of solutions that spans perception, decision-making, control, and cloud-based dispatch operations – to create dependable, driverless haul trucks.

Sixteen provincial capitals remained above China’s annual PM2.5 standard at the end of July. July also brought a broad year-on-year rebound: PM2.5 rose in 18 capitals and ozone in 19, while five capitals exceeded the annual ozone limit. NO₂ still fell in most capitals, and the balance of emissions and weather differed markedly by city.

Key takeaways

• Resource Adequacy provides over half of most CAISO batteries' revenue, and the Slice-of-Day reform is reshaping how that value is earned (Modo Energy, 2025). Lenders size debt against that contracted RA revenue.
• Merchant revenues hit a record monthly low in December 2025 and have only partly recovered, reaching $2.55/kW-month in June 2026 (Modo Energy, 2026). Underwrite to the trailing-year average, because monthly revenue swings widely.
• The duck curve is deepening. Negative day-ahead price hours tripled year-on-year in June 2026, and solar curtailment set a record at 4.8 GW (Modo Energy, 2026).
• CAISO is the largest US battery fleet, but the interconnection queue is congested. Cluster 14 has produced zero completions from 97 GW of proposed projects (Modo Energy, 2026).
• After the Moss Landing fire, siting and permitting risk is now a live development and financing constraint, with SB 283 in effect since January 2026 and several county moratoriums.

Phase 4 — How California and Texas are turning solar surpluses into evening power with batteries

ANDREA GIUSEPPE RAGNO

JUL 30, 2026

This is the fourth and final piece in a four part review of how European and American power markets behaved through the first half of 2026, each part picking up a different stage of the energy transition:

1. the first piece looked at Belgium during the late June heatwave, a system where thermal and nuclear carry most of the load, while variable renewables play a supporting role;
2. the second moved to Spain, where solar has grown large enough to dictate the market outright, flipping the story from evening scarcity to midday oversupply;
3. the third turned to Denmark, where interconnection with Norway, Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands acts as a kind of virtual storage, letting the country run on wind and solar for stretches at a time without needing batteries of its own.

An analysis shared Friday by Wood Mackenzie suggests the U.S. industry is well positioned to respond, with manufacturers’ announced plans indicating that domestic annual production capacity for PV inverters and power conversion systems (PCS) used in energy storage systems (ESS) could exceed 100 GWac by the end of 2027.

China’s main goal is energy independence and improved efficiency through electrification. Reducing emissions is secondary but still important.

Every oil price spike looks like an argument for exporters to be drilling more. Importers are drawing the opposite conclusion: the 2022 crisis gave Europe REPowerEU, which aims to expand clean energy and reduce dependence on Russian fuels. As importers face another crisis in 2026, clean energy alternatives are proving ready to present them with an opportunity to finally break free of oil price shocks. With Canada moving to expand oil and gas on the back of the Strait of Hormuz crisis, it risks boosting fossil fuel supply for an increasingly shrinking market that is looking to get off the rollercoaster once and for all. 

Helion has a unique design (Deuterium and Helium-3 (D-³He), alongside pulsed magnetic compression) and is supposed to have 50 MW in operation by end of 2028. The 100 million - 150 million degrees Celsius plasma is what is needed for a working solution.

big profits for European renewables.

South Korean battery maker Samsung SDI (KRX:006400) has assumed full ownership of a US battery joint venture with General Motors (NYSE:GM), planning to shift the entity’s initial focus towards energy storage systems (ESS).

Electricity and Renewable Energy Minister Mahmoud Esmat presented a plan to expand renewable capacity to 27,705 MW by the end of 2028, from 9,516 MW currently.

The existing renewable fleet comprises 2,982 MW of hydropower, 3,500 MW of solar and 3,034 MW of wind, in addition to 500 MWh of battery storage capacity.

Egypt plans to add 1,700 MW of solar capacity and 720 MWh of battery storage by the end of 2026, bringing total renewable capacity to 11,216 MW and storage capacity to 1,220 MWh.

By the end of 2027, renewable capacity is targeted to reach 16,776 MW, including 8,920 MW of solar and 4,874 MW of wind. Battery storage capacity is expected to rise to 11,820 MWh.

The biggest expansion is planned for 2028, when Egypt aims to add 3,800 MW of solar and 7,129 MW of wind, taking total renewable capacity to 27,705 MW. Battery storage capacity is expected to reach 14,320 MWh following the addition of 2,500 MWh.

The government plans to continue expanding the fleet in 2029, targeting 30,705 MW of renewable capacity after adding another 3,000 MW of wind.

Signed by energy minister Gilberto Pichetto on 7 August, the scheme will seek to add up to 37.15GW of renewable energy capacity, including solar PV, wind power, hydropower and residual gas that has been purified. The FER X scheme aims to accelerate the growth of renewable energy deployment in Italy and meet the country’s 2030 renewable energy targets.

Power plants of up to 1MW can directly access the support mechanism until the end of 2030, with a total allocation capacity of 10GW, while the remaining 27.15GW will be awarded through auctions held between 2026 and 2028.

Across the globe, solar PV is projected to supply about 61% of the world’s electricity by 2050. Going to need a lot of batteries!

Utah’s biggest source of electricity is now the Sun.

Solar panels produced nearly 1 terawatt-hour of electricity in May 2026, accounting for almost one-third of all power generated in the state that month.

Natural gas produced about 32%, coal generated 28% and wind contributed 2%.

The milestone represents a dramatic change for a state that historically depended heavily on coal. In 2017, coal generated between 64% and 78% of Utah’s electricity, depending on the month. This spring, its share fell below one-third.