Yes, it's LDES, my understanding is you can add more storage medium. (Not an expert on Form or iron-air though, I have a lot to learn about battery tech).

(That's all for now, folks, I am trying to keep this manageably short).

Still no, sorry.

Thank you, my husband did not clock or understand that reference.

41. Achieving a low-carbon transition, for most countries, will not look like winning a war or marching while waving flags. It is the ability to say "no thank you, we do not want what you are selling" to the petrostates, and walking (or cycling, or taking a bus, or driving an EV) away.

39. Even our Net Zero Scenario modelling, to my despair, relies a lot on carbon capture and storage from a residual fragment of gas generation. Net zero is just very hard, but working towards it is better than not working!

38. Many of these turbines will run at lower capacity factors than historical gas turbines, and the best sort of fossil fuel plant is one that runs only occasionally. It is possible to have higher fossil capacity but much lower fuel burn, and indeed this makes a lot of economic sense.

36. Solar long ago stopped being only for rich countries, and now batteries are the same.

35. The Philippines is having an amazing boom – we estimate that it will build 5.6GW of new solar in 2026, compared with 1GW last year. Plus 2.7GWh of batteries in 2026. Maybe the first market where the solar boom comes with batteries from the start.

34. Demand for solar panels to sub-Saharan Africa is rising; it was the destination for 9.4 gigawatts (GW) of Chinese module exports in the first half of 2026, compared with 13.1GW in the whole of 2025. South Africa, Nigeria, Congo, Ghana and Kenya are the largest markets.

This has stabilised and even reduced Pakistan’s demand for gas and grid power, which puts new stresses on the utilities and the government, which is responsible for capacity payments to China-owned coal plants. I do not know what will happen next.

33. Pakistan: about 25% of generation comes from solar, mostly small systems owned by the user. It has grown due to rising power prices, distrust of the utilities, landlords who see the benefits and provide solar to tenants as patronage, and really good how-to Tiktoks in local languages.

32. A few interesting bellwether markets! Bulgaria, with 2025 peak power demand of 7.4GW, already has 4GW of batteries and a further 2-4GW in the pipeline, for 16GWh total. It is well connected with neighbouring grids and may become a short-term balancing hub.

31. The US whack-a-mole tariffs on new solar supply countries has resulted in cell and module factories built in a hurry in Africa, almost on a temporary basis because everyone knows the tariffs will hit them next. This is not good for developing a skilled workforce or rigorous quality control.

30. The rest of us, if we want to be less dependent on China for solar modules, should buy from southeast Asia, India or Turkey, which will be happy to sell them at much less cost than setting up a domestic industry.

29. As a consequence of trade barriers, US solar module buyers are now paying more than 38 US cents per Watt, for generally worse products than free trade markets are getting for 12 US cents per Watt.

28. The US and India are locked into having high-price local solar module markets, due to trade wars. Sigh.

27. For 7 years I have been refusing to get excited about perovskites. Still not. Crystalline silicon is honestly pretty great, and perovskites won’t solve the basic problems for solar, which are unrelated to efficiency or price.