Batteries replacing gas peaker plants

 By Gavin Mooney

Gas peaker plants have traditionally been one of the workhorses supplying the evening peak in Texas, but batteries are now increasingly taking over that role.

The chart below shows average generation by hour of day in ERCOT, Texas' main grid. It compares the contribution of batteries and gas peaker plants between 2022 and 2025.

The shift has been rapid.

In 2022, batteries supplied just 7% of the combined battery and peaker generation.

In 2025, that figure had risen to 34%.

A few things stand out:

✅ Battery output is increasingly concentrated during the morning and evening peaks when there is no solar generation.
✅ Peaking gas generation remains important, but its share is steadily declining.
✅ Batteries are taking an increasingly large share of the generation traditionally supplied by gas peakers.

The change has accelerated as Texas has added more solar capacity, creating one of the more interesting second-order effects of the solar boom.

As solar floods the grid during the middle of the day, electricity prices often fall sharply. Batteries can charge during these low-price periods and discharge a few hours later when demand remains high but solar output is fading.

Texas has become one of the world's most attractive battery markets. Massive solar buildout, strong evening demand peaks and a market that rewards scarcity have created ideal conditions for battery storage.

Gas peakers are unlikely to disappear entirely. Batteries excel at covering short-duration peaks, but longer periods of high demand still favour dispatchable generation.

But batteries are increasingly performing the same role, and their share of that market continues to grow.

Deforestation in the 21st century

From Our World in Data

By Hannah Ritchie

Over the last two decades, the world has cut down forests at a rate of roughly one Costa Rica per year.1

The largest driver of deforestation has been the expansion of agriculture. This has been true for millennia, and it remains the case today.

But which products, in particular, have been responsible?

A recent study, published in Nature Food by Chandrakant Singh and Martin Persson, answered this question.2

In the chart below, you can see how much deforestation has been caused by different agricultural commodities. This is shown as the annual average between 2001 and 2023.

Beef was, by far, the largest driver, accounting for 41% of the total. Cattle need a lot of land for grazing, which means that the growing global demand for beef has led to the expansion of pasture. Beef alone has led to the destruction of more than two UK-sized areas of forest this century.

The second-largest driver was oilseeds. This category is dominated by deforestation for soy and palm oil; a lot of forest was lost to these plantations, especially in the first decade (as we’ll see later, these rates have fallen over the past ten years).

The other large drivers — accounting for 12% each — were forest plantations and cereal production.

Understanding what has driven deforestation is important, but so is understanding where the forests were lost.

Let’s then take the chart above, but break each bar into the respective regions where it happened. Looking at the chart below, we see that these losses are extremely geographically concentrated for many products.

More than half of deforestation for beef production occurred in Brazil. In fact, one-quarter of all deforestation this century was driven by Brazilian beef production alone. Most other cattle pasture expansion happened in Brazil’s neighbors in Latin America. So, clearance for beef is not only the world’s largest driver of deforestation; it has also been centered on some of the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet: the Amazon rainforest and the Cerrado savanna.

Most deforestation for oilseeds — the second-largest driver — has been for palm oil and soy. Almost all of the world’s demand for palm oil has been met by just two countries — Indonesia and Malaysia — and this shows in the deforestation data. 6% of global deforestation has been caused by Indonesian palm oil production.

Forest plantations have been a large driver in parts of Asia and North America, particularly in the United States and China.

Finally, you can see that across most other products, it’s Africa — shown in green — where the most forest has been lost. This is true for staple crops, such as cereals and roots and tubers, as well as for cash crops, such as fruits, nuts, coffee, and cocoa beans. You can also see this clearly when looking at the continent’s annual data As I’ve written previously, countries across sub-Saharan Africa achieve very low crop yields compared to the rest of the world. As a consequence, most of the growth in food production has come from using more land, rather than using land more productively. This has come at the cost of forests. Improvements in agricultural productivity are not just essential for food security and poverty reduction, but also for preserving natural habitats.

The scale of deforestation, even today, is hard for me to wrap my head around. But a closer look at the data also reveals that the world can do something about it, and for some products, has already done so. Palm oil is a clear example: while large amounts of forest were being cut down for oil palm plantations in the 2000s and early 2010s, rates have fallen substantially over the last decade.

[The article continues here]

Also, all that soy isn't for tofu. Most soy grown is used to feed animals.  Soy grown for human food is just 3.7% of all soy grown.

Source: Our World in Data
Look how high emissions per 100 grams of protein for beef, mutton, dairy and cheese are!
Emissions per 100 grams of protein are 25 times higher for beef than for tofu.

The central Pacific exceeds 30 C for the first time ever

 From Weatherzone

Sea surface temperatures in the central tropical Pacific Ocean just exceeded 30°C for the first time on record as El Niño continues to gain strength and influence weather patterns on a global scale.

El Niño became established in the Pacific Ocean in the middle of 2026 and has been rapidly gaining strength in the last few months.

Data from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), published by the University of Maine, reveals that sea surface temperatures in the Niño3.4 region reached 30.06°C on October 5.

According to the NOAA OISST data published by Climate Reanlayzer, this is the first time the sea surface temperature inside the Niño3.4 region has exceeded 30°C. The previous record was 29.82°C on November 17, 2015.

The long-term average Niño3.4 temperature in early October is about 26.7°C, meaning the 30.06°C observed on October 5 was about 3.4°C above the long-term average.

Despite already breaking records, forecast models suggest that this El Niño is still a couple of months away from its peak strength.

Modelling from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) predicts a peak sometime between November and January, most likely in December. Current ECMWF guidance suggests a possible peak Niño3.4 anomaly between +3.9°C and +4.3°C. If realised, this would be around 1.5°C above the previous record from 2015, which is a colossal margin for a long-term climate record.

Nothing to see here

 By Dave Granlund

The pneumonic plague

It took me forever to find this place

 By Ellis Rosen 

China above 60% EVs; US & Japan left behind

I spent a lot of time collecting EV data for sharing with you, my readers.  But as happens with a new technology as it matures, the data have improved, and I'd like to share with you this excellent site which shows the percentage of car sales that are pure EVs, plug-in hybrids, hybrids and plain fossil-fuelled vehicles.  The website is maintained by Robbie Andrew, who is with CICERO — Center for International Climate Research — which is based in Oslo.

The contrast couldn't be greater between China and the US and Japan.  China, moving steadily and inexorably to 100% EVs, and already exceeding 60% EVs+PHEVs; the US, which *invented* the EV, at a paltry 5%; and Japan even less.  Japan *invented* the hybrid, with the ground-breaking Toyota Prius, but refused to push the plug-in hybrid.  To develop production and a market for plug-in hybrids after the creation of the Prius, would have been easy.  From there to full EVs would also have been an easy and logical step.  But they flubbed it.

Two huge technological advances which should have led the US and Japan to go on dominating global car making.  Two great automotive giants of 30 years ago ceding the global market for EVs, and therefore all cars, to China, simply because they refused to accept the reality of, and the opportunity provided by, EVs.  And now it's prolly too late to catch up.  How stupid.  How sad.

Trump can't stop clean energy revolution

 

Edwards Sanborn solar + storage facility in California
Image Credit: Terra-Gen

From RenewEconomy

Despite his bluster and conspiracy theories, US president Donald Trump and his administration have been unable [to] stop renewable energy’s relentless momentum through the first 18 months of his second term, with strong and continued growth from solar, wind, and battery storage.

A new analysis from the Sun Day Campaign of data from the US government’s own Energy Information Administration shows that electricity generated by renewable energy sources through the first seven months of 2026 increased by 10.7 per cent compared to the same period in 2025.

This growth was led by utility-scale solar, which saw generation increase by 22 per cent, small-scale solar (up 12.6 per cent), hydropower (up 9 per cent), and wind (up 5.9 per cent).

Electricity generated by all renewable energy sources accounted for over 29 per cent of total US electrical generation in July – up from the 22.3 per cent share of generation recorded at the start of the second Trump administration.

Conversely, and highlighting the comparative weakness of this administration’s efforts, the electrical output of the US fossil gas and nuclear power plants experienced growth of only 1.8 per cent and 1.5 per cent, respectively.

Even worse for the Trump administration and its numerous efforts to prop up the country’s coal industry, electricity produced by US coal facilities fell by 10.2 per cent.

During the first 18 months of this second Trump administration – running from January 20 to the end of July 2026 – installed utility-scale solar capacity increased by 32.7 per cent, or 41,051.6 megawatts (MW).

Small-scale solar capacity increased by 17 per cent, or 9,112.4 MW, while wind energy capacity increased by 8 per cent, or 12,195.4 MW, including 800 MW of offshore wind.

Uutility-scale battery energy storage capacity doubled during these 18 months, adding 26,629.5 MW.

By comparison, US coal capacity fell by 4,131.8 MW, or 2.4 per cent, while nuclear power added only 800 MW of new capacity and natural gas capacity rose by 7,561 MW, or 1.5 per cent.

“Over the last 18 months, the Trump Administration has used every conceivable trick to delay, hinder, or cancel new clean energy projects,” said Ken Bossong, the Sun Day Campaign’s executive director.  “Yet, while fossil fuels and nuclear power have added just 2.6 GW of net new capacity, renewables and battery storage have grown by 88.7 GW.  Clearly, the White House has bet on the wrong horse.”

The EIA projects that over the 12-months through to July 31, 2027, utility-scale solar will add 43,558.0 MW of new capacity while the wind sector will grow by 9,481.8 MW, including 3,355.0 MW of offshore wind. At the same time, battery energy storage capacity will increase by 23,428.9 MW.

During this same 12-month period, the EIA projects that there will be no new generating capacity added by the nuclear power sector, and an overall net decline of 1,452.7 MW in fossil fuel capacity.