Giant batteries that ensure stable power supply by offsetting intermittent renewable supplies are becoming cheap enough to make developers abandon scores of projects for gas-fired generation worldwide.
The long-term economics of gas-fired plants, used in Europe and some parts of the United States primarily to compensate for the intermittent nature of wind and solar power, are changing quickly, according to interviews with more than a dozen power plant developers, project finance bankers, analysts and consultants.
They said some battery operators are already supplying back-up power to grids at a price competitive with gas power plants, meaning gas will be used less.