The empires of the future are the empires of the mind

This year’s round-up of the great and the good in the battery and energy storage community reflected yet again the persistent preoccupations of the industry. Key themes were the precariousness of the supply chain, the disruptive economic climate we live in and a huge anticipated boost in battery energy storage projects.

In part these worries are a continuation of the thinking at the start of 2022 when the world was starting to heave a collective sigh of relief that the worst of the Covid pandemic was over. The concerns then were about what the world would be like after the two plague years.

Strangely enough many of the predictions for 2022 — supply chain disruptions to continue, the confusing regulatory landscape to persist and only slowly improve, while lead battery sales would hold steady while EV battery markets would be volatile — held true despite the Russian assault on Ukraine last February.

The unprovoked attack caught the energy markets by surprise. There was an immediate energy crisis in Europe, which was over-reliant on Russian gas while attempting to impose sanctions. A mad scramble into energy storage ensued. One commentator at the time said: “Europe has now rethought its pricing strategy for the future. Every kilowatt of storage is being priced

Tim Vargo, CEO, Stryten Energy

against the cost of every cubic metre of Russian natural gas imported.”

The interesting point to make says another commentator is that the Ukrainian crisis has put a rocket under BESS projects across the continent and created a potentially world class market out of nothing.

“If there is any compensation for the tragedy that is Ukraine, it’s the way Europe’s energy transition has been accelerated.”

But the invasion was not just Europecentric, the price of energy storage went up around the world. With little sign of the war ending this year, the importance of energy storage will continue to be at the forefront of national and regional strategies.