Giant batteries drain economics of gas power

Emerging technology: A file photo showing part of a battery energy storage facility in the United States. The systems are making it more difficult to forecast the profitability of traditional power plants powered by fossil fuels. — AP

LONDON: 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 world-wide.

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 Reuters’ interviews with more than a dozen power plant developers, project finance bankers, analysts and consultants.