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Sarastro @financeguy.bsky.social · 17d

Much cheaper than coal.

m.economictimes.com/industry/ren...

Madhya Pradesh secures record-low price for solar-plus-storage power project

Madhya Pradesh has achieved India's lowest price for solar power with battery storage through a clean energy auction, with CEIGALL India and ACME Solar winning tenders. This deal could potentially res...

m.economictimes.com

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Reposted by Sarastro

Andrew Sissons @acjsissons.bsky.social · Aug 5

I want to come back properly on this Economist piece that questions Britain's approach to net zero.

It gets three things wrong imo:

1. Ignoring periods of v cheap renewable energy
2. Misdiagnosing the relative costs of renewables
3. Looking backwards, not forwards.

Is Britain’s net-zero push to blame for its high energy prices?

A mighty rise in electricity costs has complicated the drive for clean power

www.economist.com

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Reposted by Sarastro

Commercial Solar Guy @commercialsolarguy.com · Jul 29

Large chunk of the world won’t care about oil embargoes very soon

Felix Hamer • electricfelix @electricfelix.bsky.social · Jul 29

@bhadrarukum.bsky.social:

“The EV revolution comes to Nepal.

Subsidies, hydroelectricity and a manufacturing powerhouse neighbor are moving the cars into Nepal faster than almost anywhere else.”
⚡️⚡️⚡️
#alwaysbecharging

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/b...

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Sarastro @financeguy.bsky.social · Jul 19

Solar panels from $0.1/w ..

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Sarastro @financeguy.bsky.social · Jul 14

Versus a cost in London of £2.50 per cubic metre or $3.40. I find this extraordinary

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Sarastro @financeguy.bsky.social · Jul 14

I see that Hannah Daly concurs with your numbers so that’s about 4c cubic metre

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Sarastro @financeguy.bsky.social · Jul 14

Understood!

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Sarastro @financeguy.bsky.social · Jul 14

I don’t follow the maths .. if it takes 3KWh to make a cubic metre and it costs say $1.3 cents per kWh surely it would cost 1.3x3 or 3.9c cubic metre not $0.30 cubic metre ? Or did you mean 30Kwh per cubic metre ?

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Sarastro @financeguy.bsky.social · Jul 14

This of course is a feature not a bug of open markets

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Alex de Campi @alexdecampi.bsky.social · Jul 14

I think a big reason prices are so low in SA is that, while the costs of solar and BESS are falling yearly, Chinese manufacturers are also just undercutting everyone else in open/no tariff markets—see the two SA BESS systems that were priced at ~72/kWh: www.linkedin.com/posts/mlkubi...

📰 BESS prices outside China have just hit some fresh record lows – here's the latest on international #energystorage market benchmarks: | Marek Kubik

📰 BESS prices outside China have just hit some fresh record lows – here's the latest on international #energystorage market benchmarks: 💰 Some fresh public data has just dropped, and it’s clear ...

www.linkedin.com

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Urban Dispatch @urbandispatch.bsky.social · Jul 14

Saudi Arabia is installing solar for 1.4 cents per kWh and is on pace for a 50% renewables electricity grid by 2030

In CT our standard offer rate is 9.7 cents per kWh for supply. Obviously we aren't a desert but it seems pretty feasible we can do a lot better than Natural Gas Ned is planning for

Sarastro @financeguy.bsky.social · Jul 14

Just take a look at the prices at which these deals cleared.. these are obviously for intermittent solar (without batteries) but all the same they represent interesting benchmarks for public procurement of solar power in sunny places

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Trending Finance @trending-finance.bsky.social · Jul 14

Sunny deals: Solar prices shine! #finsky

Sarastro @financeguy.bsky.social · Jul 14

Just take a look at the prices at which these deals cleared.. these are obviously for intermittent solar (without batteries) but all the same they represent interesting benchmarks for public procurement of solar power in sunny places

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Michael Love @elkmovie.bsky.social · Jul 14

Desalination seems to currently use about 3 kWH per cubic meter, so at these prices, the water needed to grow a pound of almonds would cost you around $0.30

Sarastro @financeguy.bsky.social · Jul 14

Just take a look at the prices at which these deals cleared.. these are obviously for intermittent solar (without batteries) but all the same they represent interesting benchmarks for public procurement of solar power in sunny places

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Sarastro @financeguy.bsky.social · Jul 14

At these levels we are within the envelope in which SA can have plentiful supplies of water from desalination at v low prices and it can probably manufacture synthetic (and renewable) fuels that can store energy for use in other areas at prices that are lower than the cost of oil or gas today.

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Sarastro @financeguy.bsky.social · Jul 14

Just take a look at the prices at which these deals cleared.. these are obviously for intermittent solar (without batteries) but all the same they represent interesting benchmarks for public procurement of solar power in sunny places

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Sarastro @financeguy.bsky.social · Jul 14

Yesterday the Saudi Government’s Renewables procurement body signed 7 agreements for PPAs with ACWA relating to 15 GW of solar power, the largest single deal that has been signed to date and significantly boosting the Kingdom’s plans to decarbonise its electricity grid by 2030.

on.ft.com/4eSvrYa

Saudi Arabia to boost renewable energy with $8bn investment

ACWA Power leads consortium that will build five solar and two wind projects in the kingdom

on.ft.com

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Andrew Sissons @acjsissons.bsky.social · Jul 14

Sorry to wade into the air con wars again, but... I spoke to @jim.londoncentric.media last week about why more homes in London don't have air con.

The bottom line is: air con in Britain is almost always a heat pump, and heat pumps are good for the climate

www.londoncentric.media/p/why-london...

Why London homes don't have air con

Plus: Lego asks the London Conservatives to stop using yellow bricks to mock Sadiq Khan — and do you want to live in a former aircraft factory in Zone 3?

www.londoncentric.media

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Sarastro @financeguy.bsky.social · Jul 14

“The UK’s sea level is rising faster than the global average and at an accelerating rate… Sea levels have risen by 13.4cm in the UK since 1993, compared with a global average of 10.6cm, according to the annual state of the UK climate report published on Monday.”

on.ft.com/4lzrgmM

UK sea level rising faster than global average, study finds

Britain is getting wetter and warmer as new temperature records become norm

on.ft.com

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Sarastro @financeguy.bsky.social · Jul 12

“..the unlevered after-tax IRRs of TEF .gas.. power projects have unlevered after-tax IRRs of 3%-28%, a sharp drop from pre-2025 levels as capital costs have surged by as much as threefold.“

www.enverus.com/newsroom/str...

Stranded sparks: Rising costs threaten viability of Texas Energy Fund projects | Enverus

Enverus Intelligence® Research (EIR) has released a report that analyzes how rising capital costs and supply chain delays have affected natural gas-fired power projects under the Texas Energy Fund (TE...

www.enverus.com

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Sarastro @financeguy.bsky.social · Jul 6

Isn’t the problem that trees sequester carbon only for a period - as long as they live, after which the carbon is released back into the environment as they decay. The conditions under which the coal, oil and gas reserves were laid down in the distant past no longer exist.

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Owe Jessen @owejessen.de · Jun 30

"In a ... hint of past financial turmoil, mortgage defaults begin to rise, along with ... credit card delinquencies. But this time, it’s different. Unlike other financial disasters, the underlying cause of this one is not financial, it is physical, and it is not clear how it will ever end."

Sarastro @financeguy.bsky.social · Jun 29

This is thought provoking from the FT.

It’s already clear (as I have previously discussed in this stream) that insurance companies are raising premiums and withdrawing cover for housing in some US states given the frequency and intensity of wildfires, storms and hurricaines.

on.ft.com/46dSz0R

How the next financial crisis starts

The climate shocks that could trigger wider market turmoil

on.ft.com

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Sarastro @financeguy.bsky.social · Jun 30

on.ft.com/3Tdrfbx

More today

Insurance needs $1tn from private equity to close gaps, says Aon chief

Insurance needs $1tn from private equity to close gaps, says Aon chief

Greg Case points to large and growing ‘coverage gap’ as risks become more complex and interconnected

on.ft.com

Sarastro @financeguy.bsky.social · Jun 29

It’s a theory of course. But it’s plausible because the market is a discounting mechanism and long term costs of climate change translate into short term costs for corporates and societies through among other things the insurance markets.

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Sarastro @financeguy.bsky.social · Jun 29

This isn’t just a US issue but the US housing market is a huge cog in the wheels of global financial stability.

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Sarastro @financeguy.bsky.social · Jun 29

“If insurance is no longer available, other financial services become unavailable too,” he wrote in a LinkedIn post... “The economic value of entire regions — coastal, arid, wildfire-prone — will begin to vanish from financial ledgers,” he added. “Markets will reprice, rapidly and brutally.”

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