I try to publish a bi-weekly newsletter on developments in clean energy around the world. It goes up on Substack at https://carboncommentary.substack.com/p/carbon-commentary-newsletter-b4a.

Here is the latest edition from 11th October 2026.

1, Battery swapping in China.

Battery swapping numbers continued their rise over the recent Chinese holidays. Premium carmaker NIO reported 183,000 swaps on October 5 at its 4,000+ stations, implying about 45 battery changes a site in one day. To put this in context, the number of EVs in China is approximately 44 million but only a very small fraction of these cars are engineered to allow battery swaps. However the recent announcement of a financing of NIO’s battery charging by its larger competitor Geely and the joint development of a swapping network suggests the possibility of faster future growth in the number of EVs with swappable batteries.

2, Geothermal progress.

The first of three geothermal blocks at Fervo’s Cape Station plant started delivering power to the Utah grid. The other two are planned to open within a few months, providing a total of 100 MW. This is the first utility scale enhanced geothermal plant in the world. (‘Enhanced’ means the pores in the deep rock are widened using a fracking-like technique). Fervo plans further development at this site, bringing an additional 400 MW onstream by 2028 and eventually increasing output to a total of 900 MW. I’d guess long term cost targets are probably around $60-70/MWh, a competitive figure even with solar in reasonable sunny places. And Fervo’s plant will operate 24/7 of course. In Austria, Wien Energie gave a very optimistic update on its deep geothermal, saying it hoped its wells might provide district heating to around 25,000 homes. Further developments may eventually raise this figure to around 200,000 Vienna households by 2040.

3, Renewables growth in Germany.

Renewables provided over 60% of electricity in Germany in the first nine months of this year, with solar alone responsible for 24%. Renewable production was up 9% on the same period in 2025. After falling in recent years, electricity use in Germany now appears to be rising, perhaps driven by AI. In many countries rising renewables production will now struggle to match the sharp growth in data centre use and rapidly rising EV penetration.

4, Steps forward on CCS.

Owned by oil companies, Northern Lights transports CO2 from source locations to permanent storage under the North Sea, 100km from Norway. In addition to its six existing customers, including the Brevik cement works, the business announced that from 2029 it will be storing 200,000 tonnes of emissions a year from a Swedish waste-to-energy plant. (The biological source of about half of this waste will mean a net extraction of CO2 as a result of this storage). The current planned capacity of the Northern Lights reservoir is 5 million tonnes a year, a small fraction of the emissions of the surrounding countries. In UK waters, the Liverpool Bay CCS project completedthe world’s first platform that will distribute CO2 to undersea pipelines that will take it for storage in depleted gas fields. An impressively quick achievement but, once again, the maximum 4.5 million tonnes a year that will be stored is not a significant fraction of UK emissions. And, as usual, we’re given no cost details whatsoever on either project.

5, Solar provides a third of Pakistan power.

Prof. Jan Rosenow and his colleagues wrote about the unprecedented rapid growth of solar power in Pakistan. PV provided about 2% of the country’s electricity in 2019 but more than 35% in February 2026. In 2025, Pakistan was the largest importer of Chinese solar panels in the world, behind only the Netherlands. While the rapid uptake of PV is good news for householders able to afford an installation, the growth of domestic solar undermines the economics of the transmission and distribution companies. A kilowatt hour coming from the grid includes a fee to cover the cost of transmission lines and so a switch to home solar eventually increases the burden that has to be paid by other customers not able to install panels. (In an unrelated development in the last few weeks, California finally allowed plug-in solar. The only significant opposition came from the electricity company which pointed out that those homes without solar will now pay more for the cost of electricity as transmission costs are shared among fewer customers).

6, A plan for a hydrogen pipeline from north Africa to Europe.

Those who think the interest in hydrogen has permanently deflated should look at Germany. Although progress is far less rapid than I expected five years ago, the country continues to develop networks and industrial use for H2. In one development this week, the governments of five countries signed an early stage agreement to examine building a pipeline from Algeria through Tunisia into Sicily and then northwards across Italy to Austria and Germany. The pipeline would carry about 4 million tonnes of hydrogen a year with an energy value equivalent to over 20% of Germany’s electricity. The cost of the link is estimated at around €13bn, or barely enough to buy a full-sized nuclear power station. I continue to say loudly to anyone who will listen that a large fraction of European energy needs will eventually come from hydrogen made in north Africa and transported by pipeline.

7, Green Korea

South Korea launched an impressively systematic programme for industrial decarbonisation, focusing on industries such as steel and chemicals but also pushing for innovation in sectors such as solar panel manufacture. This is how state industrial policy should work. A core component of the announcement was confirmation of metals producer POSCO’s intention to build a 300,000 tonne hydrogen steel plant using its proprietary technology by 2028. POSCO then plans to extend the decarbonisation to other parts of the steel industry as well as to steel consuming industries.

8, Batteries beat open cycle gas turbines.

Analysts at Wood Mackenzie wrote that four hour battery storage is now cheaper than operating open cycle gas turbines to meet peak power needs in every major market in the world. ‘Gas turbine shortages and rising fuel volatility are driving up peaking costs, while expanding battery manufacturing continues to push storage costs down.’ The analysts forecast further cost declines in batteries although they predict a lithium supply crunch in 2029.

9, SMR nuclear plant approval in Tennessee.

After working to the much shorter timescale mandated by President Trump, the Nuclear Regulatory Authority gave construction approval for the first GE Vernova 300MW SMR in the US. (A group of these reactors is already being built in Canada) This decision appears to give the BMRX a lead in the global race to establish a dominant SMR. But the applicant, the Tennessee Valley Authority, was clear that construction will not start until financial backing is obtained. It wrote: ‘TVA continues negotiations with industry partners to ensure responsible cost sharing and financial accountability throughout design and construction’. The TVA went to say ‘Our priority is ensuring the people of the Valley do not shoulder the costs of first‑of‑a‑kind technology that benefits the nation and world’. The concern is understandable: when the BMRX was being designed, the target was a cost of $700m but recent estimates suggest a figure of over $5bn, implying an electricity cost of perhaps $105/MWh or more. TVA’s customers won’t appreciate that addition to their bills so some form of subsidy is inevitable.

10, A more optimistic view of the future of meat substitutes

We’ve seen a clear fall in consumer interest in plant-based meat substitutes. However a number of European alternative protein companies have nevertheless raised money in recent months. Venture capitalists continue to see a longer-term future for non-meat-based foods. One example is Edonia, a French company that appears to have found a way to give spirulina (from blue-green algae) a taste and a texture that is attractive to consumers. It also has more protein than meat. It raised €15m from investors and claims substantial interest from food manufacturers. We’ll eventually see a wide variety of non-animal foods that are cheaper and better tasting than meat, but with a tiny carbon footprint.