Solar power and energy storage (batteries) have fallen in price enough that they’re now competing with the cost of natural gas peaker plants in specific markets. New analysis is suggesting 10GW of natural gas peaker plants are at risk through 2027 in the USA specifically.
Other, more aggressive suggestions don’t see a place for gas peaker plants after 2020 in the USA. It seems the age of the renewable energy plus energy storage power plant is upon us.
This pricing reality is directly related to GE laying off 12,000 people in the power generation department. The world’s largest manufacturer of gas turbines stated that customers are turning away from fossil fuel based energy sources and that GE Power needed to evolve.
What matters though is that energy storage is going to become a big player in the utility-scale peaker plant market – and we’ve already crossed a tipping point. A tipping point where the energy storage projects that are already planned are enough to build factories that will deliver to us the learning curves that will lower the pricing even further, allowing energy storage to take over bigger markets.