Britain’s fuel shortages and panic buying are powerful signals that it’s time to speed up the development of batteries
A closed petrol station amid panic buying of fuel in London, Britain, September 29 2021. Picture: REUTERS/BERESFORD HODGEA good example of the latter is on display in the UK, where the keep-calm-and-carry-on brigade have devolved into filling plastic water bottles with flammable fuel.
While dry fuel pumps appear to stem largely from a shortage of labour and a surfeit of panic, the UK’s natural gas squeeze is a different beast. Nikos Tsafos of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies published a concise explanation of the confluence of factors here. “Over time” is the operative phrase there, because natural gas plays a critical role backing up renewable power from London to Los Angeles.
In other words, transitioning energy systems must value gas plants increasingly for availability versus just raw output. But markets don’t necessarily do this well. Texas, for instance, relies on scarcity pricing to entice generators of all types. Yet this is likely to become less tenable as a wave of incoming solar power blunts the price spikes on hot afternoons that historically rewarded gas plants.
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