Sustainable Springfield

Severe weather is beyond our control, but how we prepare for it can make all the difference. As climate-driven weather events become more frequent and intense, communities must be ready to respond to the energy disruptions that often follow.

What is your community doing to prepare for the next major storm or power outage?

Join our Resilient Communities Webinar this Tuesday, June 23rd at 12pm to explore strategies for energy resilience and for preparing local energy infrastructure for severe weather events (registration in comments below).

During the webinar, EnergySense Resilience Center will share examples of energy resilience from communities across Illinois and discuss how climate action plans can help communities prepare for, respond to, and recover from energy disruptions. Collective Energy will share strategies for rural communities, including best practices for rural health centers, and explore how technologies such as solar paired with battery storage can support local energy systems.

Whether you are a local leader, sustainability professional, or community advocate, this webinar will share valuable insights, real-world examples, and connect you to experts to help your community become more resilient.

7 Iron-Air Battery Companies Redefining Grid Storage Discover 7 iron-air battery innovators delivering long-duration grid storage at a fraction of lithium-ion costs—displacing natural gas peaker plants

A solar farm does not have to be a hole punched in the living world. Built with a little thought, it can answer two of our hardest problems at once, powering our lives while giving the bees somewhere to come home to.

https://www.ecoportal.net/en/solar-farm-built-electricity-beneath/23775/ #

A solar farm was built to make electricity, but the ground beneath the panels quietly began doing something no one planned for For years, one worry has shadowed the rise of solar power. To make serious amounts of electricity, you need serious amounts of land.

Germany's grid-scale battery storage fleet produced a market behaviour in 2024 that economic modellers had not anticipated — batteries began actively destabilising the business case for gas peaker plants so effectively that two German gas peaker operators announced decommissioning of 800 MW of capacity that still had 15 years of design life remaining, writing off assets worth €340 million rather than continuing to lose money competing against storage.

The mechanism is the wholesale electricity market's intraday price structure. Gas peakers earn revenue by starting quickly when electricity prices spike during demand peaks — typically morning and evening on weekdays. The start cost of a gas turbine — fuel, maintenance wear, and start permit — means peakers require prices above €150/MWh to justify operation. German grid-scale batteries, which have near-zero variable costs and can discharge within 200 milliseconds, systematically bid into every price spike below €150/MWh, capturing the revenue window before gas turbines can profitably respond.

AI trading algorithms running the battery storage fleet have become so sophisticated at predicting German intraday price spikes that they consistently pre-position discharge before the spike materialises — further reducing the duration and magnitude of price events that gas peakers depend on. The AI is not just competing with gas peakers in the market. It is eliminating the market conditions that make gas peakers viable.

The two decommissioned plants — one in Bavaria, one in North Rhine-Westphalia — represent the first commercial acknowledgement that battery storage has made gas peak generation structurally uneconomic in the German market, not just occasionally competitive.

The AI did not beat gas peakers in a fair fight. It changed the game rules entirely.

Source: Bundesnetzagentur & EPEX SPOT German Intraday Market Analysis, 2024