Welcome to Locally Sourced, a biweekly Covering Climate Now newsletter for journalists working to localize the climate story. Share this newsletter with colleagues and journalism students interested in localizing the climate story.
Story Spark: Battery Storage
Despite being cheaper and cleaner than fossil fuels, wind and solar energy have a fundamental drawback: They’re intermittent. This becomes an issue if energy demand happens to spike when it’s not windy or sunny, when traditional coal and gas plants can simply add more fuel to their fires to meet growing demands. But what if you could soak up power when it’s plentiful and save it for later?
That’s the promise of battery energy storage systems (BESS) — using lithium-ion batteries, the same ones you’d find in your phone or EVs but the size of shipping containers, installed beside solar panels and wind turbines to store surplus renewable energy that can be sent to the grid when needed. This long-awaited technology, which is revolutionizing electrical grids and forming the foundational basis for the clean energy transition, has spiked in recent years, driven by battery prices falling by 90% over the past 15 years (and projected to fall 40% more by 2030.)
While they have limitations and risks, large-scale battery storage keeps finding new applications — from powering energy-hungry data centers and improving resilience during and after extreme weather events to bringing affordable, reliable electricity to communities across the world — making this a story for local-focused journalists everywhere.
Expert Tips
Ivan Penn, an energy correspondent for The New York Times, offers tips on reporting on battery storage and the electric grid. Based in Los Angeles, he has extensively covered clean energy, the economics around utilities, and failures of the US electric grid.
Use comparisons to rising costs and household usage. The average person isn’t thinking in kilowatt hours and megawatts, even though they show up on everybody’s electric bills. Limit using these stats and instead translate energy data into things that people can readily understand.
Follow the money. In your area, explore who is supplying electricity and who is approving new construction to supply growing energy demands. These billions of dollars will ultimately affect consumers. So not only understanding “who gets paid,” but also “who will pay” is critically important, especially when covering issues like the tech industry’s AI ambitions and data centers.
Clean energy isn’t spotless, so give context. Current lithium-ion batteries require an enormous amount of minerals whose mining carries significant environmental impacts — although much, much lower than fossil fuel production. Our job as journalists is to be upfront about these drawbacks and limitations, but also to provide the facts about why certain energy options are cleaner than others.
Look at microgrids for a peek into the future. Given how battery technology, cost, and adoption is quickly changing — a lot of signs are pointing towards microgrids and “virtual power plants” rather than the large-scale electric grids we have today. Virtual power plants are essentially a combination of solar on homes and businesses coupled with local batteries that can act as a single, flexible power plant — putting the power where it’s being used. This is a really significant emerging area worth looking into.
Stories We Like
- The New York Times traces the history of grid batteries from the first experiments in the Chilean desert to recent global success.
- After Hurricane Helene devastated parts of rural North Carolina, microgrid batteries powered by solar have helped communities recover and build resilience from future storms’ impacts, Canary Media reports.
- Vox examines how battery storage has become “a holy grail in clean energy” and investigates why the technology has seen such rapid expansion since 2020.
- The Texas Tribune highlights how old EV batteries are being used as a lower-cost energy storage solution designed to stabilize the state’s power grid.
- In Nigeria, mini-grids have become cheap and versatile enough to help bring affordable, reliable power to millions. Yale Climate Connections explores how batteries and solar have become a win-win for livelihoods and the climate.
Resources
- Dive into the latest International Energy Agency (IEA) report on battery technology to understand future projections.
- Analyze how electricity is being generated in the US through new analysis from the US Energy Information Administration.
- Read an assessment of fires at BESS facilities to better understand where and why this rare risk occurs.
Before We Go…
The next Locally Sourced will highlight severe storms. Have you reported on climate change’s fingerprint on shifting thunderstorm trends? Send them to us at local[at]coveringclimatenow[dot]org. We’d love to consider them for the next edition of Locally Sourced and our media trainings and social platforms.
Reporting on AI? RSVP for CCNow’s ongoing webinar series exploring the intersection between AI and climate change.
- TODAY, Tuesday, February 24, at 12pm US Eastern Time: “AI Data Centers & Their Climate and Community Impact”
- Tuesday, March 3, at 12pm US Eastern Time: “AI’s Unquenchable Thirst for Water”
- Tuesday, March 10, at 1pm US Eastern Time: “Is There Ethical AI Use in Climate Journalism?”
Want more story ideas? Check out the Locally Sourced archive for more topics to explore, including resilient agriculture, emergency alerts, climate anxiety, and more.
Know someone who might be interested in this newsletter? Forward Locally Sourced to a colleague!