RE: £11 Bn Dividend2 Oct 2021 21:55
ENERGY
Oil trader’s bid to power UK homes with green energy from huge batteries.
ONE of the world’s most powerful oil traders wants to build huge batteries to power British homes with green energy.
Alex Beard, a former executive at mining giant Glencore, is planning to build battery storage with a capacity of at least 500 megawatts through his Adaptogen Capital investment fund.
Battery sites, which provide power to homes and businesses when grid supplies fall short, form a crucial part of the infrastructure required to transfer the UK from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources.
The shift in focus by Mr Beard highlights the pace of change in the global energy sector. Mr Beard was credited with making Glencore one of the world’s top oil companies and was trading as much as 7pc of the world’s oil during his heyday at the company.
He told Reuters: “I have time for a second career in energy markets. It won’t be oil and gas but it will be the transition away from carbon that will be most relevant for the next 25 years.”
The billionaire businessman’s push into green energy comes at a critical time for the sector, which has been plunged into its worst crisis in decades.
Low supplies have pushed global wholesale gas prices to record highs, putting a string of UK energy suppliers out of business and sparking fears of a winter crisis. Meanwhile, ministers are preparing to shift a green energy surcharge which is usually applied to household electricity bills to gas bills as part of the Government’s net-zero drive.
The Government has set itself the goal of eliminating net carbon emissions by 2050.
Mr Beard, who holds a 2pc stake in Glencore worth about $1.2bn (£890m), said: “The current crisis gives you a taste of what we will be experiencing more and more often. Batteries provide you with stability when the grid becomes unstable and are key enabling assets in the energy transition.”
Battery storage is seen as a key way of regulating supply for the shift to green energy, as renewable sources such as solar and wind can fluctuate wildly depending on weather conditions.
Around 1.1 gigawatts of battery storage capacity is currently operational in the UK. The National Grid estimates it could need more than 40?GW of storage capacity by 2050.
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