CATL told investors on October 27 that it still expects small-batch production of all-solid-state batteries in 2027, with large-scale manufacturing around 2030. The reply went out on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange’s investor Q&A platform. Six days earlier QuantumScape said its first commercial-scale cell line would be sized at 100 MWh and start production in 2028. So two of the most watched solid-state programs gave updates in the same week. Neither one brought a date forward.

For a decade sodium-ion was the battery that would matter once lithium got expensive. In 2026 it picked up something it never had before: order books measured in gigawatt-hours. CATL signed a three-year deal in April to supply Beijing HyperStrong, one of the world’s five biggest storage integrators, with 60 GWh of sodium-ion cells. In the US, Peak Energy holds a phased agreement with Jupiter Power for up to 4.75 GWh between 2027 and 2030, and Alsym Energy has a 500 MWh deployment lined up with developer Juniper Energy, mostly in California.

The slow destruction of Venice by motor traffic has a name that residents use without needing to explain it. Moto ondoso is the wave motion generated by powered boats, and it is doing measurable structural damage to a city built on brick, timber piles, and Istrian stone that were never designed to be hit repeatedly at the waterline. The mechanism is straightforward. Wake washes against the quay walls and building foundations, scours out the mortar, and exposes the brick.

The honest answer is: we’re not close to a single “oil replacement.” Instead, three technologies are sorting themselves into different lanes, and one of them has already lost the mass-market race. Batteries: already winning where it matters most For passenger cars and most light trucks, the battle is over. Global electric car sales exceeded 20 million in 2025, reaching about 25 percent of total car sales, with the IEA expecting growth to roughly 28 percent of total car sales in 2026.

BRUSSELS, July 12, 2024 - Sungrow, the global leading PV inverter and energy storage system provider, is happy to announce the supply of its state-of-the-art liquid-cooled BESS (Battery Energy Storage Systems) solution, the PowerTitan, for the 800MWh Vilvoorde BESS project in Belgium. The project will be developed by ENGIE, an international utility group who is a global reference in low-carbon energy and services. The system will be one of the largest ever installed in Europe with a power capacity of 200MW/800MWh and is the first BESS project Sungrow will supply in Belgium.

e-Zinc, the company pioneering sustainable, long-duration energy storage with its zinc-air battery technology, today announced it has secured an additional USD $31 million in follow-on funding to its $25 million Series A round. This oversubscribed Series A2 round was spearheaded by Evok Innovations, with additional investments from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Export Development Canada (EDC), and Ultratech Capital Partners. The round also saw participation from e-Zinc’s existing shareholders, including Toyota Ventures, Eni Next, Anzu Partners, BDC, and Graphite Ventures.