Teymour Bourial

This is excellent Chris, thank you for sharing. The point you make on the State's role in promoting work and consumption through tax incentives for borrowers is spot on.

Thanks for sharing, I had no idea! I guess there's a bit of truth when they say “China is run by engineers; America is run by lawyers" then

One thing I've noticed in China, is that many startups are founded by university professors, working with their students and labs to commercialize their research.

This seems far less common in Western academia – why?

Excellent piece by the @financialtimes.com on the formidable expansion of battery storage capacity globally.

With costs continuing to drop, BESS will likely scale faster than renewables did, as their rollout is less constrained by grid stability concerns.

China charges ahead as South Korea’s battery giants lose their spark South Korea’s top battery makers are losing ground as Chinese firms dominate with cheaper technology, factory scale, and state backing.

Honored to be featured in yet another @restofworld.org article.

This one discusses the growing dominance of Chinese battery makers, at the expense of Korean firms, and how this shift came about.

You can read it here: restofworld.org/2025/china-e...

Solar by the Numbers: Midong Is China's Latest Mega-Marvel A solar power project in the Gobi Desert has moved the needle on the size and scope of global photovoltaic installations, aided by innovation in equipment and construction. The numbers tell much of th...

I had the opportunity to contribute to this article which discusses Midong - the world's largest PV installation, located in China's Gobi desert.

Worth reading for anyone involved in energy. There is much to learn from how China executes those mega-scale projects.

www.powermag.com/solar-by-the...

China switches on its largest standalone battery storage project With a capacity of 2 GWh, the four-hour storage system is described as the largest lithium iron phosphate energy storage project in the country.

China now runs the world's largest BESS farm (Kashgar, 2 GWh), wind farm (Gansu, 8-20 GW) and solar farm (Midong, 3.5 GW)

Congratulations - looking forward to reading you!

I had the opportunity to weigh in for this article, which dives deep into the key drivers behind China’s EV and battery manufacturers - highly recommend giving it a read.

This is great - more penetration to come as EU ramps up its storage infrastructure, and continues to phase-out coal assets in Poland, Germany, Bulgaria and Spain.

Agreed — O&G being all-in was a clear sign that CCUS was just a distraction to delay real action on extraction.

Policy makers and investors hardly learn though, as geoengineering is set to enter the same hype-and-bust cycle as CCUS.

This is great, thanks Ken!
100% with you on how sustainable solutions will only work if we keep investing to make them intrinsically better than alternatives.

Ongoing price spikes will get worse as US renewable power projects continue to be canceled due to shrinking subsidies, lost grants, and revoked permits.

World Bank lifts ban on funding nuclear energy in boost to industry Lender’s president says it would support projects extending the life of existing reactors

This is good news on all fronts.

More affordable, cleaner energy for all - especially developing countries - and less demand for oil and gas, hopefully driving prices and extraction down.

Why are the UK’s industrial electricity prices so high? Businesses call for measures to help shelter manufacturers

The current state of the UK's power market shows how fossil fuel dependency hurts industrial competitiveness and resilience.

Norway shows what's possible instead: 98% renewable power mix (hydro & wind), and some of the lowest prices in Europe.

This is sad news.
It's also very ironic to see the AAI state that "EV sales mandates were never achievable" in the US when you look at where most other developed countries stand...

Thanks for sharing. This is sad news.
It's also very ironic to see the AAI state that "EV sales mandates were never achievable" in the US when you look at where most other developed countries stand...

Europe should abandon efforts to rival China’s battery industry, bosses say Leaders of Eramet and Umicore call for region to seek co-operation with Asian groups

Many great points in this piece - both on why US/EU cooperation with China on battery production is essential, and on the safeguards needed to avoid becoming China’s assembly plant.

www.ft.com/content/baed...

Thanks for sharing.

As a side note, this has to be one of the worst charts I've seen in a while.

Finally, critical minerals have become a “hot topic”, with VCs now investing in startups focused on expanding supply.

Battery and waste recycling and new extraction methods attract virtually all investments.

I hope we’ll see plenty of exciting innovations in the coming months/ years.

Sodium-ion is the only battery technology that could offer the West a semblance of grip over the supply chain, thanks to its abundant and widely distributed feedstock.

Yet its market presence remains limited (cf. previous chart), and China also dominates the downstream production stages.

Emerging battery tech is gaining ground - in particular LFP.

Bypassing China’s dominance was a major driver of battery tech R&D and investment, but in the case of LFP, China’s control is even stronger.

Another point that is not new, but worth re-stating: despite rapid growth in global mining capacity, copper remains a concern. A 30% supply shortfall is projected by 2035 under current policies due to falling ore grades and long lead times.

China’s leadership creates supply security risks for other countries – which have been very visible in the recent months.

See below the impact that recent export restrictions had on prices.

There are multiple reasons behind China’s leadership.

To name a few: control over extraction, strong gov subsidies that allowed rapid supply expansion and growing vertical integration of Chinese energy technology companies.

The chart below can serve as a partial illustration of that last point.

With the (relative) exception of copper and nickel, China now leads refined production of all key critical minerals.

Not new, but always worth re-stating.

This is explained by simple supply-demand dynamics, illustrated below with the example of lithium.

Global lithium demand surged nearly 30% in 2024 - three times the 2010s average - but supply grew even faster, rising by 40% and outpacing demand.

Prices for key battery metals such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel declined significantly in 2024 as supply growth outpaced demand. Lithium prices fell over 80% from their 2022 peak.

Interestingly, the exact opposite is happening for base metals.

The @iea.org just released its 2025 Global Minerals Outlook report - here are my main take-aways.

I encourage everyone to take a look at the report for themselves. It is, as usual, a goldmine of insights.

Thanks for sharing, Chris. To be fair, receiving countries likely won’t miss it if the West stops. Aid was always more about influence than help, creating debt, dependence, and markets for our goods. The main downside is that China will likely fill the gap and push its own agenda (cf. map below).