The Duck Curve#renewables
First six Megapacks installed at Hawaiian Electric's 40 MW Waena battery
Hawaiian Electric said on September 21, 2026 that the first six of 54 Tesla Megapacks are installed at its Waena Battery Energy Storage System on Maui, a 40 MW / 160 MWh system it says will be the island's first standalone load-shifting battery and expects in service in 2027; HEI's June 30, 2026 quarterly report lists a guaranteed commercial operation date of November 30, 2026. Final PUC approval came December 22, 2023 in Docket 2020-0132, per the utility's development-team page; HEI's filings put the approved estimate at $82.1 million against $60.0 million in the 2020 application.
Ember: coal power has stalled in 17 of the 26 Chinese regions it tracks
Ember's China Energy Transition Review 2026, published September 8, 2026, says coal generation plateaued or turned flat between 2021 and 2025 in 17 of the 26 provincial-level regions it tracks, together holding more than half of China's thermal capacity, and that thermal generation fell 0.7% in 2025 while electricity demand rose 5%. China's National Bureau of Statistics reports thermal generation down 0.7% and total coal consumption up 0.1% for 2025. Ember says battery storage overtook pumped hydro in installed capacity by the end of 2024 and grew 84% in 2025.
India drafts storage mandate for ground-mounted solar and onshore wind
India's Central Electricity Authority published a draft second amendment to its construction technical standards on September 3, 2026 that would require ground-mounted solar and onshore wind plants commissioned after July 1, 2027 to have co-located energy storage of at least 10% of installed capacity with a two-hour minimum duration, rising to four hours for plants commissioned between July 1, 2029 and June 30, 2031. Renewable plants commissioned after July 1, 2027 would also need grid-forming control on at least 15% of inverters; comments are due October 4, 2026.
Ember: 2026 battery additions could shift over a third of new solar output
Ember's August 12, 2026 report finds solar met a record 10% of global electricity in H1 2026, over a quarter of demand at midday on the average day but near zero at night. Expected 2026 battery additions of 459 GWh, up 50% year over year, could shift up to 34% of new daily solar generation into non-sunny hours, based on H1 2026 solar growth.
NRDC projects US loses up to 540 GW of renewables under Trump policies
The Natural Resources Defense Council projects that Trump administration energy policies could cost the US between 390 GW and 540 GW of new wind, solar, and storage capacity over the next decade, according to trade-press accounts of a report announced August 25, 2026, with at most 9 GW of new gas capacity added in its place and average household electricity rates rising an additional 4.2% to 5.5% by 2035, all relative to the group's January 2025 baseline.
