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Maguire: From curiosity to cornerstone, how batteries became mainstream
Batteries were essential but not transformative for most of the last century. Batteries powered radios and started cars. They also provided backup power when the grid went down. They are today?at a center of an industrial revolution, underlying everything from electric cars and smartphones to power grids that are increasingly dependent on renewable energy. This transformation from a niche component to a strategic foundation has unfolded at an unusually fast pace. Batteries have evolved from a niche component to a strategic foundation in less than 30 years. It is not a single breakthrough that brought 'batteries to the mainstream, but rather a convergence in technology, economics, policy, and scale. Portable Constraints Batteries were used for a variety of applications, many of which were not glamorous. Lead-acid battery technology dominated the market, used in cars and industrial backup systems. There were rechargeable options, but they were expensive, bulky and short-lived in comparison to the amount of energy they could hold. Batteries were seen as a limitation rather than enabling technology in the late 20th Century, even as electronics became more prevalent. The devices were designed to work around the limitations of batteries: limited runtimes and heavy weight. It would have been unthinkable to think that batteries could transform entire industries, or even global energy systems. LITHIUM ION CHANGES THE EQUATION This changed in 1991, when lithium-ion battery technology was commercialized. This new chemistry provided a significant improvement in terms of energy density, flexibility and rechargeability. Instantly, portable electronics no longer had to be plugged into power outlets. In the decade that followed, lithium-ion battery technology quietly fueled the growth of laptops and mobile phones. Eventually, smartphones were also powered by these batteries. In the early 2000s batteries no longer supported devices, but enabled new product categories. Batteries became a part of everyday life, even though they were largely invisible. The next turning-point came from scale. The global consumer electronics market boomed between 2000 and 2010. Battery manufacturing grew dramatically in East Asia. Scale brought learning. Manufacturing processes improved. Yields increased. Supply chains matured. Costs started to drop -- first slowly, then quickly. According to the International Energy Agency, the price of lithium-ion batteries has dropped between 80% and 90% in the last decade. This is one of the steepest declines in cost of any major technology. The cost curve would be decisive. Batteries that were cheaper did not only expand the existing market, but also created new markets. EVS BATTERIES MAKE BATTERIES STRATEGIC Transport is the best sector to illustrate this shift. The battery in electric vehicles has become the "defining feature" of the vehicle, replacing the internal combustion engines as the core of the car. This shift has forced automakers, at least those who want to compete in EVs, to rethink their supply chains and manufacturing processes. Tesla, for example, built its business model around the performance and cost of batteries. Governments introduced incentives and emission rules to accelerate adoption. At the same time, raw materials like lithium, nickel, and cobalt were in high demand, bringing batteries into geopolitics. Supply chains were transformed into strategic assets and the control of battery materials had implications for industrial competitiveness and energy security. Batteries are no longer just a consumer technology -- they're a cornerstone for the future of transport. MOBILITY AND THE GRID Power has become the next frontier. The variability of renewable energies, such as wind and solar, has led to a need for greater flexibility. Batteries are one of the best tools for achieving flexibility. Battery storage projects at utility scale are being implemented to balance the supply and demand, improve grid stability, and store excess renewable energy for later use. What started as a niche frequency regulation solution has evolved into a wide range of applications in modern power systems. According to the IEA, in many markets, battery-powered peaking plants are now competitive with gas-fired systems for certain applications. This was unimaginable a few years ago. Batteries have been elevated from mobility technologies to core infrastructure. Power Politics The government's policy played a key role in speeding up this transition. Climate targets have moved electrification up the national agenda, and industrial policies have tried to localize battery production. In the U.S. the Inflation Reduction Act offered incentives to domestic production and supply-chain development. The European Union introduced battery regulations and investment structures, while China spent years dominating the?battery chain. It is not just a race to deploy batteries but also to manufacture them and secure the raw materials required to do so. Batteries are a unique technology at the intersection of geopolitical competition, industrial strategy and climate policy. GROWING PAINS The transition to mainstream culture has not been smooth. The raw material supply is a constant concern. Lithium and other inputs are subject to price volatility, and geographical concentration. The environmental and social impacts of mining have also been a subject of increasing attention, raising concerns about the sustainability of battery supply chains. Despite this, there are still technical challenges. The pace of improvement in energy density is slowing down, while safety risks, though manageable, persist. Recycling systems must also be scaled up to meet the future demand. The 'constraints' are shaping, not halting the battery story. The industry is diversifying as it matures. In cost-sensitive applications such as mobile phones, lithium iron phosphate batteries (LFP) are increasing their market share. Alternatives like sodium-ion batteries are also beginning to appear for certain uses. Solid-state batteries continue to be researched, with potential improvements in safety and performance. Commercial timelines are still uncertain. New use cases continue to expand the market. Batteries are being used in more and more homes, businesses and industrial settings to create a flexible and distributed energy system. Recycling will also become a key component in the industry to both reduce the environmental impact as well as to ensure supply chains on a long-term basis. From Innovation to Infrastructure However, the most significant?shift may be conceptual. Batteries are not viewed as a new technology. Batteries are now viewed as an essential part of infrastructure, embedded and regarded as a given. The grids and devices that people use are based on them. They are important not only for what they can achieve individually, but also in the way they allow broader systems to work. The rise of batteries is similar to that of other foundational technologies, from railways and electricity networks to the Internet. The center of gravity is now in a new place. Now, the key questions revolve around?scale integration and control - who manufactures batteries, where are they deployed, and what impact they have on the global energy systems. What was once a niche tech has now become an integral part of modern living. Batteries will play a more important role as the energy shift accelerates. They won't be on the fringes anymore, they'll be at the center. The opinions expressed are those of the columnist, author. This column is a great read! Open Interest (ROI) is your new essential source of global financial commentary. Follow ROI on LinkedIn, X and X. Listen to the Morning Bid podcast daily on Apple, Spotify or the app. Subscribe to the Morning Bid podcast and hear journalists discussing the latest news in finance and markets 7 days a weeks.
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Wally Funk, pioneering astronaut and aviator trainee, has died at the age of 87
Wally Funk has died in Texas, aged 87. He was the pioneering aviator and astronaut who, at the dawning of the Space Age with 12 American women, became the oldest person ever to fly into space. According to the statement, Funk died the night before at her home in Grapevine, Texas. The cause of death wasn't given. Funk, who had been barred from NASA’s early astronaut corps due to her gender, made headlines when she joined Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon.com, as his honorary guest, along with two other guests, on the inaugural spaceflight Blue Origin's New Shepard Rocketship in July 2021. She said, "I never thought I would get to go up." In a video posted on Blue Origin website weeks before the flight when Bezos revealed his first crew list. After a 10-minute suborbital flight, Funk, at the age of 82, became the oldest person to ever reach outer space. He surpassed the record held by John Glenn, a retired Mercury astronaut who returned to space as a U.S. Senator in 1998, when he was 77. I WANT TO GO AGAIN Bezos was joined by his brother Mark, and a Dutch 18-year old high school graduate. This is the youngest person ever to have reached space. After a safe parachute land in the Texas desert on the New Shepard capsule, Funk said to reporters: "I have been waiting for a long time." He added, "I would like to go back, and fast." With her?broad smile, royal-blue flight suit, and?short, cropped white hair, Funk immediately won a whole new generation of fans on social media. White House spokesperson Jen Psaki called Funk "America's sweetheart." The record for the oldest person in space was held by Funk for almost three months. That is, until William Shatner - who played Captain Kirk in the 1960s sci fi television series "Star Trek" - launched aboard Blue Origin’s second New Shepard launch flight, which took place on October 20, 2021. Shatner had 90 years at the time. Ed Dwight, an Air Force veteran, beat Shatner’s record in 2024, when he flew with Blue Origin. He was also 90 years old. Funk is still the oldest woman in history to have travelled to space. Before achieving her dream of spaceflight Funk trained over 3,000 pilots and logged 19,000 flight hours. She also broke down gender-related barriers in aviation. Mary Wallace Funk, born in 1939, was the first woman to teach flight at Fort Sill, a U.S. Military base in Oklahoma. She also became the first female inspector of the Federal Aviation Administration, and the first female air safety investigator of the National Transportation Safety Board. Funk was the youngest woman of the 13 selected to participate in NASA's Mercury program, which sent the first Americans to space between 1961 and 1964. She outperformed many of her male colleagues on several tests. Mercury 13 was the name given to the women's group, but they were excluded from NASA astronauts at the time due to their gender. According to the Washington Post, Glenn, who was one of the seven original Mercury astronauts, and the first American in orbit around Earth, once spoke out against enlisting females into the space-flight program. In contrast, the Soviet Union's arch-enemy during the Cold War, the United States, accepted women early in its program. Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to reach space in 1963. Sally Ride was the first woman U.S. space astronaut, and she reached orbit in 1983. (Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Jamie Freed) Funk was the last member of Mercury 13 to survive. He became the first of the group's members to fly into space. (Reporting and editing by Jamie Freed in Los Angeles, Steve Gorman)
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The US House votes on a bill that would make daylight savings time permanent
According to an announcement posted on Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives will vote next week on legislation to make daylight saving time permanent. The House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 48-1 for the Sunshine Protection Act in?May. In March 2022, the U.S. Senate voted to permanently extend daylight saving time. However, the House did not take up the issue due to opposition. The House is set to vote on a proposal next week that would allow for states to opt-out. Since the 1960s, daylight saving time has been implemented in nearly all the United States. The measure is supported by those who believe that the time shift causes sleep disorders, more workplace injuries and car accidents. The House measure's supporters also think that brighter evenings will spur more economic activity in the winter. Donald Trump has called for an end to twice-yearly clock-switching, saying in May that "it is time that people stop worrying about 'Clock', not to mention the money and work that are spent on this ridiculous twice-yearly production." The U.S. Senate will need to decide again if it wants to consider the measure if it is passed by the House. Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, a Republican, and other members are opposed to the measure. Cotton said that it would lead to absurdly late winter dawns and force many children to attend school in the dark. Vern Buchanan is a Florida Republican Representative who has been presenting the bill "regularly" since '2018. He proposed it again in 2018. The bill is popular among the legislator's constituents because it allows more evening hours of play on sports fields and golf courses. Rep. Frank Pallone (a New Jersey Democrat) said that permanent daylight savings time was "better for safety" and would boost the tourism industry in New Jersey. Stop changing the clocks two times a year. In World War II, the?United States implemented year-round daylight savings?time and did so again in 1974 as a way to reduce energy consumption. It was unpopular, and Congress repealed the law later that same year. (Reporting and editing by Franklin Paul, Matthew Lewis, and David Shepardson)
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US concludes probe of imported aircraft and parts without seeking new tariffs
The U.S. Department of Commerce announced on Thursday that it had conducted a 'probe' into imported commercial aircraft and jet engines, and found foreign goods raised U.S. national security concerns. However, the Trump administration does not seek new tariffs. After a brief tariff on aviation in 2017, the Trump administration agreed, under heavy lobbying from the U.S. Aviation sector, to exempt aircraft and parts as part of trade agreements. The report, which is based on a probe that was opened last year found that the U.S. aviation industry "is too dependent on foreign supply chains raising national security concerns" and cited risks posed by?imported parts due to quality control and counterfeiting. The White House stated that U.S. Commerce Sec. Howard Lutnick had recommended no immediate tariffs. Donald Trump has directed negotiations with trading partners to address the impact of imports from other countries on the U.S. Commercial Aerospace Industry. He said that if no agreement is reached within six months, he will take action. The report stated that "competitive pressures from lower-cost suppliers force United States firms either to limit hiring or to maintain wages at a stagnant level, making jobs in aircraft manufacturing less attractive compared to those in other industries." Airplanes, parts and accessories have been exempt from tariffs since 1979 under the Civil Aircraft Agreement. The sector had a?trade surplus of $75 billion per year. Trump has made Boeing plane sales a major component of trade agreements?and often boasted about how many he helped sell to other countries. Delta Air Lines, along with major trade associations, warned last year about the impact of 'tariffs on ticket prices and safety. Last year, Airbus Americas warned that tariffs could put U.S. aircraft manufacturing at risk. (Reporting and writing by David Shepardson, Ryan Patrick Jones and Christian Martinez; editing by David Ljunggren and Alistair Bell).
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Vinci Airports remains optimistic about Mexico despite slowing traffic growth.
Vinci Airports is a subsidiary of France’s VINCI Group. It expects the growth of air traffic to slow down through the end of the year, as high jet fuel prices, and geopolitical tensions, weigh on the aviation sector. However, it does not see major airline capacity reductions and is still open for expansion in Mexico and other places. Vinci Airports CEO Remi Mamon de Longevialle said during a trip to Mexico that there was "new volatility" in the markets, citing tensions between the Middle East and Asia. "Traffic may grow a bit slower than last year." Maumon de Longevialle, the world's biggest private airport operator, said that despite fears of a more drastic change in airline schedules in Europe and North America, his company had not experienced any "dramatic changes" in its capacity. He said that airlines were adapting to fuel costs, but not in a way that would worry investors. He said: "It is fair to admit that growth will not reach the same numbers as previous years." "But there's no concern that airlines will change or adjust dramatically capacity." Maumon de Longevialle, however, said that Mexico was still a growth market in the long term for Vinci. The company became the majority shareholder of airport operator OMA almost four years ago. He pointed to Mexico's domestic airline market, Monterrey as a hub for business and the stable concession framework. OMA's Chief Executive Ricardo Duenas stated that the company has invested 8 billion Pesos (456.41 million?dollars) in Monterrey during the past five years, and plans to invest 8 billion more pesos within the next five. He said that a part of the terminal expansion at the airport is scheduled to open by the end of this year. Maumon de Langevialle did not exclude further expansion. He added that Vinci would also consider growth opportunities outside of Mexico. $1 = 17.5280 Mexican pesos (Reporting from Kylie Madry and Jorge Lopez, Mexico City; editing by Aurora Ellis).
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The largest US grid has paid up to $28,000 per Megawatt to balance electricity in a heat wave
During extreme weather conditions, costs to balance?power in PJM, America's largest grid, have risen to astronomical heights. This has exposed strains caused by overloaded transmission lines and booming demand for data centers. These price spikes are not typical for PJM, but they have increased the overall cost of balancing supply and demand. These costs are eventually passed onto homes and businesses via electricity bills. During the heatwave last week, PJM paid power plants and other sources up to $28,000 per Megawatt in order to quickly adjust their output and keep supply and demand of electricty balanced. According to a PJM analysis, the spike in cost for regulating second-by-second fluctuations in PJM supply and demand is more than 100-fold higher than this year's average. The operation of an electric grid is dependent on the balance. Federal regulators say that a large imbalance lasting up to several moments can cause rotating blackouts. PJM confirmed a spike in price of $27.698 per megawatt that occurred around midday on?July 2?. The sweltering heat boosted air-conditioning use on that day in PJM territory, which covers 67 million people from the Mid-Atlantic, South, and Washington, D.C. areas. PJM said that its 'unrestricted peak loads of 168 gigawatts was a record-breaking load. According to PJM's website, the heatwave last week was a result of a combination of massive congestion and reserve deficits on power lines supplying electricity to Greater Baltimore, Delaware, and the largest data center hub in northern Virginia. PJM's grid is already?under strain as the electricity demand increases faster than?the operator of the grid can add new resources in order to meet data center, electric vehicle charging and air conditioning needs. PJM's capacity prices have risen by 1,000% in the last decade, resulting in billions of additional dollars for customers. The Ohio Manufacturers' Association said that the price increases were due to the fact that new power generation projects are still being delayed. Also, the Ohio Manufacturers' Association stated the prices and planning of the electricity market have been influenced by the uncertainty in large-load forecasts as if the demand was guaranteed to be met. PJM reported spending $217 million in the first quarter on?regulation services to balance supply with demand. This is up 215 percent from a previous year. The market clearing price of regulation soared to $47192 per megawatt during a cold snap in late January, compared to an average $139 per Megawatt for the month. PJM launched market reforms last year to make the balancing services more efficient and cheaper, but according to its external market monitor, more work needs to be done. The goal of PJM's design for the regulation market should be to reduce the cost associated with regulation. Monitoring Analytics LLC's report from May stated that the new design as implemented does not achieve this goal. Monitoring Analytics said that "while the new'market design' corrected a number issues with the previous design, there are new issues in the new design." According to the watchdog, PJM's calculation overestimates costs for providing regulation services because it assumes that power plants will have to give up more electricity than they do. This can cause compensation to appear higher than necessary and drive regulation market prices up. In April, PJM said that its updated methodology better reflects what revenue generators sacrifice when they reserve grid capacity. This is because it takes into account their operating constraints as well as their energy production schedules. Prior to the PJM reforms about 14% (of regulation-market payments) was tied to compensating Generators for revenue that they could have earned if they hadn't provided grid balancing services. According to the grid operator, this fell to less that 2% after the change. (Reporting by Tim McLaughlin, Editing by Aurora Ellis and Tim Gardner.
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Airbus workers in Spain strike for better working conditions
Airbus employees have been on strike in Spain for the entire month of July over what unions call deteriorating conditions. The Independent Union of Aviation Professionals said that workers are protesting against issues such as sub-inflationary pay increases, stricter attendance monitoring, and the requirement for office staff spend more time at site. Airbus is facing pressure to meet an annual delivery target of 870 jets, while grappling with supply chain constraints. Last month, the company faced protests and stoppages in France after reducing how many days its white-collar employees could work remotely. A union leader claimed that the strike, which was called by SIPA in July, gained initial support at Airbus' Getafe factory near Madrid, before spreading to additional sites and attracting support from other unions. CCOO, the largest union for Airbus in Spain, did not join in on the strike, but announced via Facebook that it would 'call an indefinite walkout from September 7 if their demands are not met. CCOO stated that "if no agreement is reached, the delivery schedules at all Airbus Spain sites will be severely affected by the'strike and 'the industrial action during the last four months of the calendar year," CCOO. Airbus employs more than 14,000 workers in Spain, at eight different sites located in Madrid, Castile-La Mancha, and Andalusia. The company produces military transport planes, as well as parts for commercial aircraft and satellites. According to Airbus, Getafe is their third largest site in the world. Reporting by Emma Pinedo, Charlie Devereux. Mark Potter edited the story.
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Palm Beach Airport in Florida officially changes its name to honor Trump
Palm Beach Airport in Florida was officially renamed after Donald Trump on Thursday. It is the latest of a number of institutions, buildings and government programs to adopt the Republican identity. The renaming 'Palm Beach International Airport' to President Donald J. Trump International Airport is a public nod to the Republican Leaders support for his adopted state, Florida, which houses his lavish Mar-a-Lago Resort. Eric Trump, Trump's son, said in an interview with Fox News that "I don’t think there's anyone more synonymous with Palm Beach as Donald Trump" in Florida. Since Trump was elected to a second term in the White House last year, his?name is imprinted on a class of Navy warships that are planned, a program for wealthy foreigners who want visas, and a government-run website for prescription drugs. He has also undertaken an ambitious remaking Washington. The courts rejected a bid to add the Trump name to the John F.?Kennedy?Center for Performing Arts. In March, Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis passed legislation to rename Southeast Florida's airport in Trump's honor. On Thursday, the Federal Aviation Administration changed the three-letter code of the airport from PBI (PBI) to DJT. The airport stated on its website that passengers must still use PBI until August 18 to book flights. The airport reported that the name change was $5.5 million. Eric Trump, his wife and children were on board?the private plane that landed at the newly-named airport? in the early morning hours. In an interview with Fox & Friends, Eric Trump stated that "there's no way in hell" he would have allowed UPS to be the first plane on the ground. JetBlue Airlines is the biggest carrier in Palm Beach, and together with Delta Air Lines and American Airlines, they operate two-thirds or more of the flights. Little Rock Airport in Arkansas was named after former President Bill Clinton, and Hillary Clinton, former Secretary of State. However, the airport code remained LIT. Some airports, including those in Las Vegas and San Jose (California), have been named after former legislators.
Special delivery: Italy’s postman joins AI infrastructure race
Italy's national postman has been chosen as the unlikely champion for developing its technology infrastructure and protecting digital sovereignty. Poste Italiane, a?postal services that pays pensions via 12,600 post office locations in remote towns, as common as local churches, bets on its EUR13.5billion ($15.4billion)?bid to Telecom Italia for it to accelerate the shift towards digital, telecom, and cloud services.
Poste, which is two-thirds state owned, began its digital transformation at the beginning of the 2000s when it ventured into electronic payments. In the last decade, it has registered 30 million users (around 70%) to Italy's digital identity system for online access to public services.
Poste, Italy's largest retail network, serves 46 million customers in banking, insurance and telecommunications. It also offers public services, such as passport applications, through its branches to those who are less tech-savvy. The deal with TIM is part of a larger sovereign cloud push across Europe. Domestic telecom and tech companies in Germany and France are building cloud and AI-based infrastructure to support strategic sectors like defence and healthcare, as well as parts of public administration.
BUILDING UP THE TECH CAPACITY
Poste argues that the tie-up?creates a larger, state-backed group capable of building distributed computing infrastructure throughout the country', a person familiar with the plans for TIM stated.
Poste said that even without the financial firepower or the size of U.S. technology giants like Amazon, Google, or Microsoft, the new entity could be a supplier to these companies.
Telecom operators provide infrastructure services to large tech companies, including fibre networks and data centres. They also offer local network access points near end users.
TIM, with 125 megawatts of installed data center capacity, is one of the top three operators in the country. Italy's installed capacity is only 15% that of Germany. Poste-TIM, along with TIM's data centres, could increase computing capacity in widely distributed telecom hubs. They could also convert former postal sorting centers into local edge-computing clusters. This would bring processing power?closer the users, Poste argued. The person said that TIM's mobile networks sites may also be used in the future. Poste and TIM declined to comment. Antonio Capone is the dean of Milan's Politecnico University School of Industrial and Information Engineering.
Capone said that telecom operators have assets located across the country and are therefore well-positioned to develop these facilities.
Poste has a right to be focused on this emerging trend. He said that managing a distributed network was more difficult from an operational perspective -- consider maintenance, cooling and power management. But it's a challenge worth embracing.
Italy's energy costs are much higher than those of France or Spain, and Europe is lagging behind in terms of AI investments and infrastructure.
The Tough Journey of Tim
A failed privatisation 30 years ago left TIM in debt. Since then, it has faced fierce price competition which has slashed profits and limited its ability to spend on upgrading infrastructure. TIM's debt-to-core profit ratio has been halved and its revenue per employee almost doubled with the sale of its fixed network in 2024 to U.S. Fund KKR. However, TIM will struggle to maintain its 5G and cloud investment plans despite doubling their revenue.
Italy has made some progress in 5G technology. However, AI-powered services need advanced 5G networks. In the U.S., these accounts for a fifth (or more) of all mobile connections. Spain is the only European nation where this figure is higher than 5%.
"Building a network for 5G is 'extremely expensive and you need to scale it up in order to make it viable. You cannot sustain four mobile operators in a country like Italy," a TIM investor stated, adding that the investment case was based on the expected consolidation of industry. TIM is in competition with Vodafone-Fastweb and WindTre. WindTre owned by Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison and France's Iliad began exploring a 'tie-up. Poste owns already 20% of TIM. If the number of phone operators is reduced to three, a full takeover would allow Italy to reap higher profits at the former monopoly. The investor declined to comment on whether or not they would accept the offer and requested anonymity. However, he noted that the rise in Poste shares since the announcement indicated the market believed the benefits of the deal could exceed the EUR700 million target.
The investor said that as a state-backed entity, the new entity would be able to handle sensitive communications including those in defence. He also pointed out?Poste’s "low leverage business with strong cash-generation from payments, financial services, and insurance."
Poste said that the tie-up will support TIM in its efforts to expand outside of its traditional consumer business, which is shrinking since more than a decade. This includes cloud and cybersecurity services, as well as higher margin corporate clients. From a commercial perspective, the combination makes sense: a wider range of services can be offered to a larger customer base. Claudio Baretti, partner at AlixPartners consultancy, said that this increases switching costs while also helping to retain customers. ($1 = 0.8763 euros)
(source: Reuters)