Of note are Ashtead Technology AT (8%), AMD 3.35%, COINbase (2%), ASML (3.6%), CoreWeave CRWV (2.7%) plus many others in the 1%-2% range.
Thales HO (defense company) is up 23% in 1 month, Siemens Energy ENR is up 11% in last week.
Nebius Group NV NBIS on NASDAQ is up 5% today and 78% in the last month due to a large deal with Microsoft...
Sodium Batteries
There is a lot of talk around Sodium Ion batteries for storage and EVs. These have the potential to replace Lithium Ion batteries. They are cheaper to make, perform better at high and low temperatures, can be discharged to 0 without harm (and so can be shipped/stored in an inert state), can be charged enough for millions of miles in their lifetime, can charge very quickly - and are much safer (little chance of thermal runaway). In short, they seem to be much better than other technologies. Some are being made now, but 2027 is seen as the year in which they will really take off. CATL are approaching many EV manufacturers in order to persuade them to switch over to their new technology and form partnerships.
The main companies in involved in making sodium batteries are BYD and CATL. There are also some small US companies (two have recently gone bust). The Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd CATL SEHK:3750 can be invested in via a broker that trades on the Hong Kong exchange (e.g. Interactive Investor has CATL). They have gone up 30% in a month (80% in 6 months)!
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TESLA may be shipping CATL batteries in the Model Y and Model 2 in 2026 (and Model 3 extended?)
Home storage
If Sodium Ion batteries are x5 cheaper than Li-Ion and very safe (and can work at low temperatures and thus can placed outside) they can also replace the lead acid batteries in cars and trucks - but also they can be used for home storage.
For me, adding solar panels to my roof is not attractive. Why would I invest £10k for 10 years just to break even. Then at the end of the 10 years, have to replace 10-year old panels with all new ones because one or two of them developed a fault and I cannot get replacements? In 10 years I could have invested that 10K and made 20K profit.
However, adding a £2K Na-Ion battery into my garage which can store cheap energy overnight and run the whole house on that cheap energy during the day would have a payback time of less than 4 years but would continue to payback after that as well as protecting me from power cuts. The cost of electricity in the UK is only going to become more expensive and the UK will have to encourage off-peak charging of EVs and home storage batteries. Octopus off-peak electricity is about half-price, thus saving 50% of the electricity bill. Houses converted to have an air source heat pump and electric hob/oven will use even more electricity (there is little cost difference between gas and electric heating). EVs of course, can be charged with off-peak electricity (and some can be used as home storage batteries too).
We will also have commercial storage applications. If Na-Ion batteries are very cheap to produce and fit, most offices could benefit from fitting them. As well as cheaper electricity, it would also be greener.
I can foresee the UK government encouraging storage batteries in order to reduce peak demand (and prevent brown-outs) and having to turn on the gas turbines - e.g. they could give a grant to homes and businesses or maybe a 0% loan.
So storage batteries are much easier and less costly to fit than solar panels and cheaper too, they don't need cleaning every 6 months, no expensive scaffolding needed when fitting them, no roof damage and are easy to repair/upgrade/replace.
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