Weekly Update

Energy Shift: CEOs say shareholder value not main objective

Posted onAuthorPeter Koning

 Plus: geothermal pilot in AB; Shell buys Australian utility

Hi everyone,

The main comment I have for you for this week can be found on the first story about how companies have expanded the reasons why they exist to include more than just increasing shareholder value, but to value communities and the environment as well. Navigating changing social expectations around climate change and what companies should do to be a part of the solution is among the key questions I spend time thinking about.

I’ll point out one more story: Energy Vault Lands $110 million to scale up its energy storage technology using gravity and large concrete blocks (see link in the round up section). I profiled them here on Energy Shift more than a year ago. Nice to see this getting legs.

Enjoy the rest. I know it is a lot, but skim through to find stuff you’re interested in. Often, just following the trends represented by the headlines is enough.

Happy to hear your comments and questions. Forward on to colleagues, friends and family that you  think might be interested and encourage them to subscribe.

Thanks,
Peter

Nearly 200 CEOs say shareholder value is no longer a main objective | CNBC

Comment: The environmentally-oriented portion (see excerpt below) feels like a 1980’s type commitment. Yet it is an important marker of the shift we are seeing of companies paying more attention to society’s expectations. With polls showing most of us are concerned about climate change, it raises the question of how companies will (need to) respond to changing social expectations and what shape those commitments will take beyond elevating carbon risk transparency and reporting presently focused on the investment and financial community. If you’re interested in diving deeper on this, have a look at the material Kyle Westaway has assembled, which he dedicated exclusively to this topic in this week’s blog. If you’re not a subscriber, consider signing up.

Excerpt: We respect the people in our communities and protect the environment by embracing sustainable practices across our businesses.

$10M first-of-its-kind geothermal pilot project underway in Alberta | CBC News

Comment: This is a pilot, with results expected late this year. This is clearly leveraging horizontal well drilling technology and capabilities in Alberta. The article is short on the actual technology at work to generate electricity. I suspect it is distinctly different than technology being advanced by Climeon to take advantage of low grade waste heat in industrial processes. If you know the in’s and out’s, help me out.

Innovations in Canada’s technology ‘pipeline’ are reducing GHG emissions | JWN Energy

Comment: A great Op-Ed by Martha Hall Findley, CEO of Canada West Foundation.

How Plans for New Coal are Changing Around the World | Post Carbon Institute

Comment: This piece offers what I consider is among the better updates on the status of coal fired generation around the globe. There is also this interactive from Visual Capitalist:  All the World’s Coal Power Plants in One Map. The time slider is particularly cool.

Excerpt: Despite this shrinking pipeline, the global coal fleet increased by 17GW in the first half of 2019, net of retirements. New capacity remains highly concentrated: nearly 85% (23GW) of the 27GW commissioned in 2019 was in China (17.9GW) or India (4.8GW).

Coal power capacity being built (light blue) or in earlier stages of development (dark blue) in 2015-2018 and July 2019 (gigawatts). Source: Global Coal Plant Tracker, July 2019. Chart by Carbon Brief using Highcharts.

Shell launches electric dreams with bid for Australian energy utility ERM | RenewEconomy

Excerpt: The move by Shell, with its enormous balance sheet, has huge implications for the big three Australian utilities – AGL, Origin Energy and EnergyAustralia – who are already losing share to smaller retailers and the impact of solar PV, and facing falls in earnings from their electricity businesses.

Now, as these utilities try to figure out how to recast their businesses and their legacy thermal assets into a rapidly changing energy market, and the shift to distributed energy including solar, rooftop and EVs, they will also have to contend with one of the world’s richest companies starting out with a solid platform and a clean slate.

Corporates usher in new wave of US wind and solar growth | Wood Mackenzie

Comment: Nearly 6 GW. Impressive, though expect this to grow much further. Perusing the list, Apple and Microsoft seem behind the curve for their size.

Excerpt: The largest corporations in the world are signing agreements for massive amounts of wind and solar power. According to a new report from Wood Mackenzie and the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), we’re at the beginning stage of a corporate renewables procurement boom, driven not just by goals around mitigating climate change but also by highly competitive renewable project economics.

Innovative ways to store renewable energy could slash emissions by 90% | Futurity

Comment: Once again, higher economy-wide carbon pricing has been shown to reduce emissions dramatically. Large amounts of renewable energy is curtailed because more is being generated than the grid can handle. Researchers looked at what would happen if this energy could be stored. But storage is expensive and a way is needed to pay for it. Pricing carbon, otherwise know as ‘making everyone pay a carbon tax’ is one way to deliver further emissions reduction. But reduced energy use through energy efficiency is likely a more cost effective first move than heavily subsidizing energy storage.

Excerpt: The researchers created complex models analyzing nine different energy storage technologies. They looked at the environmental effects of renewable curtailment, which is the amount of renewable energy generated but unable to be delivered to meet demand for a variety of reasons. They also modeled what would happen if each state added up to 20 gigawatts of wind and 40 gigawatts of solar capacity, and how a carbon dioxide tax of up to $200 per ton would economically affect all of this.

A round up of other stories I found interesting…

Energy Storage

Solar

  • Canada’s largest municipal rooftop solar system unveiled | Enmax
  • Solar Now ‘Cheaper Than Grid Electricity’ in Every Chinese City, Study Finds | EcoWatch
  • Portugal lands world record-breaking solar price. How did it do it? | RenewEconomy
  • Tesla relaunches solar division, will rent rooftop systems in 6 states | Utility Dive

Wind

  • Vineyard Wind CEO says company remains committed to project | AP News
  • Wyoming wind farm making same power with 80% fewer turbines | AP News

Transport

  • BC Transit Goes Electric | CleanTechnica
  • Charging stations now outnumber gas stations in Britain | Green Car Reports
  • World’s largest all-electric ferry completes its maiden trip | Electrek

Carbon Capture

Circular Economy