Energy Shift: Decarbonizing Aviation – tune into Energy vs Climate

Plus: UK announces net zero plan; impressive battery and hydrogen announcements

Hi Everyone,

I’m putting in a plug for the next episode of “Energy vs Climate”. I’ve tuned into these events and have always come away with new insights. Experts David, Sara and Ed are hosting MIT’s Steven Barrett to discuss the topic of decarbonizing aviation. Check out the details below to register for their webinar on Tuesday, October 26th, or download the pod version after the fact via Apple podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever you listen. I also recommed subscribing to their update emails at energyvsclimate.com. If you like Energy Shift, I’m sure you’ll like EvC.

As per usual, scan the rest of the headlines – the battery developments in particular are worth noting – see the Energy Storage section. The UK’s sweeping net zero plan announced this week also made lots of headlines – see the Policy section.

Thanks,
Peter

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Special Feature

Energy vs Climate You’re Invited: Decarbonizing Aviation When it comes to our transportation system, decarbonizing aviation is a very expensive ton of CO2 to go after. But potential solutions abound, including lower carbon liquid jet fuel, electrification, hydrogen and more energy efficient aircraft. Dr. Steven Barrett of MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics will help David, Sara and Ed assess those different pathways as the aviation industry searches for how to do its fair share in a net-zero world – without putting flight out of reach for all but the very rich. Tune in on Tuesday, October 26 at 11:30 a.m. MT / 1:30 p.m. ET to learn more. If you can’t make it, watch the replay on Youtube or listen to the podcast, available October 27th. Find our entire back catalogue at energyvsclimate.com and follow us on Twitter @EnergyvsClimate. About your co-hosts: Steven Barrett is a Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he is Associate Department Head of the Aeronautics and Astronautics Department. He is director of the MIT Laboratory for Aviation and the Environment and leads the MIT Electric Aircraft Initiative. The aim of Steven’s research is to help aviation achieve zero environmental impacts. This includes developing low emissions and noise propulsion technologies for aircraft, improving scientific understanding of the atmospheric impacts of aircraft pollution, and evaluating the sustainability of biofuels and electric aircraft. David Keith is a professor at Harvard in Engineering and the Kennedy School. He is the founder of Carbon Engineering and was formerly a professor at the University of Calgary. He splits his time between Canmore and Cambridge. Sara Hastings-Simon studies energy transitions at the intersection of policy, business, and technology. She’s a policy wonk, a physicist turned management consultant, and a professor at the University of Calgary and Director of the Master of Science in Sustainable Energy Development. Ed Whittingham is a clean energy policy/finance consultant, fellow at the Public Policy Forum and a mentor with the Creative Destruction Lab. He is the former executive director of the Pembina Institute.

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Technology

Hydrogen 

Ineos Invests more than €2 Billion in Green Hydrogen Projects | CHEManager
Ineos has announced plans to invest more than €2 billion in electrolysis projects to make zero-carbon, green hydrogen across Europe. First plants will be built in Norway, Germany and Belgium within the next 10 years, with plans for others in the UK and France.

Protium To Build 40MW Flagship Green Hydrogen Project In Teesside | FuelCellWorks
Protium, the UK’s leading green hydrogen energy company, has secured a location on Wilton Universal Group’s site in Teesside, marking the area’s largest announced green hydrogen project to date. Current plans are for the site to include up to 40MW of electrolysis capability, developed in two phases, including hydrogen storage.

Qatar’s QE and Shell to work on UK hydrogen projects | Argus Media
State-owned Qatar Energy (QE) said today it has signed an agreement with Shell to work together on blue and green hydrogen projects in the UK. The partners will look in particular at “integrated and scalable opportunities in key sectors where hydrogen could help decarbonise, especially around industrial cluster development and also for the transport sector, with a focus on the London metropolitan area,” QE said.

Hy Stor Energy Developing First-Ever U.S. Zero-Carbon Green Hydrogen Storage Hub | Press Release
Hy Stor Energy, together with its strategic partner Connor, Clark & Lunn Infrastructure (CC&L Infrastructure), will develop, commercialize, and operate large-scale, long-duration hydrogen hubs that will serve as a model for our nation’s green hydrogen development efforts going forward. The planned scale of the Mississippi Clean Hydrogen Hub is up to 10 times larger than any other green hydrogen project under consideration in the U.S. and would be one of the largest in the world.

Carbon Capture 

TechnipFMC and Talos Energy Enter Strategic Alliance to Provide Carbon Capture and Storage | Press Release
TechnipFMC and Talos Energy Inc. announced today that they have entered into a long-term strategic alliance to develop and deliver technical and commercial solutions to Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) projects along the United States Gulf Coast. The alliance combines Talos’s offshore operational strength and sub-surface expertise with TechnipFMC’s extended history in subsea engineering, system integration and automation and control.

Canada’s biggest oilsands firms pledge 97% cut in emissions — with government support | Financial Post
Canada’s five largest oilsands companies pledged Thursday to cut roughly 97 per cent of their current total emissions with the goal of reaching a net-zero emissions target by 2050, with help from both the federal and provincial governments.

Energy Storage 

Shell’s sonnen, Swell Energy, turn household solar storage into grid assets in California and Utah | Energy Storage News
Virtual power plant (VPP) company Swell Energy and battery storage provider sonnen have both announced deals that will turn thousands of residential solar-powered energy storage systems into valuable resources for their local grid network.

Britishvolt plans 60 GWh Canadian gigafactory in Quebec | S&P Global
UK battery maker Britishvolt is planning on building a second gigafactory – this one in Quebec, Canada with a capacity of 60 GWh, Britishvolt Canada President Philippe Couillard told S&P Global Platts Oct.8.

StromVolt Americas announces battery plant plans for Canada | Electrive
The Canadian start-up StromVolt Americas has announced its intention to build Canada’s first factory for the production of lithium-ion battery cells for electric vehicles together with the Taiwanese company Delta Electronics. The factory will be located in the province of Quebec. The initial annual capacity is to be 250 MWh and will be expanded to 10 GWh by 2030.

Apple Veteran Wins Gates’s Backing for Michigan Battery Startup | BNN Bloomberg
Amid a boom in electric-vehicle production and a race for innovations that improve these new cars’ range and cost, battery startup Our Next Energy (ONE) said Monday it has raised $25 million in a fresh fundraising round. ONE uses lithium-iron-phosphate, or LFP batteries, which are cheaper and less fire-prone than nickel-based chemistries. Typically, that approach would mean sacrificing power and range for stability, but the startup claims it’s solved that problem. ONE’s analysis showed its packs are made up of 76% cells and yield 287 watt-hours per liter (Wh/L) of energy density. By comparison, the analysis showed the pack from a Tesla Model 3 using LFP chemistry was made of 49% cells and yielded 173 Wh/L.

Huawei signs world’s largest energy storage project at 1,300MWh  | China Daily
Huawei and SEPCOIII Electric Power Construction Co Ltd successfully signed the Saudi Red Sea New City energy storage project during the Global Digital Power Summit 2021 in Dubai, according to a statement released on Huawei’s official WeChat account. Huawei said the energy storage capacity of the project will reach 1,300 MWh, marking the world’s largest energy storage and off-grid energy storage project.

Stellantis, Samsung SDI to Build EV Battery Plant in the U.S. | BNN Bloomberg
Stellantis NV and Korean battery maker Samsung SDI Co. plan to build a factory in the U.S. as the automaker pushes further into electric vehicles. The facility should have an annual output of around 23 gigawatt hours by the first half of 2025, eventually increasing to around 40 GWh.

Solar and Wind 

This ingenious wall could harness enough wind power to cover your electric bill | Fast Company
[Excerpt] In its current iteration, the wall is made up of 25 off-the-shelf wind turbine generators (the middle part the blades spin around). These are attached to 25 vertical rods with square panels attached alongside them. Right now, the wall is 8 feet tall and 25 feet wide, but the concept can be scaled.

Rio Tinto plans massive 7GW wind and solar for smelters and iron ore mines | RenewEconomy
Mining giant Rio Tinto has unveiled plans for massive investments in wind and solar, including up to 5GW (5,000MW) for its Boyne Island and Tomago smelters and another 1GW for its huge iron ore mines in the Pilbara in Western Australia.

Iberdrola commits £6 billion to develop 3GW offshore wind hub in UK | RenewEconomy
Iberdrola announced that it was investing a further £6 billion to develop a massive offshore wind energy complex, the East Anglia Hub off the Suffolk coast, which will consist of three separate offshore wind farms and boast an installed capacity of over 3GW.

Massive offshore wind project taps “world’s largest” Vestas turbines | RenewEconomy
Danish wind giant Vestas has been tapped to provide 138 of its world-leading 15MW turbines for the massive 2.1GW Empire offshore wind project, which is planned for development off the coast of Long Island, New York.

 

Transportation 

Toyota to Build U.S. Battery Plant Under $3.4 Billion Plan | Financial Post
Toyota Motor Corp. plans to invest $3.4 billion in the U.S. through 2030 to establish a new company and build its first U.S. battery plant, becoming the latest global automaker to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles through a battery push.

Ford nabs $884 million incentive package for EV ‘mega campus’ | The Verge
Tennessee lawmakers have approved an $884 million incentive package for the “mega campus” near Memphis where Ford plans to make batteries and electric vehicles, according to the Tennessean. Ford will get $500 million in the form of a grant. The rest is being allocated in a few different ways — the result of a special session held this week where state legislators haggled for three days.

XPeng’s HT Aero raises $500 million in funding, hints at actual flying car coming in 2024 | Electrek
HT Aero, an urban air mobility (UAM) company affiliated with XPeng Motors, announced that it has received $500 million in Series A capital funding for electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles. According to the companies involved, this will be the largest single sum of fundraising in Asia’s low-altitude flying vehicle sector to date. Furthermore, HT Aero might also soon a deliver a vehicle that can actually fly and drive.

Tesla announces plans to triple the size of Supercharger network within 2 years | Electrek
Tesla has announced plans to triple the size of the Supercharger network within the next two years.It’s an ambitious goal, but the automaker has fallen short of its growth goals for the fast-charging network in the past.

Circular Economy 

Plastics to outpace coal’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 -report | Reuters
The carbon-intensive production of plastics is on pace to emit more greenhouse gases than coal-fired power plants within this decade, undercutting global efforts to tackle climate change, a report released on Thursday said.

Policy

S.Korea commits to cutting emissions by 40% of 2018 levels by 2030 | Financial Post
South Korea on Monday officially committed to reducing national carbon emissions by 40% of 2018 levels by 2030 ahead of the upcoming U.N. COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, a “very challenging target” compared to an initial 26.3% goal.

UK outlines sweeping net-zero plan ahead of COP26 meeting | Bloomberg via World Oil
The UK unveiled its net-zero strategy as it tries to showcase its green credentials ahead of key climate talks later this month. It will move taxes from electricity to gas, fund carbon-capture, and offer grants for cleaner home heating.