Plus: Record renewables for 2021; massive hydrogen projects planned; Toyota and Nissan boost EV plans; Why the transition is complicated
Hi everyone,
I hope this email finds you well. I thought I’d share it’s been 3 weeks since we had to say goodbye to our family dog of 15 and a half years. It was his time. We’ll cherish the many great memories, for sure.
In just one week there are a surprising number of good news stories to highlight. But if you only have time to read a little, start with my comments and the feature stories. Scan the rest of the headlines at your leisure.
As always, I really do welcome your emails. Even quick little notes help me understand what is of interest. Or longer ones to help shape my thinking.
I ask you to consider spreading this newsletter to others you know would be interested and encourage them to subscribe.
Thanks and have a great week,
Peter
Observations & Comments
There is so much wrong with the way our houses are being built. As one reader recently pointed out, solar panels on rooftops could make a lot of sense. But they create DC, which then needs an inverter to create AC so it can be used in the house. If you have an electric car, that AC electricity get converted to DC in the battery, then back to AC for the motor when it runs. More people are also pairing solar and batteries in the homes. Most electric vehicles don’t yet allow you to use the battery for your home. But imagine you had all these things available to you – solar panels, battery, electric vehicle, maybe even a heat pump to lessen the use of natural gas furnaces. Where is the design where circuits could be isolated for smart software to control it all, taking into consideration weather forecasts so you get optimal use from the whole system? Certainly, policy for building codes and energy efficiency need work – and governments don’t appear very motivated to reduce consumer emissions – the demand that keeps oil and gas companies in business. But I digress. For the time being – technology can come to the rescue. Read the first feature story and ask yourself why we’re not seeing more of these companies offering solutions. And please – if you know of any proximal examples in North America – let me know!
Pivoting to the global scale, I’ve often said that what happens in the developing economies of China, India and Africa matters more to climate change than elsewhere. Daniel Yergin makes this point as an emerging north-south divide in the second feature story I suggest you read. He repeats a theme expressed by Peter Tertzakian that the energy transition will be disorderly (see my Oct 31 Issue) and complicated. I point these articles out because I want you to understand better the challenges of addressing climate change.
Feature Stories
Porsche invests in German startup aiming to be a one-stop shop for carbon neutral homes | Tech Crunch
[Excerpt] 1Komma5° is aiming to bring everything together through its software as well as acquisitions. Specifically, 1Komma5° is seeking to buy leading electrical installation companies in Germany — and will eventually expand to other countries such as Austria and Switzerland — that focus on renewable energies such as solar, heat pumps and energy storage. 1Komma5° provides the enterprise software for these companies to handle administrative tasks and customer-relationship management as well as energy management software that ties the charging, solar and energy storage together.
Why the Energy Transition Will Be So Complicated | Daniel Yergin, The Atlantic
The degree to which the world depends on oil and gas is not well understood. To appreciate the complexities of the competing demands between climate action and the continued need for energy, consider the story of an award—one that the recipient very much did not want and, indeed, did not bother to pick up.
Finance & Sentiment
Europe’s Carbon Price Has Almost Tripled in 2021 | BNN Bloomberg
European carbon futures rose above 80 euros ($90.272) a ton on Friday for the first time, testing the resolve of politicians who are promising to act aggressively on climate change while also grappling with rapid inflation that’s tearing into economies across the globe.
Biggest South African Cement Firm Sets 2050 Net Zero Target | BNN Bloomberg
PPC Ltd., the biggest South African cement maker, has set a target of attaining net zero emissions by 2050. The company aims to cut emissions by 10% by 2025 and 27% by 2030, it said in its inaugural climate change report on Monday. PPC produces a total of 11.6 million tons of cement a year in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Botswana, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Exxon pledges $15bn to meet updated decarbonisation targets, but fails to align with climate science | edie
ExxonMobil has announced a new plan to reduce absolute emissions by 20% by 2030 and kick-started a $15bn investment plan through to 2027. But the firm will likely continue to face intense scrutiny from the green economy. Exxon has set new targets through to 2030 which it has stated will reduce the company’s direct (Scope 1) and power-related (Scope 2) emissions by 20% against 2020 levels. These include reducing the emissions intensity of upstream activities by 40-50%. Steeper targets have been set for flaring (60-70% intensity reduction) and methane across the corporation (70-80% intensity reduction).
Technology
Hydrogen
China’s Sinopec builds ‘world’s largest’ solar-to-green hydrogen plant | Recharge News
Chinese petrochemical group Sinopec has started building what it claims will be the world’s largest solar-to-hydrogen project with an aim to produce 20,000 tonnes of renewable H2 a year by mid-2023.
BP Plans Green Hydrogen Base in U.K. as Energy Transition Speeds Up | BNN Bloomberg
BP Plc plans to build a green hydrogen facility in northeast England that could start producing the gas by 2025, part of a massive project to help the oil major transition toward cleaner sources of energy. The HyGreen Teesside proposal follows one made earlier this year to develop a blue hydrogen facility in the same location. That would produce 1 gigawatt of hydrogen by 2030 and capture 2 million tons of carbon dioxide a year.
Acciona signs up to supply solar for 3 GW green hydrogen project | pv magazine
Australia’s Stanwell Energy and Spanish renewable energy company Acciona Energia have signed a deal that could use energy generated at the proposed 600 MWp Aldoga Solar Farm to power a 3 GW green hydrogen project being developed in Queensland.
Huge $2.6 billion green hydrogen project planned for Europe | CNBC
Spanish power company Iberdrola and Sweden’s H2 Green Steel are to partner and develop a major facility that will produce green hydrogen, in yet another example of how companies are taking an interest in the much talked about sector.
Total Eren studying 8 GW green hydrogen project for Chile | pv magazine
[Excerpt] The H2 Magallanes installed capacity coupled with up to 8 GW of electrolysis capacity, a desalination plant, an ammonia (NH3) plant, and port facilities to transport the green ammonia to national and international markets. The objective is to conduct studies in order to launch the project in 2025, aiming to produce hydrogen by 2027.
Carbon Capture
BP unveils up to $3bn CCUS project in Indonesia, country’s first | Nikkei Asia
Oil and gas giant BP has announced a plan for Indonesia’s first carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) project, with an estimated cost of between $2 billion and $3 billion.
Energy Storage
China’s Companies Are Going to Any Length for a Hold on Lithium | Financial Post
[Excerpt] The price of lithium carbonate has more than tripled since January, adding around $470 to the cost of making a battery-powered car, according to China Central Television. Tight supply has also been reflected in the price of other lithium materials.
Hydrostor applies for license for 4GWh California compressed air storage project | Energy Storage News
Advanced compressed air energy storage (A-CAES) company Hydrostor has made its second application to license a gigawatt-hour scale project as a power plant with the California Energy Commission (CEC).
Solar and Wind
Solar reaches 110 per cent of South Australia demand as more records tumble | Renew Economy
[Excerpt] It means that up to 2,500MW of wind and solar can be supported with as few as two gas generating units operating – usually at a combined capacity of just 80MW. On Sunday, another record to fall was the minimum share of gas in the state grid – just 4.4 per cent.
First full-scale hybrid floating wind and wave energy platform bound for Canary Islands | RenewEconomy
Danish renewable energy technology company Floating Power Plant has secured a location to deploy its first full-scale hybrid floating wind and wave platform at test facilities off the coast of the Canary Islands in Spain.
US Approves Second Commercial Scale Offshore Wind Project | Offshore Wind
The US Department of the Interior (DO) has approved the construction and operations of the 132 MW South Fork wind project offshore Rhode Island.
2021 will be an all-time, record-breaking year for clean energy installations | Electrek
Despite the pandemic, supply chain challenges, and rising costs of materials, 2021 is going to be a record year for clean energy, the International Energy Agency (IEA) announced today in a new report. The addition of new clean energy capacity is forecast to rise to 290 gigawatts (GW) in 2021 [Comment: For a point of reference, this represents about a quarter of the grid capacity in the US].
RWE awarded rights to develop 1 GW Thor wind farm off Danish coast | S&P Global
[Excerpt] The project some 22 kilometers offshore Denmark’s west coast must be connected to the grid by the end of 2027 with the grid connection window opening in January 2025, it said. The Danish Energy Agency estimated the investment for the project including grid link around $2.5 billion.
Amazon procures more than 1 GW of U.S. solar projects | pv magazine
Amazon has followed its recently announced plan to invest in 274 utility-scale renewables projects throughout the world with the announcement of 18 new projects that it has procured in the United States and Europe, including eight U.S. solar projects. The 18 projects have been procured across the United States, Finland, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom, and total 5.6 GW in combined capacity.
Transportation
Nissan to invest $17.6 billion in EV development over the next five years | Engadget
Nissan will invest 2 trillion yen ($17.6 billion) over the next five years developing new EVs and battery technology as part of a grand plan it calls “Ambition 2030,” the company announced. It aims to release 15 new EVs total by 2030, with electrified vehicles making up half its vehicle lineup at that point.
ENMAX seeks 250 Calgary EV drivers to participate in new grid-sustainability charging pilot | Electric Autonomy
The year-long study by the Alberta-based electricity provider aims to determine what programs, policies or regulations are most effective in motivating drivers to shift the time of day they charge to lessen demand on the grid
Toyota Gets Ready to Sell Only Zero-Emission Cars in Europe | BNN Bloomberg
Toyota Motor Corp. vowed to be ready to sell only zero-emission cars in Europe by 2035, a surprise pledge that aligns the world’s biggest automaker with the world’s most ambitious climate plan. The Japanese manufacturer also set a new intermediate goal for at least half its sales in Western Europe to be zero-emission vehicles by the end of the decade. That’s a big step up from the roughly 10% sales mix expected in 2025.
India to install 6,000 EV charging stations on nine expressways | Seneca ESG
Mahendra Nath Pandey, Indian Union Minister of Heavy Industries, said the Indian government had authorized the installation of 6,000 electric vehicle (EV) charging stations alongside nine expressways selected, as reported by the Economic Times on November 22.
Circular Economy
Single-use plastic items to be banned in Scotland from 2022 | The National
The ban on these single-use plastic items is due to come in on June 1, 2022. The list includes: Plastic cutlery – including forks, knives, spoons and chopsticks; Plastic plates; Plastic straws; Beverage stirrers; Balloon sticks; Food containers made of expanded polystyrene; and Cups and other beverage containers made of expanded polystyrene, including their covers and lids.