Plus: Billions to e-transport lift transition investment; Carbon capture and hydrogen get more tech investment; vanadium flow battery in Alberta
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Peter
Observations & Comments
I’ve highlighted two stories to feature, but don’t miss out on all the other impressive stories throughout this week’s update. The first feature story is China’s very impressive buildout of offshore wind in 2021 – more than the rest of the world managed in the previous five years. The second is the $755B invested in the energy transition globally in 2021 – almost half of which occurred in Asia.
China’s buildout of renewables is impressive, though the proportion of coal-fired power generation remains at 68%, in part due to the growth in demand for electricity. Per capita electricity use is still half that of the US. As with anything, it gets complicated quickly – with uncertainty on the future of subsidies, the curtailment of renewable power from western regions trimming how much makes it to populous eastern regions and more. Check out the Forbes piece for more insights.
The next feature headline provides insights into the growth in investment in the energy transition. Both Bloomberg and edie provide good insights. Of note is that growth has been driven largely by investment in electrifying transport. When you skip down to the transportation section – you can see some great examples of the 10’s of billions automakers are pouring into electric vehicles. That all said, broadly speaking the investments – impressive as they may be, are still not keeping pace with climate pledges. See the Mckinsey piece in the Finance section where they estimate $9 trillion is needed annually.
Regular readers will know that I don’t post stories on climate science simply because it tends to draw in debate and frankly that is not something I find useful. However, how we adapt to changing climate is rightly getting more attention. Which is why the ECB telling European banks to wipe away nearly half the value of assets exposed to flood risk is worth noting. Check out the first story under Finance & Sentiment.
Feature Stories
China Built More Offshore Wind In 2021 Than Every Other Country Built In 5 Years | Forbes
The data, from the country’s National Energy Administration, indicate that just under 17 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity were installed in 2021. The extraordinary expansion means that China now operates almost half of the world’s installed offshore wind, with 26 gigawatts of a total of 54 gigawatts worldwide.
Where the Billions Pouring Into the Energy Transition Are Going | BNN Bloomberg
Energy transition investment follows familiar patterns in global capital markets. Large, established financial institutions supply hundreds of billions of dollars a year to finance construction of long-lived assets using familiar zero-carbon technologies — i.e., deployment. Smaller institutions (some well-established, others quite new) supply tens of billions to fund company formation and the proving-out of new technologies and business models, or innovation.
Global clean energy investment reaches record heights at $755B in 2021 | edie
Global investment into clean energy and related technologies reached a new record in 2021, with nations funnelling more than £560bn ($750bn) into solutions that would push them towards national climate goals, research from BloombergNEF (BNEF) has found. BloombergNEF’s annual investment report records a 27% rise from 2020 to 2021, with almost half of all investment occurring in Asia.
Finance & Sentiment
ECB wipes 45% off home prices in harshest bank climate test | BNN Bloomberg
European banks have been told to assume that real-estate assets most exposed to flood risk could lose almost half their value, as the sector’s resilience to climate change is stress-tested over the coming months.
McKinsey: $9trn needed annually to deliver global net-zero transition | edie
A new report looking at the potential disruption caused by the ongoing net-zero transition has claimed that delivering climate-aligned decarbonisation across countries could deliver a net gain in jobs, if corporates, investors and governments can raise efforts over a decade that will “decide the nature of the transition”
Blackstone Makes ESG Splash with $100B Green-Energy Lending Strategy | BNN Bloomberg
Blackstone Inc. has launched a new renewable-energy lending strategy as part of the private equity firm’s commitment to invest $100 billion in green projects over the next decade.
Barclays Steers Ultra-Rich Clients Toward New ESG Entrepreneurs | BNN Bloomberg
High net-worth clients at Barclays Plc are being steered toward sustainable investment products that tap into a new class of ESG entrepreneur.
Scottish Widows pledges £25bn of low-carbon investment by 2025 on road to net-zero | edie
Pensions and insurance giant Scottish Widows has bolstered its 2050 net-zero target with a new climate action plan, published ahead of the UK Government’s requirement for all financial firms to disclose how they are approaching the transition. On exclusion, Scottish Widows has already excluded fossil fuel firms from its £250m environmental fund and stopped investing, across all funds, in companies deriving 10% or more of their revenue from tar sands or thermal coal.
HSBC pledges $100m to Bill Gates’ clean energy innovation fund | edie
HSBC has confirmed a $100m investment in Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, a private-public accelerator programme focused on mobilising funding for technologies that could play a key role in the energy transition.
Technology
Hydrogen
Repsol leads largest multisector consortium in Spain to promote renewable hydrogen | Repsol
Bringing together 22 companies and 11 associations, technology centres and universities from different sectors, the Spanish Hydrogen Network (SHYNE) will deploy and promote renewable hydrogen projects to help decarbonize the Spanish economy. A total investment of €3.23 billion euros will support the development of technologies and infrastructure, generating more than 13,000 jobs.
Baker Hughes, Severstal back turquoise hydrogen tech | Energy Voice
A group of energy companies have ponied up C$79 million ($62mn) to back a turquoise hydrogen technology in Canada. Ekona Power has secured the equity investment to commercialise its methane pyrolysis. Baker Hughes took a leading role in the funding round. Mitsui, Severstal, ConocoPhillips, TransAlta, Continental Resources, NGIF Cleantech Ventures and BDC Capital also participated.
BP and Macquarie offshoot to jointly develop 250MW green hydrogen plant at Rotterdam | RenewEconomy
British oil and gas giant BP will partner with the newly formed Hydrogen Chemistry Company (HyCC) to develop yet another green hydrogen plant in the port area of Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, this time with plans for 250MW of production capacity.
Vestas and CIP plan 5GW Spanish wind and solar-to-green hydrogen and ammonia | Wind Power Monthly
Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) and Vestas aim to use 5GW of new wind and solar capacity to power 2GW of electrolysis capacity to produce green hydrogen and ammonia in north-east Spain.
Carbon Capture
Bill Gates Invests in Carbon Capture Startup Verdox After Tech Breakthrough | BNN Bloomberg
A Massachusetts-based startup that captures carbon dioxide directly from the air has raised $80 million from investors, including Bill Gates-led Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Founded in 2019, Verdox Inc.’s technology is still only operable at lab scale. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology spinoff has developed a special type of plastic that can selectively pull out CO₂ from a mix of gas—in air or exhaust—when charged with electricity. Once trapped, a change in voltage releases the CO₂. The startup said its material could cut the total energy used in direct air capture by 70% or more. The startup will have to rely on low-carbon electricity to power the process.
$30 Million to Accelerate Carbon Capture Projects in Alberta | DEC
A new $30 million funding opportunity will accelerate development of industrial-scale carbon capture and transportation technology solutions in Alberta. Emissions Reduction Alberta’s (ERA) Carbon Capture Kickstart: Design and Engineering call builds on Alberta’s global leadership in this space, and will fill key knowledge gaps, drive partnerships and innovation, and accelerate project financing and deployment in Alberta.
Enbridge, Lehigh Cement To Advance ‘CO2 Storage Solution’ In Alberta | Enbridge
Enbridge Inc. and Lehigh Cement announced a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to collaborate on a carbon solution for Lehigh’s cement manufacturing facility in Edmonton. Lehigh is developing North America’s first full-scale carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) solution for the cement industry at its Edmonton plant, with the goal of capturing approximately 780,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) annually, said the company. Captured emissions would be transported via pipeline and permanently sequestered by Enbridge. Subject to the award of carbon sequestration rights and regulatory approvals, the project could be in service as early as 2025.
Check out this short one minute video explaining carbon capture
Green Steel
Steelmaker SSAB Plans $4.8 Billion Investment to Slash Emissions | BNN Bloomberg
Steelmaker SSAB AB plans to transform its Nordic strip production, one of the region’s top emitters, to cut emissions faster than previously forecast. A pioneer of fossil-free steel, SSAB will invest about 45 billion kronor ($4.8 billion) through 2030 to transform its Lulea and Raahe mills in Sweden and Finland to “cost-effective mini-mills” with electric arc furnaces and rolling mills, the Stockholm-based company said on Friday.
Small Modular Reactors
Rolls-Royce consortium shopping for factory sites to build mini-nuclear reactors | The Register
UK aerospace and engineering giant Rolls-Royce is on the hunt for sites for its much-touted small nuclear reactors, which received a £210m grant from the UK government last year.
Energy Storage
Canada’s largest solar-powered vanadium flow battery | pv magazine
Canada-based redox flow battery manufacturer Invinity Energy Systems and Canadian renewable energy developer Elemental Energy have announced the construction of a 21 MW solar plant coupled to 8.4 MWh of vanadium redox flow battery capacity at Chappice Lake, near Medicine Hat in Cypress County, in Canada’s Alberta province. [The $40.3 million project was backed by $10 million from Emissions Reduction Alberta]
Australia to offer $100M funding for next-gen big batteries | RenewEconomy
A new $100 million funding round for next generation big battery storage installations, featuring advanced or “grid forming” inverters seen as crucial for the transition to 100 per cent renewable grids, will open next week. The ARENA funding round is designed to ensure these are rolled out in bigger installations to give a true test of their ability to manage grid fluctuations and disturbances, and provide many of the crucial “grid services” that have hitherto been provided mostly by coal and gas generators.
Europe’s largest grid-tied batteries to be operational by 2024 | RenewEconomy
Canadian renewable energy and battery developer Amp Energy has announced it will build two 400MW, two hour battery storage facilities in central Scotland which, upon operation in 2024, will be the two largest grid-connected battery storage facilities in Europe.
TransAlta seeks to build a battery energy storage facility near Ghost Reservoir | CBC
TransAlta has officially filed its application with the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) to build a battery energy storage facility near the Ghost Reservoir. The project will be capable of supporting the grid with a maximum power rating of 180 megawatts of electricity, making this one of the largest storage facilities of its kind in the province. The company says the lithium-ion batteries will be charged by electricity from TransAlta’s existing hydroelectric facility at the reservoir, 15 kilometres west of Cochrane.
Energy Vault inks massive China deal for gravity-based storage project | RenewEconomy
The gravity-based, long duration energy storage technology of Swiss company Energy Vault has gained a foothold in the potentially massive China market, through a deal that will kick off with a100MWh project in the Jiangsu Province in the second half of the year.
Solar and Wind
China commissioned 53 GW of solar projects in 2021 | Enerdata
China added 53 GW of solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity in 2021, including 29 GW of distributed solar projects, according to the country’s National Energy Administration (NEA). The country’s total solar capacity reached 306 GW at the end of the year, with 107.5 GW of distributed solar (+29 GW in 2021, i.e., around 55% of all new solar PV capacity added in 2021).
Philippines launches 2 GW renewables auction | pv magazine
The Philippines’ Department of Energy has launched an auction to allocate 2 GW of renewable energy capacity. Through the procurement exercise, the country’s authorities want to contract 1,260 MW of PV, 380 MW of wind power, 230 MW of biomass, and 130 MW of hydropower capacity.
MidAmerican Energy plans $3.9B in renewable energy projects for Iowa | Energy Global
MidAmerican Energy has announced plans for a US$3.9 billion renewable energy project in Iowa, US, including wind and solar generation, and the exploration of new technologies to advance the company’s transition to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.
UK Government funnels £31m into floating offshore wind technology | edie
A week after Scottish seabed plots were auctioned to the developers of 16GW of floating wind projects, the UK Government has confirmed £31m of new funding for the sector, which will be matched by funding from the private sector.
Proposed 150MW wind farm could become Nova Scotia’s largest | CBC
A proposed wind farm in Hants County, N.S., stands to become the largest wind energy generator in the province and give a boost toward the provincial government’s renewable energy targets.
Transportation
Maersk launches the world’s first offshore electric vessel-charging station venture | Electrek
Image: Maersk
Maersk Supply Service, a subsidiary of Danish shipping giant Maersk, is launching Stillstrom – an offshore vessel-charging venture to support the decarbonization of the maritime industry by eliminating idle emissions.
Nissan, Renault and Mitsubishi announce $26B EV Rebooting to their Alliance | BNN Bloomberg
Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi presented a joint 23 billion-euro ($26 billion) electrification plan on Thursday as the struggling Franco-Japanese auto alliance tries to prove it’s still a force to reckon with. The push entails rolling out 35 new battery-powered cars by the end of the decade across five common manufacturing platforms.
Ford to throw another $20 billion at electric vehicle push | The Driven
Ford will boost its electrification strategy by up to another $US20 billion, focusing on more factory conversions, and employing more engineers and staff to work on batteries and software, Bloomberg has reported.
GM announces record $7B investment in electric vehicle plants | The Hill via Yahoo
General Motors is making a $7 billion investment in four new Michigan electric vehicle manufacturing plants in an effort to “be the market leader” in electric vehicles by 2025, CEO Mary Barra announced on Tuesday.
Lamborghini announces all future vehicles will have an electric motor | Electrek
Lamborghini announced that this year is going to be its last for purely combustion engine vehicles. Starting next year, it will only introduce vehicles with electric motors – starting with hybrids and plug-in hybrids. The CEO also confirmed that the legendary automaker’s first all-electric vehicle is likely going to be a four-door.
Bentley to Pour $3.4 Billion Into U.K. Operations in EV Shift | BNN Bloomberg
Bentley Motors Ltd. will build its first fully electric car in the U.K., part of a 2.5-billion pound ($3.4 billion) spending push to overhaul manufacturing and ditch its roaring 12-cylinder combustion engines. The investment over the next decade will modernize Bentley’s factory in Crewe, England, the Volkswagen AG brand said Wednesday. Bentley plans to offer only plug-in hybrid and electric cars by 2026 and switch its entire lineup to fully battery-powered vehicles by the end of the decade.
BlackRock, NextEra and Daimler to spend $650M on EV charging network for US Trucks | BNN Bloomberg
BlackRock Inc., Daimler Truck Holding AG and NextEra Energy Inc. aim to spend $650 million to build and operate battery charging and hydrogen refueling stations for trucks across the U.S. The companies agreed to collaborate on building a U.S. network of charging sites on critical freight routes along the east and west coasts and in Texas by 2026.
Baidu’s autonomous EV marque JIDU garners $400 million for ‘Robocar’ launch in 2023 | Electrek
Intelligent EV startup JIDU announced a closed round of Series A funding that raised nearly $400 million dollars. JIDU is an EV automaker still in its infancy after being established by Baidu Group in March of 2021. Rather than just build more EVs, JIDU was created to popularize autonomous driving and human-machine interaction technologies.
Ola plans electric scooter and electric car R&D center based in the UK, investing £100M | Electrek
India-based Ola Electric made a splash with its high performance and low cost S1 Pro electric scooters, which are now taking India by storm. With its sights set on global expansion, the company announced today that it is opening a new R&D center in the UK for both two-wheeled and four-wheeled electric vehicle development.
Union Pacific buys ten more all-electric locomotives | Electrek
Following recent news of the purchase of ten electric locomotives from Wabtec, Union Pacific railroad has followed up by purchasing another ten from Progress Rail, a Caterpillar Inc. company. Union Pacific’s combined electric locomotive purchases and upgrades to its rail yard infrastructure are expected to exceed $100 million, making it the largest investment in battery-electric technology by a US Class I railroad.
Circular Economy
Lithion Recycling secures funding for first commercial operation in Quebec | Electric Autonomy
Montreal-based Lithion Recycling has raised $125 million in first-round funding to build a lithium-ion battery recycling plant and Technology Development Center in Quebec, with more Canadian and international facilities to follow.
Policy
NSW opens funding for first of 1,000 ultra fast EV chargers, country’s biggest network | The Driven
The New South Wales government has opened the first, $35 million funding round for what it says will be the country’s most extensive electric vehicle charging network. The $35 million is part of a $171 million funding program over four years to help roll out 1,000 ultra-fast charging stations across the state, announced last September.