Plus: 40GW of batteries needed in California; $11B green hydrogen in Australia; Honda to spend $40B on EVs
Hi Everyone,
I hope you had a great Easter. We’ve been getting what I hope is one last blast of winter here in Calgary lately with more snow. But the spring birds are arriving, lifting our spirits with their fervent chirping.
I will admit to be mulling what to do with my newsletter. Re-assessment is a good thing after 5 years at this. There are so many more sources for energy transition news compared to when I started. So perhaps the focus is less on the many signposts and more on the commentary? An arena I’m feeling some pull towards is how to better address energy demand – buildings, heating, cooling, transportation, etc. – asking what changes are needed to make us all more energy efficient. So I welcome your feedback – whether you were among the first to sign up, the last or somewhere in the middle.
Jump to my comments, then check out the feature stories and as always, skim the headlines for what interests you.
Know someone who would appreciate getting this? Please do your part by forwarding this on and encouraging others to subscribe. It really is the best way to thank me.
Cheers,
Peter
Observations & Comments
My subject line for this issue was: “What’s wrong with this picture?”
As you can see from the black portion of the bars, there is a lot of focus on “urban air mobility”. I see way too many stories about Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) vehicles. Just do your own search and you’ll see what I mean. This focus by private sector investment is sadly misplaced. This transport solution is not for the masses to get to and from work. As noted by Mark Daly at Bloomberg HyperDrive: “these urban flights — some of them electric — will at best displace cars with a more energy-intense form of travel. At worst, they will replace public transit. While investors are excited by the promise of this type of travel, the contribution by such startups to broader sustainability goals will be limited.”
Getting us out of the problem of rush hour traffic requires rethinking many things, beginning with how we design cities. Somehow we have to give up on suburbs and start living more densely, allowing for more walking and biking. Here’s what my son Austin had to say:
They are mistakenly trying to solve a geometry problem via technology, which isn’t the proper solution. They haven’t properly identified the problem. It’s not “individual transportation is inefficient and isn’t green enough,” it’s that “there’s too much individual transportation and mass transit is inefficient.” (And this problem, at the local level at least, isn’t a problem the private sector can solve.)
There are too many expensive problems connected to it to solve, too (e.g. safety, AI, air traffic control, servicing, infrastructure such as storage/parking space, landing pads, etc.), when more buses, bus routes and dedicated bus lanes with signal priority would be cheaper and have wider ranging benefits. See Jarrett Walker’s article on the geometry problem for more info.
I really encourage you to check out Jarrett Walker’s article. He really gets right to the root of our urban transportation problems.
Feature Stories
2045 Roadmap: California needs 40GW of Batteries and 4x electricity capacity | Energy Storage News
Californian investor-owned utility San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) has released its decarbonisation roadmap study, which says the state will need to quadruple its electricity capacity from 85GW in 2020 to 356GW in 2045.
“The Path to Net Zero: A Decarbonization Roadmap for California” was released yesterday (5 April) and offers recommendations designed to help meet the state’s aim of carbon neutrality by 2045. To achieve this the state will need 40GW of battery energy storage deployment but also 20GW of dispatchable generation from green hydrogen, the utility added.
[Comment] This story profiles just how important energy storage is to decarbonizing the grid. Renewables, by their very nature need to be paired with energy storage. Yet lithium prices now cost 10 times that to produce the metal, which will act as a brake on efforts to pair renewables with batteries – a view shared by Elon Musk and Rivian’s CEO RJ Scaringe. The latter suggests the pinch could be felt for a couple decades. So when you think about grid ‘batteries’, don’t forget about other forms of energy storage like pumped hydro, compressed air, gravity systems and others. I expect these other forms to now pick up much more traction in the coming years.
Fluence buys another software group; triples digital portfolio to 15GW since February | Energy Storage News
Global system integrator Fluence has acquired AI-enabled, renewable energy software-as-a-service provider Nispera, tripling its digital portfolio of assets contracted or managed since February to 15GW.
Fluence announced the agreement to acquire Zurich-based Nispera AG yesterday (Monday, 11 April). Nispera is a provider of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning-enabled (ML) software-as-a-service (SaaS) focused on the renewable energy sector.
[Comment] This is another great example of the importance of how software can be leveraged to ‘get closer to the customer’. Software is an often overlooked aspect of the energy transition for the ways it can deliver more value to the market participants.
Finance & Sentiment
Banks’ Net-Zero Lending Ambitions Hit Snags in Oil-Rich Canada | BNN Bloomberg
Canada’s banks have only just started on the path toward zeroing-out the carbon emissions of the companies they lend to, and already they’re running into conflicts between what climate activists and ESG investors want and what Canada’s oil-dependent economy demands of them.
BlackRock expects 75% of company and govt assets to be net zero-aligned by 2030 | Reuters
BlackRock on Thursday projected that by 2030 at least three quarters of its investments in companies and governments will be tied to issuers with a scientific target to cut net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050, up from 25% currently.
Mastercard to Tie All Employee Bonuses to Meeting ESG Goals | BNN Bloomberg
Mastercard Inc. said it’s expanding an earlier push to tie executives’ bonuses to the company’s environmental, social and governance goals.
Deloitte to invest $1bn in sustainability and climate practice | edie
Professional services giant Deloitte is set to invest $1bn in its Sustainability & Climate practice, amid increased corporate demands for sustainability consultants.
Technology
Hydrogen
Shell, Uniper partner on UK low-carbon hydrogen facility | Reuters
German utility Uniper and Shell will team up to jointly produce low-carbon hydrogen at a Uniper power station in Britain in a bid to boost use of the fuel and cut greenhouse gas emissions, they said on Tuesday. The project, located at Uniper’s Killingholme power station in the East of England, will include a blue hydrogen production facility with a capacity of up to 720 megawatts – enough to heat more than half a million homes a year – using gas reformation technology with carbon capture and storage (CCS).
EDF Renewables, ZeroWaste consortium to establish green ammonia bunkering project in Egypt | Zawya
A consortium of EDF Renewables, a French utility EDF Group subsidiary, and Egypt’s ZeroWaste has signed an MoU with the General Authority for Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) to establish a green ammonia bunkering project in Egypt at a total investment of $3 billion.
Renewable offshore floating hydrogen production | pv magazine
Scottish Development International and J-DeEP are developing a floating offshore hydrogen production plant off the coast of Scotland. Research shows the combination of large-scale offshore renewables and floating hydrogen production could soon become viable, depending on the project configuration.
Developer unveils plans for four UK green hydrogen production sites, as Government firms up hydrogen village plans | edie
The UK Government has confirmed that it will deliver a hydrogen village by 2025, on the same day that First Hydrogen unveiled four chosen locations in England for green hydrogen production projects.
Japan’s Osaka Gas backs $11 billion green hydrogen project in Australia | Reuters
Osaka Gas Co Ltd said on Tuesday it will provide technical support for a $10.75 billion green hydrogen project in the Australian outback and will consider potential investment in future.
Carbon Capture
Louisiana Utility Cleco announces $900 million carbon capture project | Louisiana Radio Network
Cleco announces the company will invest 900-million dollars to reduce carbon emissions at the largest of its nine electric generation units in Louisiana. Project Diamond Vault, which will begin with a Front End Engineering Design (FEED) study, will re-engineer Cleco’s existing Madison 3 plant to reduce 95% or more of its carbon dioxide emissions through carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology.
Carbon Removal
Big Tech launches $925 million fund for carbon removal | Protocol
A supergroup of big-name companies — Alphabet, McKinsey, Meta, Shopify and Stripe — launched an advance market commitment to fund the development of permanent carbon-removal tech.
Geothermal
Ormat Technologies Signs 15-Year Power Purchase Agreement With Peninsula Clean Energy for Heber 2 Geothermal Facility | Yahoo News
Buildings
Octopus Energy acquires heat pump manufacturer RED in move to create ‘Model T moment’ for sector | Current±
Octopus Energy has acquired heat pump manufacturer Renewable Energy Devices (RED), as it targets cost reductions through expansion. Octopus Energy is planning to incorporate its smart grid technology into the heat pumps, allowing them to take advantage of cheap energy when there is surging renewables on the grid, and reducing the load at peak times.
The Grid
New York Clears $4.5 Billion Plan to Bring Hydropower to Big Apple | BNN Bloomberg
Regulators approved a $4.5 billion transmission line that will deliver Canadian hydropower to New York City, a key component of the Empire State’s efforts to eliminate carbon from its power grid by 2040.
Energy Storage
Solar Energy Corporation of India launches ‘first-of-its-kind’ 1,000MWh battery storage tender | Energy Storage News
The government-controlled Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has launched a 500MW/1,000MWh pilot tender for large-scale standalone battery storage.
Volvo Cars invests in ultrafast battery maker StoreDot | Electrek
Volvo Cars has invested in StoreDot, an Israel-based electric vehicle battery startup, through its venture capital arm, Volvo Cars Tech Fund. StoreDot claims that it’s on track to begin mass producing its “100in5” cells as early as 2024, which the company says can achieve 100 miles (160 km) of charge in five minutes. It’s already shipping the 100in5 cells for real-world testing.
Canadian pension fund invests US$25m in compressed air storage provider Hydrostor | Energy Storage News
Compressed air long-duration energy storage solution provider Hydrostor has received an investment commitment of US$25 million from Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP).
Rivian CEO warns the looming EV battery shortage will make the chip shortage feel like ‘a small appetizer’ for what’s to come | Yahoo News
Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe warned that a shortage of electric-car batteries could soon eclipse the issues that the automotive industry has faced from the computer chip shortage.
Elon Musk says lithium supply is holding back green energy transition | RenewEconomy
Tesla’s Elon Musk says the supply of lithium is currently a major factor holding back the transition to a sustainable energy system, with prices now 10 times the cost of production.
Corporate funding into battery storage rose to US$12.9 billion in Q1 2022, Mercom says | Energy Storage News
Battery storage companies raised US$17 billion in corporate funding in 2021 but have raised US$12.9 billion already this year.
Solar and Wind
In the world of solar PV, 1 GW or more have been tendered by each of South Africa, Germany and Turkey, with the latter coming in the cheapest so far with winning bids of $0.0257/kWh to $0.0293/kWh.
War in Ukraine pushes solar PPA prices in Europe up to €0.038-€0.074/kWh | pv magazine
Renewables-linked PPA prices have shot up nearly 30% in a year, especially due to the war in Ukraine, according to the latest Levelten Energy report.
Global renewable power prices soar on heavy demand, chaotic supply chain | Reuters
Prices for wind and solar power in major global markets have climbed nearly 30% in a year as developers have struggled with chaotic supply chains and surging costs for everything from shipping to parts to labor, according to a report published on Wednesday.
Polysilicon maker predicts 5-year shortage of solar raw material | pv magazine
TBEA-owned Xinte Energy says it cannot produce polysilicon quickly enough to meet demand and wants shareholders to back its bid to quadruple its manufacturing capacity by mid 2024.
Boralex, Energir, Hydro-Quebec Collaborate to develop 1.2 GW Wind Energy in Quebec | Saur Energy
Canada’s leading energy players Boralex, Energir and Hydro-Quebec have come together for the development of three wind power projects with a combined capacity of 1200 MW, in Quebec province.
Wind, clean energy break new ground for US generation stack share | S&P Global
Spring 2022 saw a series of firsts when it comes to onshore wind and renewable energy’s share of the US generation stack, data show, but the wind sector’s pace of growth is set to slow at a time when observers say it needs to be heading in the opposite direction for climate goals to be met.
Seattle developer pushes for WA’s first floating offshore wind farm off Olympic Peninsula | Seattle Times
Trident Winds, a wind energy developer based in Seattle, submitted an unsolicited lease request Monday to the Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management to build a floating offshore wind farm — the state’s first — about 43 miles off the coast of the Olympic Peninsula, near Grays Harbor. The proposed site — dubbed the Olympic Wind project — would provide 2,000 megawatts of clean energy to 800,000 homes, according to the developer.
Cree and Inuit join forces to produce clean energy in Northern Quebec | CTV News
In Nunavik, two neighbouring communities, one Inuit, the other Cree, are joining forces to develop wind energy on their territory and thus free themselves from dependence on diesel.
The race to roll out ‘super-sized’ wind turbines is on | CNBC
Recent years have seen companies like GE, Vestas and Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy announce plans to develop huge wind turbines. The sheer scale of these turbines may pose a number of mid-to-long term challenges for the sector.
Transportation
Toyota announces Canadian pricing for new bZ4X all-electric SUV, deliveries begin in June | Electric Autonomy
Photo: Toyota
With a starting price of $44,990, Toyota’s first all-electric SUV is eligible for provincial and federal rebates. Initially available in Quebec and B.C., it comes in front-wheel drive and all-wheel drive models.
Honda to Spend $40 Billion on EV Push, Plans to Have 30 Models | BNN Bloomberg
Honda Motor Co. plans to spend 5 trillion yen ($40 billion) on its push into electric vehicles over the next decade, as the Japanese automaker with the most aggressive EV moves to back its bold advance into next-generation cars with concrete plans.
Mercedes EV Breaks 1,000-Kilometer Range Barrier to Outdo Tesla | BNN Bloomberg
A Mercedes-Benz AG electric car drove more than 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) from Germany to the French Riviera on a single charge, taking the fight to seize the technology limelight from Tesla Inc. to the next level. The EQXX prototype rode from Sindelfingen near Stuttgart via Switzerland and Italy to the Mediterranean coastal town of Cassis, the automaker said Thursday.
Rivian CEO warns the looming EV battery shortage will make the chip shortage feel like ‘a small appetizer’ for what’s to come | Business Insider
Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe warned that a shortage of electric-car batteries could soon eclipse the issues that the automotive industry has faced from the computer chip shortage.
Winnipeg Transit looks to buy 110 zero-emission buses, convert 15 per cent of fleet, by 2027 | Electric Autonomy
Winnipeg Transit wants a fully zero-emission public transit fleet by 2040, taking advantage of Manitoba’s abundant hydropower and reaping the benefits of significant financial and environmental savings by transitioning.
New York State commits to 100% electric school buses by 2035 | Electrek
Governor Kathy Hochul (D-NY) yesterday agreed a $220 billion state budget with legislators, and it includes a plan to make the state’s approximately 50,000 school buses 100% electric by 2035.
Boston will move to 100% electric school buses by 2030 | Electrek
Boston mayor Michelle Wu last week announced that Boston Public Schools will deploy 20 electric buses during the 2022-23 school year in a pilot program. Ultimately, Boston will electrify its entire school bus fleet by 2030.
Penske Truck Leasing Orders 750 Ford E-Transit Electric Cargo Vans | MSN
Penske Truck Leasing is the latest major customer for Ford’s E-Transit electric cargo van after Walmart. The Reading, Pennsylvania-based company, which successfully piloted the vehicles late last year, has ordered 750 E-Transits for use as part of its rental and leasing fleet.
Tritium signs multi-year contract with BP starting with order of ~1,000 DCFC chargers | Electrek
Tritium, a manufacturer of hardware and software for direct current fast chargers (DCFCs), announced it has entered into a multi-year contract with BP to supply EV chargers and services to its global network.
Cape Air buys 75 electric planes | Boston Globe
Eviation Aircraft, an Arlington, Wash., company that has built a fully electric commuter airplane, got a boost this week when one of the nation’s largest commuter airlines, Cape Air, signed a letter of intent to buy 75 of the Eviation Alice model. The nine-passenger airplane, which produces no carbon emissions, is expected to take a maiden flight this year.
Volvo Cars invests in ultrafast battery maker StoreDot | Electrek
Volvo Cars has invested in StoreDot, an Israel-based electric vehicle battery startup, through its venture capital arm, Volvo Cars Tech Fund. StoreDot claims that it’s on track to begin mass producing its “100in5” cells as early as 2024, which the company says can achieve 100 miles (160 km) of charge in five minutes.
Circular Economy
Business giants commit to Regenerative Fashion Manifesto | edie
A host of fashion giants including Burberry, Giorgio Armani, Stella McCartney and Zalando, have today (20 April) agreed to adopt a new “Regenerative Fashion Manifesto” aimed at delivering a climate and nature-positive sector.
Policy
California unveils proposal to ban new gas-fueled cars by 2035 | CNBC
California’s clean-air regulators introduced a plan this week that would ramp up the sale of electric and zero-emissions vehicles while phasing out the sale of new gasoline-fueled vehicles by 2035. The proposal, if enacted by the California Air Resources Board, would require 35% of new passenger vehicle sales to be powered by batteries or hydrogen by 2026, and 100% of sales to be net-zero emissions less than a decade later.
US Transportation department announces over $6 billion to reduce transportation emissions | The Hill
The Carbon Reduction Program (CRP), funded by the bipartisan infrastructure law, will go toward local and state projects aimed at reducing on-road highway-based carbon dioxide emissions. These could range from installing infrastructure to electrify freight vehicles to improving the terrain for bicycles.
Canada Budget 2022 puts over $9 billion into EV battery supply chain, ZEV purchase rebates, suitability assessments and clean electricity | Electric Autonomy
Investing in critical minerals comes out as a major line item for the Liberal government’s 2022 budget with greater emphasis put on transitioning medium- and heavy-duty vehicles and pushing Canada’s electrical grids to 100 per cent non-emitting sources.
India Proposes Battery-Swap Plan for Electric Bikes, Rickshaws | BNN Bloomberg
India proposed a battery-swapping program to expedite the adoption of electric scooters and rickshaws as it tries to curb pollution and tackle climate change.