Plus: Canada mandates 100% EVs by 2035%; Japan plans to maximize nuclear; 2022 solar additions total 268GW; School buses practically free in US
Hi Everyone,
Happy New Year! I’m pleased to report that I had a marvelous break over the Christmas holidays reconnecting with family and friends, as well as some down time. I hope you were able to do likewise.
With my last issue way back on November 28, I’ve continued to pile up stories that I thought were worth highlighting for you. In this issue, I am only giving you the headline to make it shorter. For those that prefer the regular version with the subtext/excerpts, go to my website version of this newsletter. Let me know which one you prefer.
Wondering about that insight I have for electricity providers? Check out my comments on the first feature story.
Thanks,
Peter
Feature Stories
Ottawa says 60% of all vehicle sales must be electric by 2030 | Financial Post
One-fifth of all passenger cars, SUVs and trucks sold in Canada in 2026 will need to run on electricity under new regulations Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault is proposing Wednesday. By 2030, the mandate will hit 60 per cent of all sales and by 2035, every passenger vehicle sold in Canada will need to be electric.
[Comment] With EVs representing 7.2% of new sales in the first half of 2022, hitting 20% by 2026 feels somewhat aggressive. What is more concerning to me is whether our grids across Canada can accommodate this electricity load growth – especially peal electricity demand when all those EV owners come home from work and plug in to recharge without any (or in some cases, minor) price signal to do otherwise. All across Canada and the US, I expect the growth in EVs, combined with other electrification (more heat pumps) means that utilities and market regulators will need to get far more creative in 2023 with rate designs that shift all that new load to off-peak hours. The alternative is the equivalent of having to build out a something like a 36 lane highway just to accommodate all that demand in the peak hours – the cost of which will have to be borne by rate-payers. Once people catch on to the ramifications, the political landscape will be suitably cultivated to give politicians the permission to make people pay for that premium time of use. Watch for utility rate designs to widen the spread between rates for peak times vs non-peak or to offer other incentives to shift behavior. Smart technology will also be leveraged to a greater extent – perhaps leveraging blockchain to monetize household efficiency gains. Watch for this trend to unfold in 2023 and beyond here in Canada and see further growth in the US. But this is just following what is already happening in Europe.
If you have insights here, I welcome you share them with me or post a comment to my website version to share with others. For those wanting a bit of a deeper dive of time of use rates globally, I came across this from 2020: Time of Use Rates: An International Perspective
I came across a somewhat related story from BNN Bloomberg: Deadly Winter Storm Exposes Deep Flaws of US Energy System. Granted, it focuses more on the fragile gas supply feeding gas-fired generators.
Six climate breakthroughs that made 2022 a step toward net zero | BNN Bloomberg
[Excerpt] As 2022 unfolded, a clear pathway of climate hope emerged. New policy breakthroughs have the potential to unlock enormous progress in the effort to slow and reverse warming temperatures. Below is a list of six encouraging developments from a very momentous year, as nation after nation elected more climate-oriented governments and enacted new efforts to curb greenhouse gas.
A major ‘fusion breakthrough’ was just officially announced in the US. But what does it actually mean? | The Conversation
For the first time, scientists in the US have confirmed a fusion energy experiment achieved net gain. This means releasing more energy than it takes to initiate, demonstrating the physical basis for producing fusion energy in a controlled way.
[Comment] I remain skeptical of this, though welcome the progress being made. Part of our collective challenge is to urgently commercialize zero or low emission energy sources. The timelines to get fusion technology to economically work at scale suggests it may come too late. Instead, speeding the commercialization of Small Modular Nuclear feels like a better investment.
Feature Graph
Ryan Fisher at Bloomberg Hyperdrive unpacks the growth in EV charging investments here.
Finance & Sentiment
Florida pulls $2 billion from BlackRock in largest anti-ESG divestment | MSN
Florida’s chief financial officer said on Thursday his department would pull $2 billion worth of its assets managed by BlackRock Inc, the biggest such divestment by a state opposed to the asset manager’s environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) policies. The move will hardly dent BlackRock’s $8 trillion in assets and drew a strong response from the company, which said the action put politics over investor interests.
UAE’s Adnoc unveils net-zero ambition by 2050 | Upstream
Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) has highlighted its aim to achieve net zero Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2050, in line with the wider target earlier announced by the government of the United Arab Emirates.
Vanguard Quits Net-Zero Group GFANZ, Marking Biggest Defection Yet | Yahoo
Vanguard Group Inc. is walking out of the world’s largest climate-finance alliance, marking the coalition’s biggest defection to date as US Republicans step up their threats against firms deemed hostile toward the fossil-fuel industry.
Major international deal struck for $15.5bn of clean energy transition finance for Vietnam | edie
The UK and other wealthy nations have agreed on a Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) with Vietnam, aiming to mobilise more than $15bn of public and private finance to accelerate the nation’s transition away from coal.
Technology
Hydrogen
Air Products and AES plan $4B green hydrogen plant in North Texas; Largest in US | ENR
Allentown, Pa.-based industrial gas supplier Air Products and Chemicals and Arlington, Va., power utility company AES Corp. announced plans to jointly spend $4 billion on a “mega-scale” green hydrogen plant they would build in north Texas.The plant would also include on-site wind and solar power generation with an installed capacity of about 1.4 GW.
Spain and France to invest $2.6bn in green hydrogen pipeline | Yahoo
An underwater pipeline to carry green hydrogen between Spain and France will cost about 2.5 billion euros ($2.64 billion), Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Friday, adding that he hoped the European Union would partly fund the project.
Start-up to build 1GW factory for unique hydrogen electrolyser/battery hybrid at Port of Rotterdam | Hydrogen Insight
[Excerpt] Its product, the Battolyser, is the world’s only integrated battery and electrolyser system, designed to produce hydrogen from wind and solar power when prices are low, and send electricity to the grid when prices are high.
German gas pipelines agree to create 700 mile hydrogen network from 2025 | Reuters
Germany’s Gascade, Ontras and terranets have agreed to convert high-pressure gas pipelines to transport low-carbon hydrogen from the Baltic Sea all the way the south of the country by 2025, the companies said on Thursday.
Meridian Energy selects Woodside as partner on large Australian green hydrogen project | Upstream
[Excerpt] New Zealand power company Meridian Energy has selected Woodside Energy as its preferred partner to move into the development stage of the large Southern Green Hydrogen (SGH) project. The proposed project is aiming to produce 500,000 tonnes per annum of ammonia using electrolysis from renewable power. The project is to be located in the far south of New Zealand’s South Island and options for the domestic supply of hydrogen and ammonia, as well as the export of ammonia to Asia and Europe, will be assessed.
Airbus reveals plans for hydrogen fuel cell aircraft | CNN
Airbus has announced it is developing a hydrogen-powered fuel cell engine — and that it plans to test it on the largest commercial airplane ever to take to the skies. The French aviation giant revealed at Airbus Summit 2022 on November 30 that it will mount the engine between the wings and the tail of a modified A380 superjumbo. Test flights are estimated for 2026, as part of the Airbus ZEROe initiative to launch a zero-emission aircraft by 2035.
ACWA Power to embark on $7bn green hydrogen project in Thailand | Renewables Now
Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power (TADAWUL:2082) has inked a pact for a USD-7-billion (EUR 6.7bn) project set to create a huge complex that will produce green hydrogen and its derivatives in Thailand and potentially export to other countries.
BP doubles down on hydrogen as fuel of the future | Financial Post
BP chief executive Bernard Looney is betting on hydrogen to power future low-carbon businesses as the governments of major economies stump up cash to develop the fuel to decarbonise. BP has overhauled its structure to create a dedicated hydrogen division led by Felipe Arbelaez which includes 150 staff. It also made several investments in large hydrogen projects, including in Australia, Europe and Britain.
Orsted plans large-scale green hydrogen project in Denmark | Nasdaq
[Excerpt] Orsted, which is developing the project with Skovgaard Energy, plans for the first phase to have an electrolysis capacity of 150 megawatts (MW). The capacity might increase to more than 3 gigawatts (GW) “if the necessary offshore wind capacity and hydrogen infrastructure in and out of Denmark are established,” it said in a statement.
Germany’s H2Global kicks off world’s first green hydrogen subsidy scheme with ammonia import tender | Hydrogen Insight
The German government has kicked off its first-of-a-kind green hydrogen subsidy scheme H2Global, with the launch of a tender to import green H2-derived ammonia from international producers.
Norway plans to introduce Contracts for Difference subsidies for hydrogen, with other boosts for H2 in the works | Hydrogen Insight
The Norwegian government has agreed, in principle, to introduce a Contracts for Difference (CfD) subsidy scheme to ensure that clean hydrogen is no more expensive than grey H2 from unabated fossil fuels.
World’s first commercial shipment of hydrogen-derived ‘clean ammonia’ delivered in Korea after 14,000km journey | Hydrogen Insight
The world’s first commercial shipment of “clean ammonia” has been unloaded at the port of Ulsan in South Korea after a 20-day 14,000km journey from Saudi Arabia.
South Australia launches tender for $398 million green hydrogen power plant | pv magazine
The South Australian government has called for proposals from industry partners to build a $398 million (AUD 593 million) green hydrogen power plant, including 250 MW of hydrogen electrolyzer facilities and fit-for-purpose hydrogen storage infrastructure on the Eyre Peninsula.
Netherlands grants €800m for over 1GW of green hydrogen projects for heavy industry | Hydrogen Insight
Dutch electrolyser support programme will supply renewable H2 for green steel, a fertiliser plant, oil refining and methanol production. The Dutch government is subsidising over 1GW in electrolyser capacity in the Netherlands to the tune of nearly €800m ($967m), as part of a multi-billion-euro EU programme that aims to use green hydrogen to decarbonise some of the continent’s most polluting heavy industry.
Carbon Capture
Malaysia’s Petronas gives go-ahead to 3Mt/yr Kasawari CCS project | Nasdaq
Malaysian state oil firm Petronas PETR.UL said on Tuesday it had decided to develop the Kasawari carbon sequestration project in offshore Sarawak as part of the final investment decision (FID) on the venture. Petronas said the project – located in Block SK316 off Bintulu town – is expected to reduce 3.3 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide (MtCO2e) emitted annually, making it one of the largest offshore carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects in the world.
Australia offshore CCS project advances | Energy Voice
Pilot Energy and partner Triangle Energy are among the first in Australia to lodge a submission to seek regulatory approvals for an offshore carbon capture and storage (CCS) project. According to the Cliff Head Joint Venture, the project would be injecting up to 1.1Mtpa of CO2 into offshore reservoirs,
CNOOC explores offshore carbon capture schemes in southern China | Upstream Online
China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) has rolled out plans to develop a number of carbon capture and storage (CCS) hubs in southern China’s Guangdong province, where only one offshore project is currently under development.
Petronas Carigali green lights Malaysia’s giant offshore CCS project | Upstream
Malaysia’s national upstream company Petronas Carigali has taken the final investment decision on its Kasawari carbon capture and storage (CCS) — Kasawari phase two — development offshore Sarawak, East Malaysia.
Athabasca May Beat Pathways Alliance in Oil Sands Carbon Capture | BNN Bloomberg
[Excerpt] Athabasca, Canada’s 10th largest oil producer, has partnered with Entropy Inc. to build a carbon capture and storage facility at its Leismer oil sands site and plans to go ahead with the project next year, it said in its capital budget released Wednesday. The development is being funded by Entropy and will be built in as part of an expansion of Leismer oil sands well site in Alberta.
TotalEnergies to capture CO2 from Papua LNG from start up | Yahoo
TotalEnergies plans to bury almost 1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year at its planned Papua LNG project, with the carbon capture and storage operation expected to be online from day one of gas production in late 2027.
US makes $3.7B available for CCS + EOR; previously earmarked only for DAC | Yahoo
[Comment] It comes with a catch: “The carbon capture projects will be required to complete and in-depth environmental pollution impact assessment prior to construction and an assessment of net-climate benefits will be required during the operation phase, the Energy Department said in its funding opportunity announcement.” For those less familiar: CCS= Carbon Capture and Storage; EOR = Enhanced Oil Recovery; DAC = Direct Air Capture.
Essar Oil UK to build £360 million carbon capture facility | Construction Week
Essar Oil UK has plans to build a £360 million major new carbon capture plant at its Stanlow refinery in line with its ambition to become a leading low carbon refinery by 2030.
Chevron invests in carbon capture and removal technology company, svante | Chevron
Chevron New Energies (CNE), a division of Chevron U.S.A. Inc., and Svante announced that Chevron is the lead investor in Svante’s Series E fundraising round, which raised $318 million that will be used to accelerate the manufacturing of Svante’s carbon capture technology.
Geothermal Energy
Chevron to create JV for U.S. geothermal projects | MSN
Chevron Corp is forming a joint venture with Swedish investment and development firm Baseload Capital to develop geothermal projects in the United States, the companies said on Wednesday. The two companies have identified the first project in Weepah Hills, Nevada and will pursue development opportunities in Esmeralda County where previous geothermal research and advanced exploration already exist.
Nuclear
Japan adopts plan to maximize nuclear energy, in major shift | AP
Japan adopted a plan on Thursday to extend the lifespan of nuclear reactors, replace the old and even build new ones, a major shift in a country scarred by the Fukushima disaster that once planned to phase out atomic power.
Energy Storage
Tesla, Quebec, LG, and others work on new ‘battery passport’ | Electrek
Tesla, Quebec, LG, and others, through the Global Battery Alliance, are working on a new “battery passport” to help track battery materials. The project is important to make EV batteries sustainable and is critical to the new EV incentive in the United States.
American Battery Factory chooses Tucson, Arizona, for first LFP facility | Energy Storage News
American Battery Factory, a new firm planning a network of lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery manufacturing facilities in the US, has chosen a site in Arizona for its first.
US gigafactory plans growing twice as fast as Europe’s since Inflation Reduction Act | Energy Storage News
[Excerpt] Evan Hartley, analyst for Benchmark Mineral Intelligence working on its Gigafactory data, said that since the Act was passed, there has been a 35% increase in announced capacity in the US compared to a year ago, versus a 17% increase in Europe. That doesn’t mean it’s caught up yet, however.
SK On, Ford break ground on largest EV battery plant in US | Korea Herald
[Excerpt] The official commencement of construction came about 16 months after SK On and Ford announced in September 2021 that the companies will invest a total of $11.4 billion to build two mega manufacturing campuses in Kentucky and Tennessee with three battery plants.
Nevada Approves $105M in Tax Incentives for Battery Material Recycling Plant | US News
A massive lithium battery recycling plant has been awarded more than $105 million in tax incentives for expanding operations in northern Nevada. The state Office of Economic Development approved incentives for Carson City-based Redwood Materials this week.
US to deploy 30 GW/111 GWh of grid-scale energy storage by 2025 | pv magazine
Grid-scale energy storage capacity is expected to surpass 30 GW/111 GWh of installed capacity by the end of 2025, according to a new report by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Redwood Materials pledges $3.5B, 1,500-job battery recycling campus in SC | Yahoo
[Excerpt] The more than 600-acre campus will “produce enough anode and cathode material for 100 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of battery cell production or 1 million electric vehicles each year,” a news release stated.
Solar and Wind
Global solar capacity additions hit 268 GW in 2022, says BNEF | pv magazine
BloombergNEF Analyst Jenny Chase says the world installed 268 GW of new solar capacity in 2022, with annual installations expected to hit 315 GW in 2023. In a recent interview with pv magazine, Chase pointed to a large backlog of delivered PV modules in Europe that still have yet to be installed.
India installed 11.2 GW of solar in January-September period | pv magazine
India added 9.3 GW of utility-scale solar in the first nine months of 2022, as well as 1.3 GW of rooftop capacity and 600 MW of offgrid PV projects.
France installed 1.71 GW of solar in January-September period | pv magazine
France’s cumulative installed PV capacity reached 15.8 GW at the end of September.
Japan on track to install 6GW PV in 2022 | pv magazine
The Japanese solar market reached a cumulative installed PV capacity of 78.4 GW at the end of 2021, according to a new report from IEA-PVPS. Japanese analyst Izumi Kaizuka told pv magazine that the country could annually install up 6 GW of new solar in both 2022 and 2023.
First-ever California offshore wind auction surpasses $757 million in bids | CNBC
The Biden administration on Wednesday [Dec. 7] announced more than $757 million in winning bids for its auction of offshore wind development rights in California, marking the third offshore wind lease sale this year and the first ever for the Pacific region.
South Korean city to host 1.5 GW solar project at industrial site | pv magazine
A consortium led by Hanwha Asset Management has revealed plans to build a massive, KRW 3 trillion ($2.29 billion) solar project on rooftops and idle plots of land at an industrial complex in Daegu, South Korea.
Stellantis signs second-largest corporate PPA in US history | pv magazine
Stellantis – the manufacturer of Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat and Jeep vehicles – has signed the second-largest corporate power purchase agreement in the United States, after Ford.
UK’s Octopus stretches deeper into Iberian solar via gigascale deal with Spanish start-up | Recharge
UK renewables developer Octopus Energy Generation has taken a stake in Spanish clean-energy outfit FFNEV with an eye on deployment of 1.6GW of new solar and storage projects in Iberian market by the end of the decade.
Transportation
In the US, Electric school buses are practically free now | Axios
[Excerpt] The five-year, $5 billion Clean School Bus Program, approved in November 2021 as part of the infrastructure law and run by the Environmental Protection Agency, pays school districts up to $375,000 to replace a diesel bus with an electric one. The government offers another $20,000 for charging infrastructure, for a total of $395,000 per bus purchased. The government offers another $20,000 for charging infrastructure, for a total of $395,000 per bus purchased.
Northvolt May Delay German EV Battery Plant as US Woos Suppliers | BNN Bloomberg
Northvolt AB is considering postponing its planned factory in Germany as surging energy costs threaten to stall the country’s bid to build a sizable electric-vehicle supply chain.
Honda announces new FCEV for US market that can be switched between hydrogen and battery operation | Hydrogen Insight
New version of CR-V model, with H2 tanks and plug-in battery, will be built in small volumes at Ohio plant from 2024, says Japanese automaker.
Britishvolt abandons Canadian battery cell factory plans | Electric Autonomy
The UK startup’s struggles to keep its flagship gigafactory project in England alive have forced it to pull the plug on a proposed second battery cell factory in Quebec.
BYD plans to mass-produce sodium-ion batteries in Q2 2023 | CNEVPOST
While CATL is the first Chinese company to unveil sodium-ion batteries, BYD will likely be the first to use such batteries in mass-production vehicles. BYD plans to mass-produce sodium-ion batteries in the second quarter of 2023, and they will be featured in the Qin EV, Dolphin and new model Seagull, local media outlet LatePost reported today.
French oil giant TotalEnergies joins ammonia-powered tanker project | Yahoo
France’s TotalEnergies said it has joined a shipping project building test tankers which can be powered by ammonia, part of moves to speed up maritime industry decarbonisation. Widely used in industrial applications, ammonia’s suitability as a transport fuel has been limited because of the challenge of converting it into energy in a confined space.
VW Retools Main German Factory to Make More Electric Cars | BNN Bloomberg
Volkswagen AG is overhauling its main factory in Germany to make two additional battery cars as Europe’s biggest automaker tries to get its electric shift back on track.
Mercedes plans 1.3 billion-euro electric van plant in Poland | AP
German automaker Mercedes-Benz is investing 1.3 billion euros ($1.4 billion) in a electric van plant in Poland, officials said Monday. The plant in the southwestern Poland town of Jawor will be Mercedes-Benz Group A.G.’s first in Europe devoted to making electric delivery vehicles, Mathias Geisen, the company’s head for van operations, said.
FLO to supply 40,000 chargers to GM for dealerships across Canada and the U.S. | Electric Autonomy
The deal will see FLO’s fastest 19.2 kW Level 2 chargers used to significantly expand access to EV charging in underserved and rural communities in North America. Quebec-based charging network operator FLO is supplying General Motors with 40,000 Level 2 chargers in the single largest order of electric vehicle chargers in North America to date.
Mahindra to Build $1.2 Billion Electric SUV Plant in Pune, India | BNN Bloomberg
Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. plans to invest 100 billion rupees ($1.2 billion) in a plant to make electric sports utility vehicles, a significant shift for a company that has been heavily reliant on gas-powered cars.
Circular Economy
The 3 most influential circularity trends of 2022 | GreenBiz
Policy
Germany confirms final details for €99bn energy support scheme | edie
The German government agreed on the final details of its flagship energy support scheme to reduce energy bills for households and businesses, with finance coming from a tax on windfall profits made by energy companies.
Solar panels will be mandatory on new homes in Tokyo from 2025 | Electrek
Tokyo’s local assembly today ruled that all new houses built by large-scale homebuilders in the Japanese capital must have solar panels installed from April 2025.