Plus: EV batteries hold promise for grid storage; Growth in hydrogen production and demand; Affordable Tesla coming? BP says ‘decisive shift’ coming
Hi Everyone,
There are some interesting developments in battery tech, so be sure not to miss that section further down.
I’ve salted in some comments throughout. You’ll note that the hydrogen section continues to see plenty of stories and span growth in both production and demand.
Thanks for reading and please encourage others to subscribe.
Peter
Finance & Sentiment
$11trn investor coalition bans carbon removals in latest net-zero framework | edie
The Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance (NZAOA), a coalition of investors representing more than $11trn, has unveiled the latest version of a decarbonisation methodology, with a renewed focus on delivering a just transition while avoiding the use of carbon removals.
[Excerpt] The NZAOA’s Net in Net-Zero paper stated that members should prioritise emissions reductions over carbon removals. The Protocol has “disallowed” the use of carbon removals to achieve short-term reduction targets.
[Comment] Another feature worth noting is that the NZAOA is stating that “emissions from sub-portfolios should be reduced by 22% to 35% by 2025 and by 40% to 60% by 2030. Members will be required to set targets this year for direct private equity investments and cover all new private equity assets by 2025.”
BP Slows Retreat From Oil as Ukraine War Drives Record Profits | BNN Bloomberg
— BP Plc said it will cut oil and gas output more slowly this decade after the supply disruption caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine boosted prices and delivered record profits.
[Comment] Also noteworthy is the adjustment to its emission reduction target. “The company now aims to cut the carbon from oil and gas its produces — know as Scope 3 emissions — by 20% to 30% in 2030, down from a previous ambition of as much as a 40% cut. It still it aims to cut its own direct emissions — known as Scope 1 and Scope 2 — by 50% by 2030.”
BP says demand for oil and gas will drop dramatically by 2050 in ‘decisive shift’ | CNBC
The share of fossil fuels as a primary energy source will fall from 80 percent in 2019 to between 55 and 20 percent by 2050, according to BP’s annual energy outlook report. Renewables’ share will grow from 10 percent to between 35 percent and 65 percent over the same time period.
Technology
Hydrogen
Exxon Mobil sets large-scale hydrogen plant start-up for 2027 | Financial Post
Exxon Mobil Corp disclosed on Monday its plan to start operations at its large-scale hydrogen plant in Texas in 2027 or 2028, Exxon’s Low Carbon business president Dan Ammann told Reuters.
Equinor awards key contracts for H2H Saltend blue hydrogen project | Upstream
German contractor Linde Engineering has won the front-end engineering and design contract for Equinor’s 600MW H2H Saltend low-carbon hydrogen project in the UK, while BOC — now part of Linde — has been awarded an operation and maintenance (O&M) services contract for the project.
Linde Plans $1.8B ‘Blue’ Hydrogen Plant in Texas | Energy Intelligence
[Excerpt] The complex, which will be integrated into Linde’s existing gas infrastructure on the US Gulf Coast, will supply hydrogen and nitrogen to OCI’s planned 1.1 million ton per year “blue” ammonia plant in Beaumont, Texas, due for start-up in 2025.
Canada-Germany Hydrogen Pact Gains on $6 Billion Plan’s Approval | BNN Bloomberg
Canada’s agreement to supply Germany with green hydrogen received a boost as provincial regulators gave environmental approval to a $6 billion project that would produce the fuel in Nova Scotia.
Europe’s largest blue ammonia project in limbo after CCS partner Equinor pulls out | Hydrogen Insight
Planned undersea carbon storage facility left without an operator, leaving no clear path forward for EU-subsidised Barents Blue.
Electrolyser sales doubled in 2022 — and could triple in 2023: BNEF | Hydrogen Insight
Investors poured $1.2bn into the H2 industry last year, making it the fastest-growing sector of the energy transition, according to analyst BloombergNEF.
Australian scientists unveil method to produce hydrogen straight from ocean | pv magazine
University of Adelaide researchers and their international partners have successfully used seawater with no pre-treatment to produce green hydrogen. They did this by introducing an acid layer over the catalysts in situ.
Alberta truck drivers test out hydrogen-powered commercial vehicles | Global News
Alberta-based transport companies had the chance Friday to test out Class 8 commercial vehicles that use alternative, energy-efficient fuels.
TotalEnergies & Air Liquide join forces on H2 refuelling for trucks | electrive
In Europe, the energy group TotalEnergies and the hydrogen gas manufacturer Air Liquide have decided to set up a joint venture to build more than 100 hydrogen refuelling stations for heavy-duty vehicles in France, Benelux and Germany.
Hydrogen and electric aircraft projects backed with fresh £113m of funding | edie
Some £113m is being funnelled into Rolls-Royce-led hydrogen aircraft projects and a separate electric aircraft project, as part of new blended finance from the UK Government and the private sector.
Indian Railways will spend $335m on 35 new hydrogen trains — making it the world’s biggest H2 rail operator | Hydrogen Insight
State railway firm to spend $9.7m per train across narrow-gauge ‘heritage’ routes — giving it more than twice as many hydrogen locomotives as the next largest operator in Germany.
GP JOULE to order 100 Nikola Tre Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles | Green Car Congress
Nikola Corporation and IVECO, the brand of Iveco Group that designs, manufactures, and markets heavy-, medium-, and light-duty trucks, announced a Letter of Intent for an order of 100 Class 8, heavy-duty Nikola Tre hydrogen Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEVs) from GP JOULE, a system provider for integrated energy solutions based in Reußenköge, Germany.
Carbon Capture
Prax Lindsey Oil Refinery Launches $370M Carbon Capture Project | Carbon Herald
Prax Lindsey Oil Refinery – a UK-based supplier of fuels, part of Prax Group, launched the plan for its carbon capture project that includes an investment of £300 million ($370 million). The initial goal of the project is to capture 1 million metric tons of CO2 per year from the refinery’s heaters and process units for transport and storage by Harbour Energy.
Petronas and ExxonMobil to jointly pursue Malaysia carbon capture projects | Upstream Online
Malaysian energy giant Petronas and US supermajor ExxonMobil have signed two project development agreements to jointly pursue carbon capture and storage (CCS) activation projects in Malaysia.
North Dakota landowners at odds in carbon pipeline plans | AP
North Dakota landowners testified for and against a carbon capture company’s use of eminent domain Friday, as Summit Carbon Solutions moves forward in constructing a massive underground system of carbon dioxide pipelines spanning 2,000 miles across several states and under hundreds of people’s homes and farms in the Midwest.
Energy majors and LedaFlow set up carbon capture and storage research consortium | Offshore Energy
LedaFlow Technologies has formed a research consortium with energy companies ConocoPhillips, TotalEnergies, Equinor and ExxonMobil Technology & Engineering as well as sub-suppliers Kongsberg Digital, SINTEF Industry, and SINTEF Energy Research to enhance its multiphase transport simulator technology for transport and injection of CO2.
Denmark awards first CO2 storage licences in the North Sea | EuroNews
Denmark has awarded its first licences to capture and store carbon in the North Sea to Wintershall Dea, INEOS Energy and TotalEnergies, the country’s climate and energy ministry said on Monday.
Small Modular Nuclear
GE Hitachi and 3 partners announce first commercial contract for grid-scale SMR in North America | Utility Dive
GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, Ontario Power Generation, SNC-Lavalin and Aecon Group signed a contract to deploy a BWRX-300 small modular reactor at OPG’s Darlington New Nuclear Project site in Clarington, Ontario.
The Grid
China State Grid to invest $77 billion in the power grid in 2023 | Transformers Magazine
China: Xin Baoan, chairman of China’s State Grid Corporation declared this week that he will invest $77 billion into transmission in 2023, and $329 billion through the whole 2021-2025 14th Five-Year Plan period.
Allete, Grid United to build $2.5bn North Plains Connector project in US | NS Energy
To be opened to all sources of power generation, the proposed HVDC transmission line by linking the North Dakota and Montana grids is anticipated to lessen the adverse effects of extreme weather events and meet the rising electricity demand.
Energy Storage
EV battery has 50% more energy density than traditional lithium-ion, 10-minute charge | pv magazine
Ionblox announced it has received $32 million in funds following a second close of series B funding. The funds, provided by Lilium, Applied Ventures, Temasek, and Catalus Capital, are expected to help the startup scale its high-power cells for electric aviation and prototype its fast-charge electric vehicle (EV) cells.
The batteries are developed with lithium-ion cells that have pre-lithiated silicon dominant anodes. Ionblox said the technology leads to a powerful combination of 50% greater energy density and five times more power over lithium-ion batteries, while enabling fast-charge times of 10 minutes. The cell performance has been verified by Idaho National Laboratory.
[Comment] When I read the target market is aircraft, I take it to mean this is a rather specialized battery technology that is likely to be expensive to make and therefore not likely to be seen in passenger cars anytime soon.
Practical lithium-air battery shows 3x the energy density of today’s best electric-vehicle batteries | DAILY KOS
[Excerpt] Now, thanks to researchers at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC), and Argonne National Labs, we have a practical demonstration of a lithium-air battery that achieves an amazing 685 Wh/kg at room temperature.
EVs could provide entire global short-term grid storage needs by 2030, study finds | The Driven
Published this week by Nature Communications, the study from academics from Leiden University in the Netherlands and the National Renewable Energy Lab in the US, found that a participation rate of just 12 – 43 per cent would be enough to provide the entire short-term capacity needed globally.
[Comment] It will be an interesting study to watch how people respond to the opportunity to give utilities access to their car battery and be compensated for doing do, knowing there is a hidden cost on battery longevity. Critical to unlocking this potential are 2 things: 1) EV makers providing the capability to provide electricity back to the home/grid and 2) governments, market operators, and utilities need to get onboard with the opportunity by enabling aggregated storage services to the grid and providing incentives for consumers to do so. See additional excerpt here: “The report says that EV user participation in the vehicle-to-grid market is crucial and that governments can and should play an important role in incentivising user uptake. Market-based solutions such as micro-payments for services to the grid as well as regulations requiring the connection of commercial fleets to the network while at depots are suggested.”
Westbridge adds another solar-plus-storage project to 1GWh pipeline in Alberta, Canada | Energy Storage News
Utility-scale solar PV developer Westbridge Renewable Energy has kicked off development of its fifth solar-plus-storage project in Alberta, Canada. The company is targeting the development of a 295MWp solar PV plant with a 100MW/200MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) at its Red Willow Project in central Alberta’s Stetler County No.6.
Retired coal sites to be transformed into multi-day iron-air batteries | RenewEconomy
American storage technology company Form Energy is set to deploy two 10MW/1,000MWh multi-day iron-air battery storage systems at two retiring coal plant sites in Minnesota and Colorado.
Oil giant venture forges ahead with another big solar and battery project in NSW | RenewEconomy
The solar arm of global oil giant BP is cementing its position as one of the biggest utility-scale PV project developers in Australia, as it moves ahead on plans to build a 550MW solar farm with a 260MW/520MWh big battery in the Upper Hunter region of New South Wales.
China approves 3 pumped-storage hydro projects in Qinghai totalling 7.6 GW | EnerData
China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has approved the development of three new pumped-storage hydropower projects in the Qinghai province (western China), totalling 7.6 GW of capacity and requiring a total investment of CNY50bn (US$7.3bn).
Peak Power secures US$200 million financing with MEI for energy storage projects | Energy Storage News
Peak Power, an Ontario-based C&I-focused energy storage and software firm, has secured a US$200 million financing agreement with Madison Energy Investments (MEI).
Solar and Wind
Siemens Energy and Dragados win 4GW German North Sea offshore wind converter order | Wind Power Monthly
Siemens Energy built the 900MW BorWin gamma converter platform in the German North Sea. It was commissioned in 2020
Transmission system operator (TSO) Amprion has awarded Siemens Energy and Dragados Offshore a €4 billion-plus contract to build two new 2GW converter stations to help connect German North Sea wind farms to the onshore grid.
US to add 29.1 GW of large-scale solar in 2023 | pv magazine
The US solar market is set to add 29.1 GW of new utility-scale PV and 9.4 GW of storage in 2023, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). If that new capacity goes online as planned, 2023 will have the most new utility-scale PV capacity added in a single year.
Canada’s largest indigenous solar project goes online with Concord Pacific | Daily Hive
Concord Pacific President and CEO Terry Hui and Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) announced the successful completion of commissioning for three solar farms in their ACFN-Concord Solar Partnership portfolio.
Amazon added 8GW to clean energy portfolio in 2022 | edie
Amazon grew its renewable energy capacity by more than 8GW in 2022, adding 133 new projects across 11 countries as it pushes towards meeting 100% of its energy needs from renewables by 2025.
Wind-based PPA prices drop for first time since early 2021 while solar prices continue to climb | Utility Dive
The average price of power purchase agreements for wind projects in North America dropped 1.9% in the final quarter of 2022. Solar PPA prices rose 33% over the past year.
Hive Energy will develop 4 GW of solar power and battery projects in Turkey | EnerData
The UK-based energy company Hive Energy plans to develop 4 GW of solar power plants with energy storage facilities in 30 locations across 19 cities in Turkey for a total investment of TRY75bn (US$4bn). The company has applied for co-located solar and battery storage projects with capacities ranging from 11 MW to 230 MW in scale.
Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners in fresh 2GW UK solar PV and BESS development partnership | Energy Storage News
Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) and Amberside Energy have partnered to develop a 2GW portfolio consisting of solar and battery energy storage system (BESS) projects across the UK.
Rays Power Infra to build 1.8 GW solar park in India | pv magazine
Rays Power Infra has signed an agreement with the government of the Indian state of Rajasthan to build a 1.8 GW solar park, with an estimated investment of INR 9,140 crore ($1.11 billion).
Iberdrola, Prosolia secure approval for 1.2 GW of solar in Portugal | pv magazine
Iberdrola says it will build the massive Fernando Pessoa solar facility in Santiago do Cacém, about 200 kilometers south of Lisbon.
OX2 Plans 1.4 GW Wind Farm Offshore Finland | Offshore Wind
[Excerpt] The developer received a research permit for the Tyrsky offshore wind farm from the Finnish government last year. The next step is to perform an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). The licensing period is estimated to be about four years and the wind farm could be in operation around 2030.
Better Energy plans €800 million investment in 1GW of solar PV across Northern Europe | PV Tech
The investment will add 1GW of solar PV capacity in Denmark, Poland and Sweden with 15 new solar parks expected to come online by the end of 2024.
Maine approves 1GW onshore wind farm and transmission line | Wind Power Monthly
Maine regulators have unanimously approved Longroad Energy’s 1GW King Pine wind farm in the north of the state and LS Power Base’s 345kV transmission line, to help end the state’s “overreliance” on gas and boost its economy.
EDF Renewables, Luminous Energy to build 800MW solar project in UK | Saur Energy
[Excerpt] The solar farm will be 11 times greater than the current largest operational solar facility in the UK.
First Solar to Invest up to $1.2 Billion in Scaling PV Production in Ohio | Utility Dive
First Solar is investing $1.3 billion in expanding its manufacturing operations in Ohio as the company draws close to selling out of product through 2026.
Transportation
BMW investing nearly $1B in Mexican production site to prep for its Neue Klasse EVs | Electrek
BMW is accelerating its electric vehicle production plans, announcing an € 800 million (about $864 million) investment to prepare its San Luis Potosí plant in Mexico for the incoming wave of next-generation Neue Klasse EVs.
Ottawa green-lights purchase of 350 electric transit buses | Electric Autonomy
This month Ottawa City Council approved the $974 million budget needed to procure 350 electric buses by 2027.
Musk triggers new speculation that Tesla will deliver low cost EV in “Master Plan 3” | The Driven
[Excerpt] There’s been a lot of speculation over the new platform, with many Tesla observers saying it could be the one that enables the much-anticipated $US25,000 electric model.
Tesla cut the price of its electric cars in half over five years, and it might do it again | Electrek
Tesla has managed to cut the price of its electric cars in half over five years, and it might do it again with its next-generation vehicle platform.
Octopus Energy’s EV battery portfolio exceeds 100MW | Current±
[Excerpt] By strategically using energy at times where grid capacity is higher, Intelligent Octopus is said to be able to reduce fuel costs for the average driver to 3p per mile – less than a third of the cost from a standard variable tariff.
[Comment] Pay attention to Octopus. They are doing some really smart things. Missing from this picture is the benefits to shifting all that EV charging load to offpeak times, with the related efficiencies of not having to build out the grid. Contrast that to my home province of Alberta with no time-of-use pricing for residential consumers and only tiny pilots by some to incentivize off-peak EV charging. I can’t be the only one who think this is bonkers. Of course, what is needed is a government that takes a more progressive policy stance by providing direction to the market regulator to make the requisite changes.
Hyundai wants to simplify EV ownership with new Evolve+ EV subscription program | Electrek
Hyundai Motor North America has introduced a new month-to-month EV subscription program called Evolve+, aimed at “EV curious” consumers. The all-encompassing monthly price includes the EV itself, plus insurance, roadside assistance, and maintenance.
Circular Economy
Vestas claims major breakthrough in wind turbine blade recycling | RenewEconomy
Danish wind energy giant Vestas has unveiled a new method of recycling epoxy-based wind turbine blades that stands to revolutionise the circularity and recyclability of the wind energy industry.
Policy
Eugene City Council first in Oregon to ban natural gas hookups for new homes | OPB
[Excerpt] Dozens of cities in other parts of the country have passed similar bans, and last fall the Multnomah County Health Department recommended moving away from all gas appliances after publishing a review of the evidence on public health and gas stoves.