Plus: Germany’s hydrogen ambitions; Transmission lines needed; US IRA causing a stir; Small Modular Reactors progress; High speed rail – LA to Vegas
Hi Everyone,
I was raised in a suburb and still live in one now. But I’ve been spending more time thinking about urban design lately, along with the social dynamic – the attitudes, norms and perceptions associated with where and how we live – and what it takes to change from generations raised in single family homes to neighborhoods that are more dense, walkable, bikeable and served by excellent public transit. Cities that figure this out are sure to have less end-use emissions than the predominant North American model for city suburbs. There are some great YouTube channels that are influencing how I think. Consider checking them out: Not Just Bikes, City Nerd and RMTransit are a few to get you started.
As for this week’s update, be sure to skim all the headlines – right to the bottom to learn how the US Inflation Reduction Act has created such a stir.
Thanks! And please continue to share this around with others and encourage them to subscribe.
Peter
Finance & Sentiment
Global Net Zero Will Require $21 Trillion Investment In Power Grids | BloombergNEF
[Excerpts] The total investment comprises $4.1 trillion to sustain the existing grid and $17.3 trillion to expand the grid for new electricity consumption and production.
The expansion of the electricity grid will strain supply chains. Copper demand from grids reaches 13 million tons by 2030, up from 5 million tons today, and then continues growing towards 23 million tons in 2050.
Germany Faces $1 Trillion Challenge to Plug Massive Power Gap | BNN Bloomberg
Germany has set aside more than €260 billion ($275 billion) to deal with the immediate risks of an energy crisis triggered by Russia’s war in Ukraine, but the ultimate fix will be much costlier — if the country can pull it off at all. The pending price tag for future-proofing the country’s energy system is projected to amount to over $1 trillion by 2030, according to BloombergNEF.
[Comment] The scale of the challenge – and a reality check on what is truly possible – is astounding. Just look at what is needed [article excerpt] “The transition will require the installation of solar panels covering the equivalent of 43 soccer fields and 1,600 heat pumps every day. It also needs 27 new onshore and four offshore wind plants to be built per week”.
Which is why you ought not miss the first three hydrogen stories all having to do with Germany’a ambitions in this arena.
Canada Financial Watchdog Sets Rules on Climate Risk Disclosure | BNN Bloomberg
Canada’s financial industry regulator published a set of guidelines for banks, insurance companies and other regulated firms to assess and disclose climate risks.
Rare “blue bond” to help Barbados protect its marine environment | Bloomberg via Yahoo
[Excerpt] The transaction is helping to finance a deal that Barbados struck last year to buy back $150 million of a $531 million sovereign bond and convert that into cheaper debt. The savings generated — estimated at about $50 million over 15 years — will be used to protect the coral reefs and other ocean environments attached to the Caribbean island.
RBC Ties Incentive Comp for CEO, Top Execs to Climate Strategy | ESG Today
Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) announced today that it plans to incorporate climate considerations into the medium- and long-term incentive plans for its top executives, including the bank’s CEO and Group Executives, beginning this year.
Divert Announces $1 Billion Agreement with Enbridge to Fund Waste Food-to-Clean Energy Buildout | ESG Today
Food waste-focused impact technology company Divert announced a $1 billion infrastructure development agreement with energy infrastructure company Enbridge, aimed at supporting the development of wasted food to renewable natural gas (RNG) facilities across North America.
Technology
Hydrogen
Germany to Ramp Up Electrolyzers Needed For Green Energy Shift | Financial Post
Germany will rely on hydrogen to replace coal, natural gas and nuclear power as it tries to get back on track in phasing out fossil fuels.
Germany to build 25GW of “hydrogen ready” gas plants to back up wind and solar | RenewEconomy
[Excerpt] “There are already instruments that we can use — and we will create more — so that by 2030 we will have created about 25 gigawatts of additional alternative capacity to coal-fired power plants.” These would be powered by natural gas, and later hydrogen “as soon as possible,” he said.
German gas distributor increasing hydrogen content to 30% | pv magazine
Netze BW has increased the amount of hydrogen it is injecting into the regional grid of Oehringen, in the southwest of Germany, from 20% to 30%. “In the following phase of the project, we will introduce oscillations from 0 to 30% hydrogen. Volatile mixtures will simulate real-life volatility typical of energy systems with an increase in renewable energies.”
Saudi Arabia’s Acwa Power Eyes Three More Giant Hydrogen Plants | BNN Bloomberg
Saudi Arabian energy company Acwa Power is planning to develop as many as three more green hydrogen plants on a similar scale to its vast project being built at Neom.
Acwa has plans to develop two more projects adjacent to a $8.5 billion green hydrogen plant at Neom, a $500 billion new city on Saudi Arabia’s north-west coast, chief executive officer Paddy Padmanathan said in an interview. The company is also looking at another location, confident that demand for the fuel will rise as governments and companies accelerate plans to reduce their carbon emissions, he said.
[Comment] I have not gone digging for the answer to my question: where is the water going to come from for making all this green hydrogen in a place like Saudi Arabia? Noem is on the Red Sea, suggesting sea water may be the source. Perhaps, but that adds desalination to the cost of the hydrogen. If anyone knows the answer, drop me a note please.
Aberdeen awards ULEMCo contract for 35 hydrogen dual-fuel utility vehicle conversions | Green Car Congress
[Excerpt] ULEMCo’s H2ICED allows hydrogen to be mixed with diesel directly in a conventional engine, supplied via onboard gas tanks, in volumes that displace between 30-70% of the energy from diesel. This gives a direct tailpipe CO2 emission savings based on the comparative use of zero carbon hydrogen instead of diesel.
World’s biggest green hydrogen project now under construction in China | Hydrogen Insight
Chinese refining giant Sinopec has broken ground on a massive green hydrogen project in Inner Mongolia that is now the biggest renewable H2 project under construction in the world.
Richter Group orders 20 fuel cell trucks from Nikola | Electrive
Nikola and E.ON have signed a cooperation agreement with logistics provider Richter Group to decarbonise its heavy-duty truck fleet in Germany. As a first step, the logistics provider has ordered 20 Nikola Tre hydrogen-powered trucks.
Equinor and Air Liquide halt landmark liquified hydrogen shipping project after failing to attract customers in two years | Hydrogen Insight
[Excerpt] But the expected demand for LH2 in the maritime sector has so far largely failed to materialise, with shipping companies now stating a preference for using green ammonia or methanol — both of which are easier to handle than liquid hydrogen (which must be stored at minus 253°C) and contain more energy per cubic metre.
Consortium signs $34 bln MoU for hydrogen project in Mauritania | Reuters via Nasdaq
German project developer Conjuncta on Wednesday said it signed a memorandum of understanding with Mauritania, Egypt’s energy provider Infinity and the United Arab Emirates’ Masdar for a $34 billion green hydrogen project in the West African country.
Carbon Capture
Chevron, Talos Energy triple size of proposed Texas carbon hub | Financial Post
[Excerpt] The venture added nearly 100,000 onshore acres (405 square kilometers) to its existing 40,000 acre Bayou Bend site. The expanded area could store more than 1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases.
Chevron partners with Jera to explore CCS projects in US and Australia | Offshore Technology
Chevron New Energies, a unit of Chevron USA, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Japan’s Jera to explore a collaboration on carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects in the US and Australia.
The Grid
Billion-Dollar Power Lines Finally Inching Ahead to Help US Grids | Financial Post
Suddenly several big power-line projects in the US are moving ahead, bringing with them a flood of potential wind and solar power. The biggest impediment to the US achieving a cleaner power grid isn’t climate deniers or fossil-fuel lobbies; it’s a lack of transmission lines. The country badly needs more conduits to cart wind and solar energy and hydropower to cities.
[Comment] More transmission lines will be essential infrastructure to bring power generated from large scale wind and solar farms into cities. But long linear infrastructure is also vulnerable to nimbyism and permitting delays. Which is also why distributed renewables are also likely to be important for the energy system of the future. Granted, building them doesn’t benefit from economies of scale, but they zero out the cost of big transmission lines. My take is that it is just a matter of time before we see the rise of much more distributed systems – community solar, district heating, and the like.
Queensland buys 1100 km, $5bn Copperstring project to unlock 6GW of “bulk renewables” | RenewEconomy
[Excerpt] The high-voltage transmission network was pitched as the key to unlock both major renewable energy resources in the state’s north, and some key mineral and industrial provinces that might otherwise not be developed.
[Netherlands] 1/3 of streets will need to be dug up to upgrade power lines into homes | NOS
[Excerpt] In the Liander area alone, 760,000 homes and small businesses now have solar panels on their roofs, hundreds of thousands also have a heat pump and the number of electric cars is also increasing rapidly in residential areas. And so more and more households need a heavier electricity connection.
Small Modular Reactors
Western US cities vote to move ahead with NuScale’s novel nuclear power plant | Reuters
Plans for the first U.S. small modular nuclear power reactor got a boost on Tuesday as some Western U.S. cities vowed to continue with the NuScale Power Corp project despite a jump in projected costs.
Dow and X-energy to build U.S. Gulf Coast nuclear demonstration plant | Reuters
Dow Inc and private company X-energy said on Wednesday they have agreed to develop and demonstrate the first grid-scale next-generation nuclear reactor for an industrial site in North America.
California regulators find Diablo Canyon nuclear plant needed through 2030 to support grid reliability | Utility Dive
The California Energy Commission on Tuesday approved a staff analysis recommending the state pursue extending the operation of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant through 2030 to ensure electricity grid reliability.
Terrestrial Energy opens nuclear technology development office in Calgary | Calgary Herald
The $18-million investment by Terrestrial will also create 29 jobs over the next two years as it works to develop a small modular reactor.
Energy Storage
Lithium-air battery with solid electrolyte | pv magazine
US researchers have developed a new lithium-air battery with solid electrolyte and the potential to reach a record energy density that is nearly four times that of lithium-ion batteries. The test cell demonstrated stability over 1,000 charge and discharge cycles.
New thermal battery offers fast, efficient performance at low cost | pv magazine
US engineers have built a scalable thermal energy storage prototype system that combines the best latent and sensible heat transfers. The technology, which is now market-ready after three years of testing, consists of engineered cementitious materials and thermosiphons in a combination that enables fast, efficient thermal performance at low cost.
Texas market targeted for 1GW of grid battery projects | Energy Storage News
Developer Available Power and Linxon, a joint venture between engineering firm SNC-Lavalin and Hitachi Energy, are targeting 1GW of battery storage projects in the ERCOT, Texas market. The projects will be front-of-meter systems within the market managed by grid operator ERCOT.
India tenders 1 GW of pumped hydro storage, 200 MW of solar | pv magazine
Karnataka Ltd. has started accepting bids to develop up to 1 GW of pumped hydro storage, while Assam Power Distribution has revealed plans to procure 200 MW of PV capacity.
Developer Enfinite brings online 40MW/70MWh of battery storage in Alberta, Canada | Energy Storage News
[Excerpt] In May last year Enfinite expanded the programme to a total 180MW/350MWh in Alberta. Last week the company said that it now has committed to more than 900MWh of BESS projects this year in total, and has around 400MWh in its pipeline of development prospects around Canada.
South Africa’s DMRE issues 513MW/2GWh battery storage RFP | Energy Storage News
The Department of Mineral Resource and Energy (DMRE) of South Africa has issued its request for proposals (RFP) for six battery storage projects totaling 513MW/2,052MWh, with a July deadline.
Solar and Wind
Solar takes centre stage as renewables and batteries dominate new power capacity in US | RenewEconomy
Wind, solar, and battery storage are expected to account for nearly all of the new utility-scale generating capacity set to be brought online in the United States this year.
New Jersey seeks up to 4 GW of offshore wind in latest solicitation | Utility Dive
The state plans to bring an additional 7.25 GW online with five more solicitations in the next six years.
New 1.7GW floating offshore wind project unveiled in Hunter renewable zone | RenewEconomy
New plans for yet another offshore wind energy project in Australian waters have emerged, with BlueFloat Energy unveiling a proposal to install 1.7GW of floating turbines off the coast of the New South Wales Hunter region.
RWE, Northland line up Vestas for 1.6GW North Sea complex | reNEWS
Vestas has been appointed as the preferred wind turbine supplier for the up to 1600MW Nordseecluster offshore wind scheme in Germany. Subject to the project reaching an FID, Vestas will provide 104 of its V236-15.0MW offshore wind turbines.
Chinese Companies Strike Deals For 4 GW Solar in Uzbekistan | TAIYANG News
Uzbekistan has announced collaborations with Chinese companies to build a total of 4 GW solar PV capacity for $4 billion direct investment.
Lightsource bp and First Solar ink 4GW module supply agreement for 2026-28 | PV Tech
[Excerpt] This announcement sits alongside the recent supply deal agreed between First Solar and Silicon Ranch as part of the nascent US domestic PV supply chain, developing with particular developers around First Solar as the predominant US module manufacturer.
U.S. proposes first wind power lease sale in Gulf of Mexico | Financial Post
[Excerpt] The Interior Department released a proposed sale notice for a 102,480 acre area off of Lake Charles, Louisiana and two areas near Galveston, Texas of 102,480 and 76,786 acres. One of the two Texas sites will be included in the final sale notice. Together, the proposed offshore sites could power nearly 1.3 million homes, the Interior Department said.
Philippines has awarded over 40GW offshore wind so far, across 55 projects | CurrentPH
[Excerpt] To date, the DOE has awarded 55 offshore wind service contracts with an aggregate capacity of 40.68 GW, or almost twice the dependable generation capacity in the country and is currently in the process of amending the policies and guidelines for the OSW development.
Spanish wind giant EDP commits to 4GW of new renewables a year, including in Asia Pacific | RenewEconomy
Spain-based wind energy giant EDP Renewables has announced it will invest €20 billion over the next four years in an effort to add more than 4GW per year of new utility-scale solar and wind.
Kazakhstan sovereign wealth fund in 1GW wind and battery storage deal with ACWA Power | Energy Storage News
[Excerpt] ACWA Power said the deal covers a 1GW wind energy and battery energy storage system (BESS) project, scheduled for completion in 2027.
Transportation
Construction begins this year on $10 billion high-speed rail from Los Angeles to Las Vegas | Daily Hive
Artistic rendering of the high-speed rail train running through the desert between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. (Brightline West)
Construction on the US$10-billion private project is now expected to begin later in 2023 for an opening in 2027, making it the first high-speed rail system in the United States, and built just in time for the Los Angeles 2028 Summer Olympic Games.
Electric Car Charging Is the Newest Workplace Perk | BNN Bloomberg
[Excerpt] While electric vehicle adoption is reaching a tipping point, one of the biggest obstacles for would-be converts to EVs is lingering anxiety about running out of power far from a working plug. With employers facing a tight labor market, charging at the office is one potential answer to both problems.
Buyer demand prompts builder to install 110 EV chargers in new B.C. condo-townhome complex | Electric Autonomy
When given the option, more than 65 per cent of buyers in Cressey Development Group’s new multi-residential building in Vancouver said yes to an EV charger upgrade, installed by Hypercharge.
Global race to boost electric vehicle range in cold weather | AP
Some automakers and drivers fear lower battery range in the cold could limit acceptance of electric cars, trucks and buses, at a time when emissions from transportation must go down sharply to address climate change. There is hope. Scientists are racing to perfect new battery chemistries that don’t lose as much energy in cold weather as today’s lithium-ion systems.
Utility giant Origin launches EV subscription service, strikes deals with charging network | The Driven
Origin Energy, one of the country’s big three energy utilities, has announced plans to offer a monthly electric vehicle subscription service which includes five hours of free electricity each day.
Electric vehicles grab record 6.8 pct share of Australia market | The Driven
Electric vehicle sales have reached new heights in Australia, with the latest data for the month of February showing that EVs have grabbed a record share of 6.8 per cent of new car sales.
Nio readies 40 GWh battery plant in China, report says | Automotive News
New battery factory will have annual capacity to produce 40 gigawatt hours (GWh) of batteries, which can power about 400,000 units of long-range EVs, Reuters reported.
[UK] SWARCO to launch ultra-rapid EV charging network with 2,000 chargers | Current±
SWARCO Smart Charging is to launch a new nationwide ultra-rapid EV charging network to provide greater availability for drivers. The new charging network PoGo aims to create over 2,000 ultra-rapid chargepoints for the network over the next four years.
Mack Trucks launches its first medium-duty electric truck | Electrek
The Mack MD Electric will be available in Class 6 and Class 7 ratings. Mack Trucks has a goal of 35% of its sales to be zero emission vehicles by 2030, and it also has a goal to reduce emissions in its operations and freight transports by 50% by 2030.
VW-backed Scout Motors to build $2B factory in South Carolina | Tech Crunch
Scout Motors, the VW Group spinoff taking aim at the U.S. market with rugged all-electric vehicles, is deepening its investment with plans to build a $2 billion factory capable of producing 200,000 EVs a year in South Carolina.
Purolator to Invest $1 Billion to Electrify Network, Hit Climate Goals | ESG Today
Canadian freight and logistics services provider Purolator announced today that it will invest approximately $1 billion over the next seven years to electrify its network, with plans including purchasing more than 3,500 fully electric last-mile delivery vehicles, and electrifying more than 60 terminals.
Circular Economy
Audi shows just how many car parts can be recycled through its ‘close the loop’ project | Electrek
Through its joint project, MaterialLoop, Audi is proving you can turn old cars into new ones. The project aims to “close the loop” on materials, such as steel, aluminum, plastic, and glass, recycling them to build new cars and significantly reduce emissions and waste.
Toronto-based Li-Cycle gets conditional commitment for US$375-million U.S. Department of Energy loan | The Globe and Mail
The U.S. Department of Energy is providing Li-Cycle Holdings Corp. with a US$375-million loan to help it complete North America’s first major refinery for recycling battery-grade lithium, a major step in the Toronto-based company’s growth plans, it said on Monday.
As Millions of Solar Panels Age Out, Recyclers Hope to Cash In | WIRED
[Excerpt] Today, roughly 90 percent of panels in the US that have lost their efficiency due to age, or that are defective, end up in landfills because that option costs a fraction of recycling them.
[Comment] The need for more solar panel recycling hasn’t received the attention it deserves. We’re going to need to get much better at this as more panels age out. The competition for minerals and materials supply as PV becomes even more popular suggests the business case will get stronger – just as it has for battery recycling. What I haven’t yet seen is manufacturers take on the challenge of building their batteries and solar panels in ways that make it easier and more economical and more environmentally friendly to recycle and re-use the materials over and over. If you’ve seen anyone pursuing this, send me a note please.
One of the world’s largest offshore wind farms will use recycled turbine blades | Electrek
The very first deployment of Siemens Gamesa’s 108-meter-long (354-feet-long) B108 recycled blades is headed to RWE’s 1.4 gigawatt (GW) Sofia offshore wind farm at Dogger Bank, off the UK’s east coast.
Policy
US Energy Regains Its Swagger While Rest of World Gets IRA Envy | Bloomberg via JWN
Energy executives and Biden administration officials in Houston had a simple message for Europe and other regions griping that US climate spending will starve them of investment: Stop complaining and put up the cash to enact measures of your own.