Plus: Blackrock enacts new ESG voting guidelines; Mixed signals on hydrogen; Ford pulls back on EVs; US added 4.2GW of grid batteries
Hi everyone,
Welcome back into Energy Shift! I hope you had a great summer. For me it has been a bit of an urbanism sabbatical: I read four books on the topic.
Solving for climate change necessarily means looking at energy use in cites. Making cites more dense, walkable and bikeable, serviced by great public transit is a way to make cities more energy efficient. But getting from the urban sprawl model that is seen in most cities in Canada and the US will take a lot of work, including shifting our thinking about what really makes us happy. Of the books I read over the summer, my recommendation if you’re interested in this: Escaping the Housing Trap, The Strong Towns Response to the Housing Crisis, by Charles L. Marohn and Daniel Herriges. Charles (Chuck) and Daniel confront and unpack the tension between housing as a financial product and housing as shelter. The lay out in a very accessible way how we got here and the solutions available. For those of you who live in Calgary, the city-wide rezoning approved by Council earlier this year is at the top of their list of things to tackle. It was like they were talking about Calgary when describing the challenges. Next up for Calgary: enable community-scale businesses within neighborhoods, especially those that have dwelling densities that are making them walkable-ready.
As you’ll see, I’ve slimmed up the format in an attempt to make the updates easier to absorb. I’ve left my comment in blue, to make sure you don’t miss those. Let me know what you think.
Thanks,
Peter
Finance & Sentiment
BlackRock supported just 4% of the ESG shareholder proposals it voted on in 2024, down from 47% in 2021.
Here’s the thing though. Missing in this story is something new that big fund managers like Blackrock are facing: some clients, such as those in Europe with climate-focused funds want to take back control and vote their own way on ESG-related shareholder proposals. Blackrock has had to institute new guidelines to enable separate voting. See story below and similar article here from BNN Bloomberg: BlackRock cuts backing for climate, social shareholder proposals.
BlackRock enacts new voting policy for funds that consider climate change objectives.
The new guidelines allow clients with climate-focused objectives to vote differently on shareholder proposals than others — the asset manager’s latest move to navigate a political divide over ESG investing. See comments above. Blackrock has set out specific guidelines that clients must follow that put some constraints on exactly where clients have the freedom to vote their own way. Yet it is an important signpost. Blackrock may have been overly influenced by US republican pressure to the chagrin of European ESG funds managed by Blackrock. This could see the pendulum swing back in favor of some ESG shareholder resolutions.
Technology
Hydrogen
Earlier this year, the European Commission approved a €7 billion subsidy for the Hy2Infra programme, for the deployment of 3.2GW of electrolyzers and 2,700km of new and repurposed hydrogen pipelines. That funding is now being dispersed, such as for projects in Germany, where German federal and state governments have signed off on €4.6bn ($5bn) in grants to the 23 green hydrogen projects. Meanwhile Spain announced it will top up the EC aid with its own €1.2bn for renewable hydrogen hubs. That has attracted a $2.2B investment by China’s Hygreen Energy and its partners
Here in Alberta, Linde announced it will build a $2B clean hydrogen project.
Not entirely unsurprisingly, gigawatts of Australasian green hydrogen capacity have been shelved.
Abu Dhabi’s Adnoc has bought a 35% stake in Exxon’s Texas hydrogen plant.
Carbon Capture
Chevron-backed cleantech firm Svante Technologies Inc., based in Vancouver, is getting up to US$100 million from Canada to commercialize technology that would extract CO2 from the ducts of carbon-heavy industries like oil and gas, steel, and cement-making and concentrate it for other uses.
The Grid
Octopus to offer free electricity during periods of low demand, excess renewable generation. I love the market innovation by Octopus.
US power supplier Williams says its ‘overwhelmed’ with data center interest for natural gas supply across US.
Urban Design & Buildings
Imagine a three-bedroom condo with windows on both sides of the building to allow air flow through. Sounds expensive, right? That could change in BC. Leading the way in Canada, the government of BC has updated its building code to enable single egress stairways for apartments up to six stories. This is impressive policy leadership. By eliminating the second staircase, it lowers overall costs for the building, so the savings can be passed on to buyers and giving them more space for their money. The link to emissions? More attractive and more affordable living for denser, more energy efficient, walkable neighborhoods, serviced by good transit, etc. See this video explainer below for how these buildings can be just as safe. After all, it is how much of European housing is built.
What we tend to overlook when thinking of housing costs
This is a great 19-minute explainer of how transportation costs are often overlooked. Tom at Shifter runs through the costs, not just the ones we feel directly, but the indirect costs to build and maintain roads. He compares three housing choices to show the differences in time and money.
Energy Storage
World’s biggest battery storage project (1.24GWh) gets underway in Chile.
China’s top utility completes world’s biggest pumped hydro plant (3.6GW).
North Carolina is getting a $1.4B sodium-ion battery gigafactory.
US power grid adds 4.2 GW of battery storage in H1.
Jupiter Power puts Houston’s first grid battery (200MW/400MWh) into action.
Solar and Wind
Acen secures approval for 1.2 GW solar-plus-battery project in Australia.
A huge solar farm and eight hour battery project was approved for NSW, Australia.
Evren to invest $5 billion in 3.5 GW of solar, 5.5 GW of wind in India.
California targets up to 2 GW of long-duration storage as part of 10.6 GW clean energy procurement.
A 600 MW solar PV project was approved in the UK. That’s seriously big and sited where a 2GW coal-fired plant was shuttered in 2019.
Middle East oil states announce four mammoth solar projects totaling 7.5GW. Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power secured $2.6B for its 5.5GW of solar.
The UK allocated more than 3 GW of solar through a Contract-for-Difference (CfD) auction.
Transportation
EV adopotion across the US varies – see how, including by political stripe. Across the US, EVs made up 7.6% of sales in 2023.
Chinese EV maker Zeekr claims to have made the fastest charging batteries: from 10 per cent to 80 per cent in just 10.5 minutes. The catch: the batteries are lithium iron phosphate which charge slower in colder climates: “though the new batteries can charge at temperatures as low as -10 degree Celsius, the time to charge from 10 per cent to 80 per cent shoots out to around 30 minutes.” I dare ask what the time is for -20C, common in many parts of Canada in the winter.
Ford has decided to scrap plans for $1.8-billion Oakville EV assembly plant, will retool to make gasoline pickups instead. A lot of people still like their gas pick-ups.
California’s new electric train means the express version takes less time, even with more stops. I’ve put one of these on my Christmas wish list for service between Calgary and Edmonton. A guy can wish, can’t he?
Parents are secretly using Waymo to shuttle kids to school in San Francisco.
In Q2 of this year, plug-ins (EVs and plug-in hybrids) hit over 25% of new car sales in California while plug-ins reached over 50% of Chinese new car sales in July. EVs are still growing as a market, just not evenly or to the benefit of every automaker.
Synthetic sharkskin is being trialed by Lufthansa to make its planes more aerodynamic
Canada has decided to impose a 100% tariff on Chinese-made EVs, mirroring the one put on by the US earlier this year.