Plus: China taking bids for 23GW offshore wind – same as all of US; EV sales are soaring; Germany launches €50B subsidies for high-carbon sectors
Hi Everyone,
The past 2 weeks flew by for me, so I had to do a lot of catching up over the past weekend to get this ready for you. I include this week a bit of what I am learning about in the Feature Stories section. I’m also trying out something I’m calling Peter’s Pick for especially noteworthy stories not to miss. In literally hundreds of headlines across the many topics I cover, picking just one or two of these is not easy – so the story has to be particularly meaningful for its impact in moving the “Energy Shift” needle.
For the headline story – look in the Transporation section.
Thanks for reading. Spread the word…encourage others to subscribe.
Peter
Feature Stories
I have been spending a lot of time learning about urbanism from urbanist YouTubers. And there is a lot of excellent content to point you towards: Not Just Bikes, City Nerd, RMTransit, City Beautiful, Strong Towns and Oh the Urbanity. It was really hard to pick just one video to profile – start with the Stong Towns video below.
They tend to all point to the same things: Cities in Canada and the US are being wrongly designed to be car-dependent and there is a better way to make cities more livable by designing for greater density, with better public transit, easier access to amenities, and on and on. But even in my home city of Calgary – new suburban neighborhoods are being developed for higher density but are still very car dependent – as in no services – not even a corner store in sight. What gives?
Speed & Scale
The “back of a napkin” way to achieve Net Zero by 2050. An impressive website with lots of great places to start. Go ahead – click the napkin.
Finance & Sentiment
$29 Trillion Investor Group Urges High Impact Companies to Disclose on Environmental Impact | ESG Today
A group of nearly 300 financial institutions representing almost $29 trillion in assets are urging some of the world’s highest impact companies, including Exxon, Chevron and Caterpillar, to disclose environmental data on themes including climate change, water and forests, through the CDP environmental disclosure platform.
ESG focus on fossil fuel divestment threatens renewables investment, Goldman analyst warns | Financial Post
[Excerpt] The capital allocation patterns of investors targeting ESG goals have contributed to a global lack of expenditure on energy, which has been particularly damaging to economically vulnerable corners of society, according to the Goldman analyst. He estimates that energy spending is now about 25 per cent lower than it was between 2010 and 2014, when it was roughly US$2 trillion.
Technology
Hydrogen Production and Use
Plug Power plans $6 bln hydrogen projects in Finland | Reuters via Yahoo Finance
Plug Power Inc, a U.S. maker of hydrogen fuel systems, said on Tuesday it aims to build three plants in Finland costing some $6 billion to produce green hydrogen and ammonia for the European market.
China’s 260MW Kuqa green hydrogen facility to be commissioned | Hydrogen Insight
The worlds largest green hydrogen project the 260MW Kuqa facility in Xinjiang, northwest China is to be commissioned at the end of May, with commercial operation scheduled to begin on 30 June, according to its developer, Chinese state-owned oil giant Sinopec. But questions remain about how green Sinopecs project will truly be, as only 300MW of solar power has been built to supply it.
Inner Mongolia government give green light to world largest green methanol project | China Hydrogen Bulletin
On May 16th, the Bayannyur 500,000 ton per annum green hydrogen to methanol project got the permission from Inner Mongolia government. The project also includes 2GW wind power and solar power capacity to provide renewable power to green hydrogen manufacture. The total investment of this power-chemical complex is estimated to be 14 bn Rmb ($2 bn).
Oman Signs Agreements for $20 Billion Green Hydrogen Projects | EnergyNews.biz
In a significant move towards sustainable energy, Hydrogen Oman Company (HYDRUM) has signed three groundbreaking agreements to develop green hydrogen production projects in Oman. These projects will span an expansive area of 960 square kilometers and aim to achieve a combined production capacity of 500,000 metric tons of green hydrogen.
Tencent deploy 60 FCEV coach for employee commuting in Shenzhen | China Hydrogen Bulletin
[Excerpt] This 60 FCEV fleet is the largest FCEV commuting fleet in China and it is managed by a local transportation service company. The company has announced that it will purchase another 140 FCEVs for commercial commuting service recently.
Loblaw purchases hydrogen Class 8 trucks as it continues to experiment with ZEV technologies | Electric Autonomy
The Canadian grocer is purchasing five Class 8 T680 hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) from Seattle-based Kenworth Trucks. Loblaw already operates two electric Class 8 trucks in its fleet — with one deployed in Vancouver and the other in the Greater Montreal area. The company says the addition of hydrogen-fuelled electric vehicles is necessary to address some of the range limitations of battery-electric trucks.
Carbon Capture
Exxon signs decarbonization contract with steel maker Nucor | Reuters
[Excerpt] Exxon will capture, transport and store up to 800,000 metric tons (Mt) per year of carbon CO2 from Nucor’s manufacturing site in Convent, Louisiana, starting in 2026. The site produces a raw material used to make steel, a highly polluting process.
China Launches Asia’s Biggest Coal Carbon Capture Plant | Oil Price
China Energy Investment Corporation, a state-owned electricity generator, has started up a carbon capture project at one of its thermal coal power plants which will be the biggest such carbon capture facility in Asia.
The carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) facility at the Taizhou thermal coal power plant will have an annual capacity to store 500,000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2).
Carbon capture tests results better than anticipated for Canada Nickel | Mining.com
Canada Nickel reported better than anticipated results from recent tests of its novel carbon capture process. The process at the Crawford nickel project can store 1.0 million tonnes of carbon annually.
The Grid
National Grid to Speed Up Connections to UK’s Power Network | BNN Bloomberg
National Grid Plc’s system operator is seeking to speed connections to the UK’s power network, prioritizing projects that aren’t bogged down by issues including financing and planning delays.
[Comment] Now if only the US could figure out how to address its connection backlog.
Sonnen connects heat pumps to virtual power plant in Germany | pv magazine
[Excerpt] The German battery manufacturer has implemented a new software solution to seamlessly integrate heat pumps into their energy system. It aims to operate the heat pumps smartly and in a grid-friendly manner, contributing to power grid stability by optimizing electricity consumption. This approach involves activating the heat pumps when electricity supply exceeds demand, thus smoothing out generation and consumption peaks.
[Comment] I remember years ago listening to a fascinating podcast about Sonnen – how they enabled homeowners to trade energy peer-to-peer at a discount to the grid through their SonnenCommunity software (shortening the payback period for home solar/battery systems). I later noted that Shell bought Sonnen and watched a Shell executive explain how software is the key to capturing value across the energy system value-chain. So here Sonnen is again building on their success in software.
Buildings
These two giant heat pumps will warm 25,000 households | Electrek
German engine maker MAN Energy Solutions‘ industrial-sized heat pumps will produce 350,000 MWh of heat per year and warm 25,000 Danish households using offshore wind power and seawater.
Energy Storage
Torrent signs MoU for 5.7 GW of pumped hydro storage in Maharashtra | pv magazine
Torrent Power, a private-sector integrated utility in India, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Maharashtra to develop three pumped storage hydro projects aggregating to 5.7 GW capacity in the State of Maharashtra. The projects would entail an estimated investment of INR 27,000 crore (around $3.27 billion).
Chile government seeks multi-gigawatts of large-scale storage | Energy Storage News
The government of Chile will launch a bill this year to procure large-scale energy storage systems for commissioning in 2026 totalling US$2 billion of investment, on top of 5GWh already being sought for 2027-28.
India set to host first giant battery | pv magazine
OTPC has signed an agreement with APDCL to set up a joint venture company to build, own and operate a 250 MW/500 MWh battery energy storage system in Assam, India. OTPC said the project will be executed in phases in line with the requirements of APDCL, which is the beneficiary of the project. The project will be developed with an estimated investment of INR 2,000 crore ($243 million).
Solar and Wind
Peter’s Pick China is accepting bids to construct 23 gigawatts of offshore wind, more than world builds in a year | BNN Bloomberg
Guangdong’s planning agency has tendered for 7 gigawatts of projects in provincial waters and 16 gigawatts in national waters, industry publication Wind Power News Network reported Thursday. The combined amount is more than the world has ever built in a year. Allocations will be granted in August.
Bangladesh introduces fiscal breaks for solar-powered water desalination | pv magazine
Bangladesh has introduced tax exemptions to reduce water production costs and promote the use of solar power in 19 coastal districts. This initiative comes in response to grid electricity shortages caused by a decline in coal and fuel imports. The goal is to enhance reliance on solar-powered water desalination in these areas.
Photovoltaic energy continues to set new records in European electricity markets | pv magazine
Gas and CO2 prices continued their downward trend in the fourth week of May, which led to a general downward trend in prices in European electricity markets and several negative hourly prices were registered, which reached -€400/MWh in Netherlands. The notable exception of the Iberian market, which saw a rise in prices, came from the fall in renewable energy production. During the week, records of solar photovoltaic energy production were reached in Germany, France, and Italy.
Transportation
Peter’s Pick EV Sales Are Soaring And Oil Use Is About to Peak | BNN Bloomberg
[Excerpt] The share of electric vehicles in sales of new passenger vehicles is set to more than double globally in the next few years — to 30% in 2026. Their penetration in some markets will be even higher, with EVs reaching 89% of sales in the Nordics, 52% in China and 42% in Europe. Our latest near-term EV sales outlook is brighter than what BNEF published last year, mostly due to policy changes in the US, where a major investment push sparked by the Inflation Reduction Act will help more than triple the share of EVs in new sales, to 28% by 2026.
Peter’s Pick Ford and GM EVs will use Tesla charging tech in surprise partnership between rival automakers | NBC News (Ford) and Electrek (GM)
[Excerpt] Under the agreement current Ford owners will be granted access to more than 12,000 Tesla Superchargers across the U.S. and Canada, starting early next year, via the use of an adapter.
Following the news that Ford will adopt Tesla’s connector, now known as the North American Charging Standard (NACS), GM is also confirming that it will adopt the charging standard.
Toyota adds $2.1B to its US battery factory expansion plans | Tech Crunch
Toyota will spend an additional $2.1 billion to build a new battery plant in North Carolina, the latest sign that the automaker is attempting to catch up with an industry that has embraced the move to electric vehicles.
Chinese Unicorn Claims Breakthrough With All-Weather EV Battery | BNN Bloomberg
[Excerpt] Greater Bay Technology says its new Phoenix cell is made with superconducting materials and contains thermal management technology that can heat the battery back from -4F to 77F in five minutes. That allows the lithium ion battery to operate as normal and charge within six minutes in all weather conditions, according to Huang Xiangdong, Greater Bay’s co-founder and chairman.
[Comment] Regular readers know I almost never post stories about purported tech breakthroughs, because I can never be sure they will pan out at commercial scales. China, however, is sometimes a different story. This story says the company’s tech for 15-minute charging is already deployed in one of the most popular EVs in China. So they found a way to quickly warm up a battery. What about keeping it warm so range is unaffected. That would be a remarkable breakthrough indeed.
Tata to Build $1.6 Billion Indian EV Battery Plant, Gujarat Says | BNN Bloomberg
India’s salt-to-software conglomerate Tata Group signed an agreement with the Gujarat state government to set up a giga-factory for manufacturing lithium-ion cells, with an estimated initial investment of around 130 billion rupees ($1.6 billion).
[Comment] For the size of its economy, India continues to lag on EVs generally. This is an important step in the right direction to be sure. But one giga-battery plant? China, the US and Europe have seen dozens of announcements. If India picks up the pace, it will be an important signpost.
Chinese EV battery maker Gotion mulls factory in Morocco | Reuters via AutoNews.com
Morocco’s government and China-based battery maker Gotion High Tech have agreed to look into setting up an electric-vehicle battery plant in the kingdom with up to $6.3 billion in eventual investment, the country’s investment agency said.
California certified as next US state to allow Mercedes’ Level 3 autonomous DRIVE PILOT | Electrek
[Excerpt] This Level 3 technology still uses the existing surround sensors of the Mercedes’ Driving Assistance Package in an EQS, for example, but also utilizes additional sensors, including LiDAR and a camera in the rear window. DRIVE PILOT even uses microphones to detect approaching emergency vehicles along with a road wetness sensor in the wheel well. Throw in redundant steering, braking actuators, and an onboard electrical system, and Mercedes EVs equipped with DRIVE PILOT are loaded with fail-safes in case one system struggles.
BAE Systems secures largest battery electric bus order in North America | Electrek
Aerospace and Defense leader BAE Systems revealed Wednesday it had received an order for up to 1,229 battery electric buses, the largest of its kind in North America to date. The electric buses will be used by the ten transit authorities members of the Association du Transport Urbain du Québec (ATUQ).
AESC is opening a huge EV battery factory in South Carolina to supply BMW | Electrek
Battery tech firm AESC is partnered with BMW, and it broke ground today on a 30 GWh EV battery factory in Florence County, South Carolina.
Silence S04 electric micro-cars with swappable batteries start production | Electrek
Barcelona’s groundbreaking electric scooter company Silence made a name for itself with revolutionary new swappable batteries with built-in trolley wheels. Now the company has brought those same game-changing batteries to four-wheelers as production begins for the Silence S04 micro-car.
Here are all the EVs that qualify for Canada’s Incentives for Zero-Emission Vehicles (iZEV) Program | Electrek
Here’s every electric vehicle that currently qualifies for the US federal tax credit | Electrek
Circular Economy
Stellantis forms joint venture to recycle end-of-life vehicles and create a more circular economy | Electrek
Global automaker Stellantis is announced a new joint venture with metal recycling specialist Galloo to develop a more circular economy on its way to becoming greener throughout its entire business by 2030. Together, Stellantis and Galloo intend to implement a service to recycle end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) from the former’s brands, and possibly other automakers.
Policy
Germany launches €50bn ‘climate contracts’ for high-carbon sectors | edie
As Germany’s 2045 climate neutrality target looms, the government is launching a multi-billion euro ‘Carbon Contracts for Difference’ scheme to help bridge the investment gap between clean tech and polluting technologies.