Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

Martyn1981

Been a long time since the last Carbon Commentary newsletter from Chris Goodall, but it's back.

For anyone that doesn't know what this is, it's simply a list of news items that may be of interest, that Chris Goodall e-mails out (anyone can subscribe). Normally it is weekly, sometimes there are small breaks. But it has been a year (or so) since the last.

Hopefully the list gives people a quick weekly insight into a range of developments.

Things I noticed and thought were interesting

Week ending 3rd December 2023

I’ve been writing a book for much of the last year. Many apologies for the long gap since the last newsletter.
 
1, Solar in Mauritania. Danish company GreenGo put forward a plan for one of the world’s largest solar and wind farms in Mauritania, west Africa. The intent is to build a project capable of producing an annual 190 TWh of electricity, partly for use for desalination to aid local farming and also partly for the manufacture of 4 million tonnes of hydrogen. (190 TWh is approximately 60% of the UK’s yearly electricity use). This follows BP’s announcement a year ago that it was looking to develop green hydrogen in Mauritania. With huge quantities of flat desert land, high winds and excellent sun, the country is a logical hub for renewables production. But whether GreenGo can finance this huge scheme, even with its well-established investor connections, is yet to be seen.

2, Germany to Africa hydrogen pipeline. Germany and Italy agreed a plan to build a pipeline between their two countries to transport hydrogen. (The two countries don’t share a border so either Austria or Switzerland will have join the scheme). The intention is then to run the pipeline on to North Africa. This is the latest of several German schemes for improving its international access to hydrogen for industry and for conversion to electricity. High capacity links between Europe and Africa will be critical for energy security, and access to lower cost energy. And since transporting hydrogen costs a fraction of moving electricity, pipelines make good economic sense, possibly even from Mauritania which is about 4,000 km from Germany.
 
3, Renault heavy trucks. The company has just started production of electric 44 tonne trucks at one of its French factories. These vehicles are the heaviest permitted on EU roads. Battery capacity of 540 kWh will allow a maximum journey of 300 km without recharging or 500 km if the driver charges the truck during a one hour break. Some trucks need longer range but this range of battery vehicles covers most delivery requirements. Increasingly it look as though the space for fuel cell vehicles is very small fraction of the heavy truck market.
 
4, Vertical farming. The industry has stepped backwards in the past year. High electricity prices have made many indoor farms uneconomic, labour requirements have been greater than expected and capital has dried up. The German company Infarm, which had raised almost half a billion dollars, closed its European operations in 2023, shifting to North America and the Middle East. One Italian company is bucking the trend. Planet Farms raised $40m at a $500m valuation to finish its farm in Milan (with a 2 hectare/5 acre growing area) and to start building another in north London. Its current offering is similar to other ventures, focusing on green salads and herbs, but it also intends to diversify into making ingredients for cosmetics and perfumes. The minimisation of labour inputs through increased automation is a particular strength of Planet Farms. But why open in London, where electricity prices are now higher than most other European countries? 
 
5, ‘Hydrogen-ready’ steelworks in the Middle East. Steel will eventually be largely made in countries with the lowest energy prices, rather than those with the best access to coal or iron ore. Oman started construction of a 5 million tonne direct reduction steel works in partnership with Indian producer Jindal. (Despite what the country said, this will not be the largest such plant in the world – H2 Green Steel in Sweden, for example, will be as big). Direct reduction plants can use either natural gas or hydrogen and there was no promise that this works will open using the greener alternative. But Oman also confirmed it has allocated large areas of land for renewable electricity production for hydrogen generation for steel-making and the country promises full carbon neutrality by 2050. Separately, Abu Dhabi said it had purchased electrolysers to make H2 to mix with natural gas in its own existing direct reduction works.  No quantities were specified, raising suspicion that this announcement was intended to help position the country as COP28 comes to the Emirates rather than as a substantial move towards hydrogen. However the gradual spread of interest beyond Europe in using H2 for making steel is undeniably helpful.
 
6, New types of green cement. Hoffman Green Cement, based in south-west France, manufactures cement using waste materials from other industrial processes, including coal ash from power stations. The carbon footprint of its product is a small fraction of standard cement and Hoffman claims better performance when making concrete. After facing substantial initial scepticism, Hoffman Green Cement is gradually gaining traction among major French construction companies and elsewhere in Europe. This week it announced a deal to provide its cement to Spie Batignolles, a €2bn business operating across Europe. This will add substantial further credibility to its claims about the superiority of its product and its carbon credentials.
 
7, Infinium e-fuels. Breakthrough Energy Catalyst committed to investing $75m (subject to closing conditions) in Infinium’s Roadrunner project in Texas. Roadrunner will use an existing refinery to make synthetic aviation fuel from low carbon hydrogen and captured CO2. Infinium says it will be the largest ‘power to liquids’ plant in the US (and therefore, I think, the world). Emissions may be as little as 10% of fossil aviation fuel, a far better result than the waste oils SAF mentioned in note 10 below. Aviation fuel made by Roadrunner will be sold to American Airlines for use in its jets. Citi has separately done a deal with American Airlines to use the reduced emissions from the Infinium fuel to offset the air travel of its staff. (Not a perfect arrangement, but moving in the right direction).
 
8, NuScale SMR. Small modular reactors are being pushed by several countries, including Britain and France. Last month saw a setback as NuScale, a business with one of the most advanced designs, withdrew from a plan to construct a reactor in Utah, citing a lack of interest from local utilities in buying the electricity. NuScale had increased the proposed price of power produced by its reactors from $58 to $89/MWh earlier this year. This setback appears not to have deterred the mayor of Tees Valley in the UK from wanting to sign an agreement for 4 SMRs from Westinghouse. The design of each reactor offers an output of 300 MW and is a scaled down version of the company’s AP1000 plant. 10 AP1000s are in operation or construction, including at the much delayed Vogtle site in the US. The Tees Valley SMR plan is said to have a budget of £10bn, which makes it almost as expensive per unit of electricity output as the full size reactors in construction in France and the UK.
 
9, Volvo and low carbon steel. Volvo increased its target for emissions reduction. It now aims for a 75% reduction in the footprint of its cars by 2030 compared to 2018. Previously it had aimed for a 40% reduction by 2025. Alongside a phase out of ICE cars by 2030, a principal tool will be the use of steel made by SSAB in Sweden that will come from hydrogen direct reduction rather than coal. Volvo was the first car maker to back the pioneer SSAB as it began the switch to low carbon steel. Several other auto manufacturers have also committed to aggressive emissions reductions targets and the industry’s support for low carbon technologies has provided an invaluable stimulus for the European move to hydrogen steel-making. Cars represent about 12% of the world demand for steel.
 
10, Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). Virgin flew a Boeing 787 across the Atlantic using 100% SAF made largely from waste cooking oil. This was first flight of this distance for a large airliner using this fuel. (Unnoticed by the media, aircraft manufacturer Gulfstream had flown one of its jets from the US to the UK earlier in the week also on 100% SAF. This was the first transatlantic flight, not Virgin's). The UK government enthusiastically welcomed the Virgin success, saying that this form of SAF would make decarbonisation of flying possible. I wrote a piece quoting various government and IEA publications that show that waste oils are not available in sufficiently large quantities to achieve more than a tiny fraction of this ambition. One 2023 government document, using figures from consultants Ricardo, suggests a figure as low as 0.1% of UK aviation fuel needs.                          

Martyn1981

Portugal has set a new record for running on 100% RE leccy. The article mentions that they are now expanding storage, and aiming for ~85% RE by 2030.

For reference the Nat Grid is aiming to have the UK grid capable of operating on 100% low carbon (includes nuclear) generation by 2025, and hopefully all the time by 2035.

Nice read, lots of factoids, but I'll pop in just a few para's.

Portugal just ran on 100% renewables for six days in a row

For nearly a week, the country of 10 million met customer needs with wind, hydro and solar — a test run for operating the grid without fossil fuels.

How did Portugal make this happen? It committed to building renewables early and often, pledging a 2050 deadline for net-zero carbon emissions in 2016, several years before the European Union as a whole found the conviction to take that step. Portugal’s last coal plants shut down in 2022, leaving (imported) fossil gas as the backstop for on-demand power.

The task ahead for Portugal’s grid decarbonization is to reduce and ultimately eliminate the number of hours when the country needs to burn gas to keep the lights on. Leaders want gas generation, which made up 21% of electricity consumption from January through October, to end completely by 2040.

To reach its climate goals, Portugal has focused on diversification of renewable resources; instead of depending primarily on wind, water or sun, it blends each into the portfolio and finds ways to make them more complementary. The country’s power companies are now chasing major additional offshore wind opportunities, expanding solar installations and repowering older onshore wind projects to get more out of the best locations.

Exiled_Tyke

I'm putting this here rather than on the investment thread as I think it's more relevant as developments in green energy rather than investment news. 

Gravitricity shareholders have today been sent an update of developments with a number of very interesting commercial opportunities for the company.  (For those that don't know Gravitricity is developing the technology of using large (principally mine) shafts to lower and raise huge weights down as a form of storage.   The conclusion to the update states: 

"The recent steps taken towards commercialisation constitute something of a sea change in the company’s circumstances, and as such we believe that the situation is extremely positive and that we are on the cusp of a big change for the company.  At last we can genuinely see the scale of the commercial opportunity before us.  Whilst the funding environment is challenging, there is now interest in the company in the light of the recent developments.  We have an excellent, talented team that is focused, energetic and working closely together on all aspects of the business.  Your support and interest is vital and hugely appreciated.  It is certainly our aim to justify that support and create further shareholder value in the coming months."

So hopefully we may yet see another form of practical storage to add to the diverse portfolio we are surely going to need to eradicate !!!!!! from our energy supplies. 

Martyn1981

Keeping an eye out for notification from NG, but I don't think wind generation quite broke the current record of 21.62GW, but it must have been close.

Such a shame to see leccy prices so high, regardless, because of the high cost of FF gas, especially given the estimated 6GW to 7GW of 'lost' on-shore wind due to the anti-RE policies rolled out after 2015. That generation would have been distributed and possibly embedded, so well placed to push out more of the FF gas gen that's been driving leccy prices so high for a couple of years now.

paul991

The shame was uk was producing 107 percent of usage but was using FF for exports

Martyn1981

Nice to see the IMF trying to address the various subsidies that go to FF's, but carbon pricing is an issue that many politicians are scared of, for good reason. This para highlights it well:

However attractive a carbon price may be in economic theory, in practice governments are reluctant to impose such explicit prices and taxes because they can easily be attacked and because they hit poorer people hardest if poorly applied. The gilets jaunes protests in France were triggered by higher fuel taxes. Carbon pricing proposals in the US and Australia were abandoned after sustained attacks from the right wing.

[My bold.]

IMF Head Advocates For End Of Fossil Fuel Subsidies At COP28 Climate Summit

Kristalina Georgieva, the managing director of the IMF, told the COP28 delegates on Monday that it was possible to make activities with high carbon emissions reflect their true costs to society by using regulation and by cutting the subsidies that encourage fossil fuel use. This past summer, the IMF calculated the direct and indirect subsidies that go towards fossil fuels — not counting proven impacts such as health costs — had reached more than $7 trillion after being driven to record levels by cost of living increases related to higher interest rates.

Diverting those trillions of dollars and putting an implicit price on carbon emissions would generate the vast amounts of cash needed to tackle the climate crisis, Georgieva said. “We have been slow on a very important policy thought, which is the incentive for investors by still tolerating high levels of fossil fuel subsidies,” she told The Guardian in an interview. “And [the world has made this worse] by being still fairly slow on introducing carbon pricing, and giving a trajectory for this carbon price upward.” Getting rid of those subsidies would allow that money to be used for promoting renewable energy and other low-carbon technologies, stimulating the market for “clean” growth, said Georgieva.

Carbon taxes and emissions trading can also generate revenues for governments. “When we talk about the need to support the transition to the green economy — where the money could come from — here is the source,” she said. Pricing carbon was also fair, she said, as the more companies or individuals contribute to the climate crisis, the more they would pay.

Martyn1981

Can't work out if this is interesting. Possibly not, but just 'fun' to see the numbers, so our understanding can grow this decade as storage rolls out. Plus i was getting bored with all the Aussie batt news. 

But what caught my eye was Spain's intention to add 20GW of new storage by 2030, which I believe is similar to the UK's plans.

The amount of energy (for the UK) is yet to be seen, but I assume that earlier projects, as are rolling out, will be in the 1-4hr range. Perhaps we'll see medium duration, maybe 2-10hr roll out more later in the decade. Not sure when long duration storage will become economic, as that will depend probably on the frequency and scale of excess, to make it viable.

Spain awards contracts to 1.9GWh energy storage in first PERTE tender

The government of Spain, through the Institution for the diversification and energy savings (IDAE) has awarded 880MW/1,809MWh in its first tender for energy storage to be co-located with renewables.

All the projects but one are targeted to be completed in 2025, with the exception being one awarded in the Balearic Islands, expected to be completed by the end of April 2026. Spain targets 20GW of new energy storage by 2030.

Martyn1981

Well that week went quick. Here's Chris Goodall's next Carbon Commentary Newsletter:

Things I noticed and thought were interesting

Week ending December 10th 2023

1, Long duration storage. Hyme, a young Copenhagen company with a proprietary sodium hydroxide storage technology raised €8m to complete its first commercial scale plant in a Danish port. Surplus electricity is used to raise the molten salt to 700 degrees for up to several days. This is used to generate steam for driving a turbine when power is needed. Molten salts have been used for heat storage at concentrating solar plants (CSP) for many years. Hyme says its new approach will reduce the space and expenditure needed for energy storage, and it will now raise the cash to build much larger plants from 2025 onwards. (Thanks to Ursula Brewer). 
 
2, Solid oxide electrolysers. A report by respected analyst Gniewomir Flis suggested that solid oxide high temperature electrolysers might compete effectively against the industry’s other technologies, including PEM and alkaline versions. Flis points out that solid oxide electrolysers can operate in reverse. As well as functioning as a means of generating hydrogen they can be quickly turned into fuel cells when the H2 is reconverted to electricity. Not only does this save capital expenditure but it will also produce round trip efficiencies of up to 70%. The possible disadvantage is the need for high temperature external heat sources. But adding a solid oxide electrolyser/fuel cell to a nuclear power station, which produces huge amount of wasted heat energy, would mean that the site could function effectively as a source of flexible electricity generation. When electricity is not needed, the nuclear power station can be switched to making hydrogen.
 
3, Relocation of global steel industry. The world’s existing steel industry looks vulnerable to a shift to low energy cost locations that are close to iron ore sources. One of the first development areas will be Western Australia, which has no existing iron or steel works. Singapore steel maker Meranti said it would establish a JV there to produce low carbon iron briquettes there for shipment to its new electric arc furnace in Thailand. There wasn’t an immediate commitment to use hydrogen in the Australia plant, rather than the alternative natural gas, but the longer term intention is to switch completely away from fossil fuels. The threat to long-established steel-making locations such as Germany was emphasised by McKinsey at a recent conference. Steel investors ‘like to take their money where the energy is available’. They prefer greenfield sites over conversion of existing mills. This means new plants in Sweden and Spain, but also North Africa and Turkey. 
 
4, Green hydrogen for oil refinery. The Bad Lauchstaedt innovation park near Leipzig in eastern Germany will supply hydrogen to the nearby TotalEnergies refinery. Refineries need hydrogen for the manufacture of chemicals and fuels from oil. The H2 will be made in a 30 MW electrolyser from local wind energy, stored in a specially created salt cavern and then transported via a retrofitted natural gas pipeline. Delivery starts in 2025. This is one the world’s first fully integrated industrial uses of hydrogen.
 
5, Ocean shipping of ammonia. The world’s shipping industry is preparing for a growing market in shipping ammonia in bulk. Ammonia may be the energy carrier of choice for green hydrogen that is moved over very long distances. In recent days, Maersk announced an order for up to 10 very large ships. This order alone would add almost a third to the world’s ammonia shipping capacity. Greek and Singapore shippers have also commissioned shipbuilding yards to construct several ammonia carriers in recent months. Some of these ships will also be powered by ammonia but the development of these engines has been slower than expected.
 
6, CATL car skateboard. The Chinese battery manufacturer CATL showed off its new EV skateboard, which integrates batteries, motors and other components into a single platform. This skateboard can be bought by car manufacturers as the basis for their own cars. The performance indices quoted, such as the power usage per kilometre, were very impressive. It seems likely that CATL is targeting sales to automobile assembly businesses across Asia. These companies will add their own seating, control systems and steel exteriors to make a finished car (Thanks to Alison Fogg).
 
7, Carbon capture from cement manufacture. Australian company Calix has commercialised a technology for cheap capture of CO2 from cement kilns. It quotes a figure of €33 per tonne for capture, plus another €15-48 for transport and storage. (Injecting the CO2 into the ground immediately below the cement works would see the lowest costs). The Calix technology, branded Leilac in Europe, can be retrofitted to existing cement works. These figures are lower than the implied EU and US carbon price today so it may make financial sense to install the units across the industry today. Calix’s claimed costs are, of course, also far lower than the estimates for direct air capture by Carbon Engineering or Climeworks. This is important because Calix’s other main market is a joint venture with Heirloom, a US business also working on DAC.
 
8, Low carbon shipping. Two contrasting pieces of news this week. The Chinese state shipbuilding corporation showed off designs at a Shanghai trade fair for a very large nuclear-powered container ship using molten salt reactors. We were told that international assurance and risk management business DNV has approved the ship ‘in principle’.  Both China and Korea are pursuing nuclear power as the energy source for shipping. At the other end of the spectrum, German bulk carrier owner Oldendorff announced that by mid-2024 it would install rotary wind turbines on one of its coal ships operating out of Vancouver. The company states that it expects to reduce emissions from this ship by 55% as a result of the change.
 
9, Engineered geothermal electricity. The latest deep geothermal project started putting electricity into the Nevada grid. This 3.5 MW well, drilled about 2.5 km down and then running horizontally for 900 metres, uses techniques developed by the US gas and oil fracking industries. The well brings very hot water to the surface to create steam to drive turbines. Although ‘engineered geothermal’ has seemed an attractive potential source of 24/7 electricity in many places around the world, development has been slow. The developer Fervo is now working on a 400 MW plant in Utah but says that progress has been disrupted by shortages of key components and the first phase will not be ready until 2026. US government research suggests an eventual target for electricity costs of as little as $45 a MWh. Other companies working on engineered geothermal, such as those in Cornwall in Britain and the Upper Rhine Valley in Germany, would be delighted to achieve those costs. If Fervo's technology is as good as it claims, geothermal seems likely to be a very useful addition to wind and solar electricity generation.
 
10, Vertical farming. Scotland’s IGS announced a big contract win in the Emirates. One of the unusual features of this huge vertical farm is its close integration with food waste processing being carried out by black soldier flies. All the water needed for the towers, and much of the fertiliser, will be provided from this source, avoiding 50,000 tonnes of waste going to landfill. This single large farm, producing two billion plants a year, will reduce the UAE’s food imports by 1%. As well as food, the farm will be the nursery for mangroves and drought-resistant trees and shrubs. In total, 250 varieties of plants, seedlings and saplings can be grown using IGS towers.  

Martyn1981

Snippet of news, which I'll update soon hopefully.

Viking Link, a 1.4GW interconnector to Denmark is/was scheduled to be commissioned in 2023. It's currently undergoing low power testing (both directions).

That will lift us from 8.4GW to 9.8GW. There's another ~5GW currently in the pipeline (cableline?) for 2024* to 2030.

*Greenlink, a 500MW connection between Ireland and Wales had a planned commissioning date of 2023, but now 2024.

Martyn1981

Sorry, finding lots of little items, that I think are worth mentioning.

So we have some big batt news from Aus, which may have been mentioned before, but the plans are huge. Potentially 1.2GW/2.4GWh, with phase one approved consisting 3 large batts totalling 600MW/1,600MWh. Interestingly, the total project may include some flow batts, with potentially 12hr storage. [Obviously all batts can run for longer, but duration is typically stated against the economic role/time for which they are being deployed.]

Australia’s biggest battery project changes shape as Equis reaches FID, begins construction

In total, phase 1 then includes 600 MW of battery power and 1,600 MWh of storage, involving an investment of over $1 billion (USD 661 million). The company said: “With the SEC’s equity investment of $245 million, Equis expanded its equity investment to over $510 million in MREH phase 1.”

Flow batteries to potentially come

Equis has, however, been approved for 1,200 MW of capacity at the MREH site. It says “the remaining 600 MW is currently being developed with longer term storage solutions of up to 12 hours.” It is reportedly considered flow battery technologies to meet this long-duration target.

And who can resist wind farm repowering news, especially when they throw up fun stats of less turbines but more power.

RWE repowers German wind farm

At the site in the Paderborn district in North Rhine-Westphalia, only two wind turbines are now in operation instead of the original nine while electricity production has also been doubled, to 11.4MW.

At the Lengerich site, the company is replacing the old 1.8MW turbine with a 5.7MW version.

The company is replacing a total of 17 wind turbines in Lesse and Barbecke, in Salzgitter and in the district of Peine, with a total capacity of 30.6MW, with 11 turbines with a total of 61.8MW.