Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

NedS

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82150234#Comment_82150234

Just a shame we are not able to do anything similar in the UK, as the DNO's own and operate substations and their operating licence does not permit them to own or operate any generating equipment (including BESS), only to distribute. There is a complete lack of joined-up thinking in the UK with too many disparate groups involved in our energy systems. You'd think DESNZ could sort the mess out, but apparently not (feeling frustrated).

Martyn1981

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82150790#Comment_82150790

Yep, frustrated here too, ever since you explained this issue to me. I've been passionate about the idea of sub station batts, and all the benefits they could bring (such as greater PV export limits), for many years.

Maybe this idea/shift in Germany will prompt a review in the UK. More PV allowed for the summer, and a way to store excess winter wind. Plus shifting it at night when demand on the transmission network (and the distribution network) is lower.

Martyn1981

Carbon Commentary newsletter from Chris Goodall:

1,Electricity or hydrogen for heavy trucks?

Watch a video of Tobias Wagner (@electrictrucker) describe his itinerary for a one year trip around the world in a Daimler electric truck. This astonishing German trucker want to prove to a sceptical world that batteries can power even the heaviest road vehicles. He’s driven hundreds of thousands of kilometres in electric trucks around Europe and from today, Sunday 25th September, takes on the challenge of driving to China, Australia and then from north to south America.
But even as Tobias heads east, the major manufacturers have decided to focus renewed attention on trucks powered by hydrogen, not batteries. They announced last week a plan to expand the number of hydrogen refuelling stations and deploy 800 trucks. Have they not noticed that latest data indicates that nearly 30% of heavy duty trucks in China are already electric and the percentage is growing rapidly? That battery truck exports from China rose 800% in the most recent period? Don’t they see the analogy with the rapid incursion of reasonably priced EVs into the European market over the last few years? Batteries will probably dominate all forms of road transport within a decade or so and only determined electrification now will slow China’s incursion into overseas markets. (Thank you to Andrew Wainwright)

2,Polyester recycling still a small fraction of virgin plastic production, and percentage share falling slightly.

World production of textile fibres rose about 6% in 2025. The industry provided about 17 kilos of fibre per person, double the level of 1975. Polyester dominated production, staying at just under 60% of fibre output and producing about 1-2% of global emissions. Only about 12% of textile fibre output came from recycled polyester, predominantly from plastic bottles. Full textile to textile recycling is still a tiny fraction of production at about three quarters of one per cent, although this has risen slightly in recent years. As I commented in the last newsletter, the textile industry has made little progress towards decarbonisation or shaving the growth of fibre manufacture.

3,How much does the world need to spend on grids?

The latest International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) report showed that the rate of investment in electricity transmission and storage will need to approximately double to meet the 2030 targets set at the 2023 COP. The world spent about $525 bn on power storage and grids in 2025 and this will have to rise to over a trillion by 2030, or somewhat under 1% of global GDP. In addition, investment in renewables will have to triple from 2025 levels to substantially more than 1% of global GDP. IRENA also pointed out that energy efficiency gains remain disappointing slow, running at about 1.7% a year compared to the 4% it says is needed. With average global GDP growth running above 3%, energy demand is continuing to rise.

4,Rapid growth in the number of Sustainable Aviation Fuel projects using clean hydrogen (eSAF)

The last weeks have seen a striking number of deals that will expand the availability of eSAF over the next few years. Of course the amounts still only cover a small fraction of total fuel needs for aviation but the trend is clearly upward. Danish startup Arcadia eFuels and Uniper signedan agreement in which Uniper commits to buying 40,000 tonnes of eSAF, or over 50% of Arcadia’s output from a proposed factory in Denmark.Verso, a French company, will use a biomass electricity plant in Normandy as the source of its CO2. It has signed an agreement with Q8 but volumes and prices weren’t disclosed. In South Africa, Phelen Green said it had reached a final investment decision on a 35,000+ tonne eSAF plant. Multiple global buyers backed Infinium’s plant in Texas with long-term purchase commitments for 100,000 tonnes a year. It does look as though the EU’s rules obliging increasing percentages of SAF in aviation fuel are succeeding at developing the industry.

5,How much underground hydrogen is there, and how much is it likely to cost?

An article in Nature indicatesthat $500m has been committed by venture capitalists to explore for the hydrogen produced by natural chemical processes and which has accumulated underground. (This figure is probably a significant underestimate; Kolama, a US company raised $400m on its own to fund US, Australia and Philippines exploration). One study suggested that many trillions of tonnes could be present underground, although only a small fraction of this could be mined economically. Current hydrogen demand is about 100 million tonnes a year, but this will rise as H2 replaces fossil fuels in some applications. A French entrepreneur working in the area suggests that underground exploration companies are aiming for costs as low as $1/kg (about 3 US cents per kWh), a figure that is far lower than today’s natural gas prices and a fraction of current green hydrogen levels. He also says that France has several regions where exploration is likely to be particularly productive.

6,The largest European agrivoltaics plant was completed

A 227 MW site across 400 hectares in Sicily combines agricultural plots with solar panels raised 3m above the ground. The developer has also planted 38,000 trees and constructed 14 wells. It promises over 4 tonnes of honey production in addition to conventional crops.
Amazon has contracted to buy 2/3 of the power output from this scheme. This scheme is probably one of the largest in the world outside China and demonstrates the increasing viability of mixed food and solar power production.

7,Support in UK declining for Net Zero

A UK opinion survey showed that public support for ‘Net Zero’ has fallen below 50%. In 2019, 60% approved but only 46% now. The fall has been concentrated in those ‘strongly approving’ of the policy with support nearly halving to 15%. 28% now ‘neither approve nor disapprove’, up from 22%, while the percentage disapproving has risen from 8% to 19% since 2019. Nevertheless, the slow march for net zero continues and this week Germany’s cabinet reaffirmed its 2045 target in a formal roadmap of how it intends to achieve fossil fuel phaseout. Features include 70 gigawatts of offshore wind, up from 10 GW today and 400 GW of solar power, more than tripling today’s figure. The country is looking at closing all coal power stations by 2035 rather than the current 2038 target.

8,Enhanced rock weathering (ERW) investments

Brazil is the focus of large scale projects to use crushed rocks on farmland to capture carbon dioxide. ERW can also significantly raise agricultural outputs. Very fine grains of rocks such as basalt react with the carbon dioxide in rainfall, ultimately resulting in greater carbon storage in oceans. Terradot announced it had contracted with Google to capture a million tonnes of CO2 in rice growing areas in southern Brazil by 2040. In addition, periodic drainage of the rice paddies will cut methane emissions substantially. (Rice cultivation is a major source of CH4 emissions).
Another leading competitor, InPlanet, said it had obtained financing for ERW across Brazilian farmland that will remove nearly 30,000 tonnes by 2028. InPlanet has already spread 200,000 tonnes of crushed basalt dust and until the new Terradot deal was the largest competitor in ERW. High temperatures and raised humidity increase the speed of CO2 capture by rock dust making Brazil a logical leader in the new industry.

9,Plant-based diets are to the food system what EVs are to transport.

A petrol car converts around 20% of the energy in its fuel into motion. Protein in food from chickens similarly only contains about 20% of the protein that had been ingested by the bird. But an EV converts about 85% of its electricity into motion and, similarly, a plant-based diet also gives approximately 85% of the protein to the eater. (I saw this comparison in a posting by Prof. Paul Behrens).

10,Some responses from readers to the previous newsletter.

I wrote about a process for obtaining hydrogen from breaking down plastics. (Note 2). Marc Muré wrote to estimate that the weight of H2 arising from this process would be as little as 2% of the original waste. I hadn’t put an estimate in the note and after research I conclude that Marc is correct. In Note 1 of the same newsletter I wrote that although sodium ion batteries are heavier than lithium equivalents, one Chinese manufacturer will use these batteries for the low voltage applications in one of its ranges of cars. A reader wrote to say in that CATL was already claiming energy density equivalence between lithium and sodium ion batteries and therefore that hybrid battery packs would probably be a technological dead-end. He concluded that sodium ion will probably be the dominant battery type across a wide range of applications including EVs.

QrizB

(This probably fits here better than the main Energy forum, but it's not entirely clear-cut.)

Ars Technica has an interesting article about a demand-response system that runs in New York City, using Bluetti power stations to time-shift electrical demand for plug-in air conditioning.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/how-i-kept-cool-with-nycs-free-battery-program-for-window-ac-units/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

I've been looking at these for car camping use (the other option is to buy an EV with V2L, but that's a bit spendy). The Bluetti units have an option in the app to time-shift loads, and it looks like the NYC scheme uses some sort of central server to coordinate it.