Ever get the sense that the Government giveth with one hand and taketh with the other? In a long expected but much delayed announcement last weekend DEFRA said that England and Wales would get compulsory weekly food waste collections from 2026. For the AD industry, definitely a “giveth”.
COMPANY NEWS
Northvolt eyes US$20bn Stockholm IPO
Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt plans to list its shares in Stockholm, eyeing a valuation of around US$20 billion, according to the Financial Times.
Investment banks have been invited to pitch for roles in the initial public offering (IPO), with Rothschild advising on the process.
Founded by former Tesla executives in 2017, the company could go public as early as next year, although plans remain preliminary.
Andreas Pettersson Rohman, Northvolt’s head of corporate finance, indicated that the company has been preparing for over a year, the paper said.
Northvolt has received significant financial backing from investors such as Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) Asset Management and Volkswagen.
It raised €1.2 billion in convertible bonds from investors, including BlackRock, earlier this year. (batteries-news)
phot: Northvolt
Agrivert expands into solar PV and storage with new acquisition
Renewable energy operator Agrivert has expanded it’s offering to include solar photovoltaics and battery storage following the acquisition of Chiltern Solar Limited.
Chiltern Solar, founded in 2011, is an MCS-certified independently run business designing, supplying and installing solar PV, as well as battery storage and EV chargepoints, undertaking “well over 1,00 installations” in the past five years, according to the company.
Specialising in producing biomethane to generate renewable energy by engineering and operating anaerobic digestion facilities that treat food waste and agricultural wastes, the acquisition will allow Agrivert to extend its product offering to include solar PV, battery energy storage systems, and electric vehicle charging solutions to both domestic and commercial customers throughout the southeast of England. (solarpowerportal)
UK NEWS
UKPN inks EV charging deal with ubitricity
UK Power Networks (UKPN) has signed a two-year agreement with electric vehicle charge point operator ubitricity to implement a pilot programme that will shift EV charging away from peak times.
UKPN said that the programme will run across a number of its public EV charge points, shifting a “significant portion” of network utilisation for EV charging away from peak times. The programme also actively manages the charging schedule of its chargepoints and uses ubitricity’s smart charging solution, allowing customers to schedule charging sessions to pause during peak hours from 4-7pm during winter. Therefore, the programme can reduce strain on the electricity grid during periods of high demand.
The news follows UKPN launching a flexible electricity tender earlier this month, offering 850MW for bidders in London, east and southeast England as well as covering demand turn-up and demand reduction across 452 different zones.
UKPN said this tender offers energy storage operators, renewable energy plants and generators opportunities to create new revenue streams by ensuring that the region’s power distribution infrastructure is not overloaded and renewable energy is prioritised. (current-news)
Enviromena completes major equity raise of £65 million
Clean energy solutions company Enviromena has announced a £65 million equity raise supporting a portfolio target of over 500MW.
The equity raise, supported by investors Arjun Infrastructure Partners, will provide the Reading-based company the support to grow its constructed and operational UK solar portfolio to over 500MW by 2025.
Enviromena will also use the funding to grow its self-developed ground mount solar pipeline – which currently features 400MW of projects with planning proposals set to be submitted with the next six to nine months – to over 2GW by 2025. (solarpowrportal)
photo: Environmena
UK to revamp EV charging infrastructure rules
The government is advancing its efforts to establish future transport regulations with a focus on zero emission vehicles.
Following a recent consultation, the Department for Transport plans to update local transport plans.
This involves integrating local electric vehicle charging strategies and providing charging points by local transport authorities (LTAs).
The government also seeks the authority to issue directives to LTAs for this purpose.
Additionally, there will be continuous monitoring and evaluation of charging infrastructure in non-residential car parks, with a commitment to reviewing legislative powers if they are deemed insufficient. (futurenetzero)
Tesla’s first Supercharger deal is a $100 million sale to BP
BP is buying $100 million of Supercharger hardware from Tesla, making it the first company to purchase DC fast-charging equipment from the automaker for use in a third-party charging network. The sale is going to the oil and gas conglomerate’s EV charging business known as BP Pulse, which plans to invest up to $1 billion in building a nationwide charging network by 2030, including $500 million over the next two to three years.
Tesla’s equipment can charge at up to 250kW and features a Magic Dock connector to connect using the standardized North American Charging Standard (NACS) plug from Tesla or a CCS Combo attachment that supports most other EVs. The press release doesn’t mention whether the deal covers Tesla’s updated V4 Superchargers, which are only just starting to roll out in the US. (theverge)
EV OF THE WEEK
The Li Mega takes super-fast charging to another level
Li Autos is yet another Chinese brand that is gathering a following. They are known for big, well specced plug-in hybrids, but the aptly named Mega is their first full electric. It is a stretched MPV that looks not unlike a cross between a Tesla Cybertruck and a beached whale. What is very special about this car is that it runs on the new Qilin semi-solid state battery made by CATL. This battery pack will allow charging at up to 500kW, if you can find a charging station (hint: you can’t in the UK. The fastest is 350kW). In theory the whole pack should recharge in 12 minutes!
I’m not sure when or if we shall see the Mega in Europe. Li Autos are certainly ambitious, there is talk of a $2bn float in the USA soon.
Photo: Li Auto
EUROPEAN STORIES
Thyssenkrupp Uhde awarded contract by ENOWA to supply a green methanol
Thyssenkrupp Uhde has been awarded a contract by ENOWA, NEOM’s energy and water company, for engineering services and the supply, design and procurement of equipment for a new CO2-to-methanol and methanol-to-gasoline demonstration plant at ENOWA’s Hydrogen Innovation and Development Center (HIDC) in Saudi Arabia. The plant is a joint development of ENOWA and Aramco and will use the innovative uhde® green methanol process and ExxonMobil’s fluidized bed methanol-to-gasoline process. The plant will produce 12 tons of methanol and 35 barrels of gasoline per day.
Methanol produced from hydrogen and carbon dioxide can be used as an energy carrier, a hydrogen carrier and a transport fuel, as well as to store electric power generated from renewable energies. It can also be used as a climate-friendly feedstock in the chemical industry for a large range of products, including plastics, paints and varnishes, building materials, clothing, pharmaceutical products and disinfectants. (energycollective)
NGK’s first sodium-sulfur battery installation in Eastern Europe
NGK Insulators, manufacturer of batteries and storage system based on sodium-sulfur (NAS) chemistry, has announced the commissioning of its first system deployed in Bulgaria.
The 500kW/2,900kWh (5.8-hour duration) NAS battery-based energy storage system has gone into operation at the production site in Kostinbrod, western Bulgaria, of Rollplast, a maker of windows, doors and blinds.
It marks the Japan-headquartered industrial ceramics firm’s first deployment in Eastern Europe for its proprietary ESS technology, designed for medium to long-duration energy storage (LDES) applications.
The tech has been deployed in the field for more than 20 years, logging almost 5GWh of cumulative installations across roughly 250 projects. NGK claims the NAS battery uses abundant raw materials such as sulfur, sodium and aluminium oxide, as well as specialty ceramic separators which the company itself makes. (energy-storagenews)
FOCUS ON: LANDSCAPE REMEDIATION
How New York City Turned the World’s Biggest Garbage Dump Into a Park
When NYC Parks Commissioner Robert Moses selected Freshkills, in Staten Island as a landfill site after World War II, it was a wetland. The plan was to build housing on top of it after three years. But New York was growing fast, and all the new trash needed to go somewhere. The site accepted as many as 29,000 tons of garbage daily, which consumed more acreage and created a mighty stink. After many lawsuits, the city began its transformation.
Garbage compacts, creating shifting surface conditions. In North Park, the trash has been sculpted into four hills arranged around a tidal creek open for kayaking. There are roughly six layers of soil, sand and plastic lining on top of the garbage to prevent toxic leaks, including a vent layer, which moves any escaping landfill gas—a combination of carbon dioxide and methane—into pipes.
More than 500 former US dumps have been turned into energy projects that transform landfill gas into fuel. Far beneath the 2,200 acres of Freshkills’ grass and soil, a gas collection system vacuums out the landfill gas and sends it to a purification plant, where it undergoes methane removal. The city sells 1.5 million cubic feet of this treated biogas to the local utility, which distributes it to Staten Island homes for cooking and heating. (bloomberg)
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
GLOBAL STUFF
Masdar Signs 1GW Clean Energy Agreement in Azerbaijan
Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company PJSC – Masdar has signed agreements for solar and onshore wind projects with a total capacity of 1 gigawatt in Azerbaijan, following the inauguration of the region’s largest operational solar plant, the 230MW Garadagh Solar Park. The strategic agreements cover the progression of the first phase of a 10GW pipeline of renewable energy projects in Azerbaijan signed in June 2022. This follows the successful development of Garadagh, Azerbaijan’s first foreign investment-based independent solar power project, and the largest solar plant in the region. (renewableenergymagazine)
Bangladesh to get EUR 400m in EU funds for renewables
The European Investment Bank (EIB) has agreed to extend a financing package to the government of Bangladesh that would contribute to the installation of 750 MWp of new renewable energy capacity in the South Asian country.
Specifically, EIB will provide an EU-guaranteed loan of EUR 350 million (USD 369m) alongside a blending support package of EUR 45 million that includes technical assistance and an investment grant. (renewablesnow)
TECHIE CORNER
Ultramicro Supercapacitor: A Game-Changing Energy Storage Marvel
Researchers at the Department of Instrumentation and Applied Physics (IAP), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), have designed a novel ultramicro supercapacitor, a tiny device capable of storing an enormous amount of electric charge. It is also much smaller and more compact than existing supercapacitors and can potentially be used in many devices ranging from streetlights to consumer electronics, electric cars, and medical devices.
Compared to batteries capacitors can store electric charge for much longer, by virtue of their design. For example, a capacitor operating at 5 volts will continue to operate at the same voltage even after a decade. But unlike batteries, they cannot discharge energy constantly – to power a mobile phone, for example.
Supercapacitors, on the other hand, combine the best of both batteries and capacitors – they can store as well as release large amounts of energy, and are therefore highly sought-after for next-generation electronic devices.
Current capacitors typically use metal oxide-based electrodes, but they are limited by poor electron mobility. Therefore, the team decided to build hybrid FETs consisting of alternating few-atoms-thick layers of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) and graphene – to increase electron mobility – which are then connected to gold contacts. A solid gel electrolyte is used between the two FET electrodes to build a solid-state supercapacitor. The entire structure is built on a silicon dioxide/silicon base.
Once the supercapacitor was fabricated, the researchers measured the electrochemical capacitance or charge-holding capacity of the device by applying various voltages. They found that under certain conditions, the capacitance increased by 3000%. By contrast, a capacitor containing just MoS2 without graphene showed only an 18% enhancement in capacitance under the same conditions. (sciencedaily)
