From the green perspective the Chancellor’s autumn Statement was more notable for what he didn’t say rather than what he did. There was help for Corporate investment and a promise to cut grid delays (see below).
However, there was nothing to help energy efficiency in homes, no address towards the looming Carbon Border Mechanism being instigated by the EU and certainly no sign of any UK version of the IRA or EU’s Green Deal.
COMPANY NEWS
Piclo plans global trades for 2024
Trading platform provider Piclo is readying for launch a product that will enable its clients to trade flexibility capacity on global markets.
Starting in the UK next year, its new Piclo Max endeavour will offer sellers and buyers of flexible electricity a one stop shop for all electricity markets internationally.
The platform is designed to match flex sellers, those commanding quantities of surplus power, up with system operators, enabling an increasingly thriving flexibility market.
The firm says Piclo Max is its response to widespread calls from flex sellers to tackle barriers to market entry. It could constitute a significant step towards a fully flexible electricity system. (theenergyst)
Nissan set to expand UK electric vehicle manufacturing
Nissan expected to confirm plans to make electric versions of its two most popular cars at its flagship plant in Sunderland.
The BBC reported that the Japanese auto giant is to announce its new electric Qashqai and Juke models will be made at the same site that has pioneered the development of the all-electric Leaf.
The plans, which are backed by a report £1bn of investment, are expected to help preserve around 6,000 jobs at the site.
The Nissan investment is particularly significant as it follows the automakers’ decision last year to expand its Sunderland battery plant, which remains the only large-scale battery factory in the UK. The production capacity gives Nissan access to batteries that should make it easier for it to avoid new tariffs on cars exported to the EU that fail to source 45 per cent of their components by value from the UK or EU. (businessgreen)
photo: Nissan
UK NEWS
Grid Connections Action Plan: overhaul will cut connection times
The UK government and Ofgem jointly published the Grid Connections Action Plan this week, to coincide with the Autumn Statement, outlining an overhaul that could release 100GW of capacity from the connections queue and cut average connection times from five years to six months.
Detailed within the Action Plan, one of the biggest changes is the decision to move away from the current “first ready, first served” approach. Replacing this will be a “first come, first connected” approach to ensure speculative and slow projects are removed from the queue.
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) will also work with the Office for Investment on a “triage process” that will ensure that the most “strategically important” projects receive the strongest support from the government when applying for a grid connection.
The transition away from the “first come, first served” approach is expected to be a welcome change for the energy industry with many having argued that it has led to a build-up of non-viable “phantom” projects – around 62GW according to Centrica – that have “clogged” the transmission entry capacity (TEC) register. This in turn has prevented concrete developments from progressing.
In fact, the implementation of this new method will cut the average connection timeline from five years to just six months, Ofgem said. (current-news)
Carbon-capturing algae pilot set for British train station
The train operator London North Eastern Railway (LNER) is working with science and technology startup Algacraft to assess the feasibility of scaling the use of microalgae bioreactors to capture carbon across its network of stations and tracks.
A five-month-long set of feasibility studies has already been completed, proving that microalgae can grow outdoors without temperature controls and can effectively capture carbon from the air on a small scale.
Now, LNER and Algacraft will collaborate to assess whether installing the bioreactors on disused land adjacent to the railway at Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland, will be possible.
Each bioreactor occupies approximately the same amount of land as two parking spaces. Algacraft claims that its technology could be up to 400 times more efficient than tree planting in terms of carbon capture benefits. (edie)
Swansea factory, solar farm and transport hub plans progress
Plans for a huge £4bn renewable energy project in Swansea that could see a busy park and ride site transformed into a “green energy transport hub,” the creation of a huge high-tech battery making facility, and the expansion of solar farms have taken a major step forward.
If planning permission is approved, the tired Fabian Way park and ride site would be turned into a modern transport hub with electric vehicle charging points, restaurants and flexible working areas, and, potentially, a hydrogen manufacturing station for hydrogen-powered transport.
Plus, a new factory making high-tech batteries that store renewable energy would be built on the former Morrissey site, and solar farms at the old Tir John landfill site near Port Tennant would be extended, creating one of the UK’s largest solar energy generating facilities, Swansea Council has said. (walesonline)
photo: Swansea Council
EV OF THE WEEK
Peugeot launches the E-3008 mid-size SUV in the UK
Peugeot and parent Stellantis prefer to launch electric versions of existing models rather than bespoke EV’s. The first such iterations worked well as EV’s but did betray the compromises such a strategy demanded, such as balancing space and range considerations within existing designs.
The new E-3008 is, to an extent, the first of the next generation of Stellantis EV’s. It has a drivetrain that will appear on many Vauxhalls, Citroens, Fiats and Jeeps. It offers front wheel drive, standard and long range configurations plus a performance four wheel drive. It joins many other “sportback” e-SUV’s, but maybe don’t sneer, as the original 3008, despite being late to the market won many fans and transformed the fortunes of the manufacturer. This update ticks most of the boxes in terms of range, looks, interior quality etc.
photo: Peugeot
EUROPEAN STORIES
On-board ammonia cracking system generates pure hydrogen
Spanish hydrogen transport solutions provider H2SITE has commissioned the world’s first on-board ammonia cracking system, generating high-purity hydrogen coupled with a PEM fuel cell which is used to produce electricity for the ship’s auxiliary consumptions.
The company shared the milestone this week, explaining that an integrated membrane reactor was installed and operated on board the BERTHA B supply ship sailing the shores of the Gulf of Biscay.
H2SITE said its membrane reactors ensure that all the ammonia is transformed while delivering high-purity hydrogen to the fuel cell in a single process step. (offshorewind)
photo: H2SITE
FOCUS ON: COP28 & GLOBAL CARBON OFFSETS
A Global Carbon Market That Could Help Improve Offsets
Climate negotiators at COP28 may bolster carbon trading when they decide on rules for a new United Nations-overseen emissions market that can lower the cost of fighting global warming.
In Dubai, envoys representing more than 190 nations are set to discuss standards for credits that allow their holders to compensate for pollution at home by investing in projects elsewhere to cut emissions or remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The UN-sponsored program aims to ensure high quality credits within an internationally agreed framework, offering investors greater certainty amid concerns that some existing voluntary projects do little or nothing to curb climate change.
The idea of using cross-border carbon markets to accelerate the green transition is nothing new. The Kyoto Protocol in 1997 paved the way for the Clean Development Mechanism: a program once worth $8.2 billion per year that boosted aid flows to emerging countries needing help in curtailing emissions.
It allowed developed countries to use credits generated by cheaper greenhouse gas-cutting projects in developing nations to meet part of their pollution-reduction targets under the Kyoto treaty. After about six years of operation, prices collapsed close to zero in 2012 on concerns about the integrity of the projects and the European Union’s decision to limit the use of CDM credits for compliance in its domestic market.
The concept got a fresh boost from the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement: under Article 6, nations agreed to work toward a new global system of exchanging allowances covering greenhouse gases. In the following years, envoys worked on designing a robust financial instrument that would translate national emissions-reduction pledges into comparable, exchangeable units.
The framework needs to be flexible enough to attract investment, while also credible enough to avoid the issues that sank the CDM. Some investors hope that a strong framework could open the door for carbon credits under the new UN program to be accepted in national or regional compliance markets across the world, such as the EU Emissions Trading System. (bloomberggreen)
GLOBAL STUFF
Giant batteries drain economics of gas power plants
Giant batteries that ensure stable power supply by offsetting intermittent renewable supplies are becoming cheap enough to make developers abandon scores of projects for gas-fired generation world-wide.
The long-term economics of gas-fired plants, used in Europe and some parts of the United States primarily to compensate for the intermittent nature of wind and solar power, are changing quickly, according to Reuters’ interviews with more than a dozen power plant developers, project finance bankers, analysts and consultants.
They said some battery operators are already supplying back-up power to grids at a price competitive with gas power plants, meaning gas will be used less.
The shift challenges assumptions about long-term gas demand and could mean natural gas has a smaller role in the energy transition than posited by the biggest, listed energy majors.
In the first half of the year, 68 gas power plant projects were put on hold or cancelled globally, according to data provided exclusively to Reuters by U.S.-based non-profit Global Energy Monitor. (reuters)
Fike unveils new solution to suppress li-ion battery fires
Preventing thermal runaway – a rapid and dangerous release of heat and gases which can lead to fires in lithium-ion batteries – is the big conundrum plaguing both electric mobility and stationary storage industries. With battery thermal incidents a relatively new phenomenon, companies are wrapping their heads around suppression methods and the best ways of dealing with self-sustaining battery fires that are difficult to put out.
The latest company that claims to have found a solution to this issue is US-based Fike Corp. Its Fike Blue solution is billed as “the first tested and patented solution that not only suppresses the fire but also stops cascading thermal runaway.”
Fike has developed a tank with a liquid that has a boiling point of more than 400 C without breaking down. When a heat anomaly is detected, a releasing panel activates the cylinder to flow Fike Blue throughout the piping network. However, only in the module where the fire is located will the nozzle open and discharge the liquid, immersing the cells and absorbing the heat. The temperatures for all cells dramatically decrease over the course of several minutes until the event and chance for re-ignition is over. (pv-magazine)
Photo: Fike
‘Ocean drones’ can address offshore wind’s labour pains
Philipp Stratmann, president and CEO of offshore services and intelligence company Ocean Power Technologies, thinks that autonomous ocean vehicles have reached an “inflection point” similar to the steep increase in adoption of aerial drones a decade ago. He believes these ocean vehicles can help the U.S. offshore wind industry address labour shortages as it grows.
The Jones Act, a 1920 law regulating maritime commerce, is complicating the buildout of the U.S. offshore wind market. A February report by consulting firm McKinsey & Co. found that a lack of vessels equipped to haul turbines out to sea is endangering projects in development in the U.S., and Dominion Energy is currently constructing the nation’s first Jones Act-compliant wind turbine installation vessel.
A shortage of workers who are trained in both wind energy and maritime labour is also posing a significant threat to the industry. Stratmann said that shifting the work of surveying and monitoring offshore wind projects to autonomous vehicle operators means the industry can tap new labour sources, such as veterans. (utilitydive)
Unlocking Indonesia’s $22 Billion Green Plan
Indonesia has no shortage of projects that can tap into a $22 billion package put together by developed countries and multilateral institutions to help green its power sector almost a year ago but it’s going to take time to get funding flowing, according to a minister.
The country committed to retire coal plants early and increase investment in renewables under the so-called Just Energy Transition Partnership, or JETP.
Indonesia has identified more than 1,000 projects that can be part of the JETP, with the most important ones being transmission infrastructure that can enable more renewables and reduce the need for coal power. Most of the projects will produce attractive returns, but doubts surround the more marginal projects such as coal retirement and transmission upgrades.
This plays to and issue within Indonesia. Whilst the country is a world leading miner of nickel, used in the growing batteries industry, the mines need power from coal plants in order to operate. Switching to renewables would likely undermine the mines’ cost structure. (BNEF)
TECHIE CORNER
Ultra-White Ceramic Breaks Reflection Record
Scientists are busy working on ways of cooling buildings without using vast amounts of energy – such as the record-breaking, ultra-white cooling ceramic composite that’s been developed by researchers from the City University of Hong Kong.
It’s what’s known as a passive radiative cooling (PRC) material, and it can reach near-perfect 99.6 percent solar reflectivity, which is a record for this type of material.
It’s relatively easy and cheap to make, durable, and versatile too. The idea is that it can be put on a building roof and walls in order to keep it cool all by itself.
The team behind the cooling ceramic says that the material is able to remove more than 130 watts of heat energy per square meter when the Sun is at its highest, amounting to a significant cooling effect.
This material is inspired by the Cyphochilus beetle, which has bright white scales covering its body. Like the beetle’s scales, the ceramic makes use of a nanostructure that has pores similar in size to the various wavelengths of sunlight, meaning almost all of it is reflected back rather than absorbed.
At the same time, the ceramic achieves a high mid-infrared thermal emission of 96.5 percent, which means almost all of the heat being given off by a building can escape into the atmosphere. (sciencealert)
photo: City University of Hong Kong