The Ember Energy Report, featured below is fascinating. At its core it is telling an optimistic story of renewables growth on a global scale. That is very important. An example is the three disparate countries it identifies for praise in that they have harnessed high-level policy ambition, incentive mechanisms and flexibility solutions in driving renewables growth: China, Netherlands and Brazil.
On the flipside, particularly due to drought hindering hydro power, four countries were identified as having produced almost all the growth in coal power: China (again), India, Vietnam and Mexico.
UK NEWS
Waitrose to support 2,000 British farmers in shift to regenerative farming
Waitrose says it’s playing its part in a food system “revolution” after announcing it was supporting 2,000 British farmers move to more regenerative farming practices.
The supermarket has been piloting regenerative practices at its Leckford Estate farm in Hampshire, and now wants 2,000 of its supplier farms in the UK to adopt similar farming practices.
II has launched “Farming for Nature”, a pledge to work with British farmers on regenerative farming initiatives, as it looks to combat the impact of climate change.
The pledge will see Waitrose commit to sourcing its UK meat, milk eggs, fruit and vegetables from farms that use regenerative practices by 2035 as it looks to reach net zero across Waitrose’s UK farms by 2035, and the entire supply chain by 2050. (sustainability-beat)
photo: Waitrose Leckford Farms
UK scraps hydrogen town plan
The UK Government has announced the suspension of plans for a hydrogen town trial, delaying it until after 2026 as strategic decisions on the role of hydrogen in decarbonising heat are pending.
This decision comes after the government opted not to move forward with a hydrogen village trial in Redcar in December 2023.
The delay reflects a need for careful consideration regarding the future trajectory of hydrogen implementation, especially in light of alternative heat decarbonisation methods such as heat pumps and heat networks.
The government intends to make a comprehensive decision in 2026 on whether and how hydrogen will contribute to heating decarbonisation. (futurenetzero)
Defra says simpler bin collections will “reduce confusion”
New simpler recycling collections will see the same materials collected from homes, workplaces and schools, ending what Moore said is a “confusing patchwork” of different approaches across England.
Defra said that having listened to councils, who want to avoid bin-heavy streets while doing right by the local community, that councils will be allowed to collect plastic, metal, glass, paper and card in one bin in all circumstances.
Similarly, food and garden waste will also be allowed to be co-collected under the new approach.
Defra said that will “reduce confusion” over what items can be recycled, as it will no longer be dependent on specific councils, but nationwide. (letsrecycle)
‘Wasted wind energy costs Brits nearly £1bn’
Analysis by energy storage developer Field reveals that nearly three quarters of the UK’s total curtailment cost last year came from activating gas power plants in England and Wales, as grid limitations prevented the use of cheaper wind power from Scotland.
A significant portion of this expense stemmed from the B6 boundary on the Scottish-English border.
Field estimates this boundary could cause up to £2.2 billion in curtailment costs by 2030, totalling £3.5 billion across the UK.
However, optimising battery storage could reduce this expense by around 80%, potentially eliminating the need for additional gas power plants. (energylivenews)
EV OF THE WEEK
Electric off-road vehicle that fills an important gap in the market
The E-Tuatara 1500 UTV is a four-wheel-drive side-by-side off-road vehicle that Tuatara claims has a maximum range of up to 170km. It can be fitted with either one or two batteries delivering 12kWh or 21kWh and a charging time of between 5 to 6 hours at 12kWh.
This kind of vehicle should be well suited to an electric powertrain, as they are often used in parks, golf courses, farms etc where they do many short journeys. The key is, do they save the owners money? Here is an example:
Duxton Dried Fruits received a Victorian government grant to trial six Tuatara UTV’s, and to install a solar charging station at their Wemen vineyard near Robinvale in north-west Victoria.
The transition to fully electric UTVs means that Duxton can avoid the need for fuel trucks to come from out of town while simply reducing fuel usage, and all told is expected to save the company more than $10,000 in fuel costs each year.
The solar charging station features a 60kW rooftop mounted solar array and a 128kWh battery system. The solar system covers both the vineyard’s electricity consumption and the charging for the electric UTVs. (thedriven)
photo: Duxton Dried Fruits
EUROPEAN STORIES
World’s largest direct air capture plant switched on
Climeworks has launched Mammoth, the world’s largest direct air capture and storage plant, in Iceland.
This marks their second commercial facility in the country and is much larger than their previous one, Orca.
Mammoth, currently with twelve collector containers out of 72 planned, is expected to capture up to 36,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually once completed in 2024.
Using renewable energy (geothermal energy) from ON Power in Iceland, Mammoth captures carbon dioxide from the air.
After the carbon dioxide is removed from the filters, Carbfix, the storage partner, transports it underground. (futurenetzero)
photo: Climeworks
FOCUS ON: HEAT NETWORKS
Heat networks industry calls survey to map 35,000 jobs
As part of an initiative to support the creation of the estimated 35,000 jobs required, the Heat Networks Industry Council has announced a nationwide workforce skills survey.
35,000 is the number of jobs estimated as required in order to enable heat networks to supply around a fifth of the UK’s heat by 2050.
According to the Committee on Climate Change, to achieve net zero cost-effectively, low-carbon heat networks will need to supply around 20% of heat by 2050.
Growing the heat network sector to this level—from around the 2-3% currently supplied—offers substantial economic opportunities in job creation and will require some £60–£80 billion of investment. (current-news)
Worthing launches £500m heat network
Worthing, West Sussex, has unveiled an ambitious £500 million project – The Worthing Heat Network – in a bid to decarbonise heating across the entire town by 2050.
Partnering with Hemiko, a heat network investor, developer and operator, the scheme aims to revolutionise heating systems.
The Worthing Heat Network is identified in Worthing Borough Council’s Carbon Neutral Plan as the most cost-effective strategy to decarbonise buildings.
Hemiko will finance, execute, and manage the network, which involves the collection of local unused heat and its distribution through underground pipes to provide hot water to buildings.
This initiative is projected to reduce heating emissions by around 90%. (energylivenews)
photo: Hemiko
HIGHLIGHTING: IMPORTANT MARKET REPORT
Ember’s 5th Annual Global Electricity Review suggests a tipping point
Ember is a data consultancy that maps the transition from coal to renewables, and publishes an annual review that is free to all. The review collects data from 210 countries, which make up 95% of global electricity use. This year’s reports suggests 2023 was a breakthrough year in the transition, and goes so far as to suggest that 2023 may be the year of peak fossil fuel generation. Here are the key points:
**The world passed 30% renewable generation for the first time, driven by strong growth in solar (see graphic below).
**Fossil fuel generation would have declined for the first time by 1.1% but for the fact that multiple drought situations led to a fall in hydro-power’s contribution. Sadly much of the hydro shortfall was replaced by coal generation.
**Global demand growth slowed to 2.2%, helped by falling demand in OEDC countries (-1.4% in USA and -3.4% in EU). China’s 6.6% demand growth counteracted this. Drivers of growth are EV’s, heat pumps, air conditioning and data centres. These technologies will continue to drive growth in demand, but overall energy demand will decline as electrification is much more efficient than fossil fuels.
Read/download the report HERE
graphic: Ember
GLOBAL STUFF
Transition to e-fuels for shipping could create four million jobs worldwide
Analysis by the Global Maritime Forum, a non-profit led by experts from across the global shipping industry, estimates ramping up infrastructure and production capacity for low carbon shipping fuels such as green hydrogen and ammonia could unlock major economic and jobs benefits worldwide.
It presents a scenario in 2050 whereby e-fuels produced using renewable electricity and hydrogen power the majority of ships worldwide, estimating the transition to green fuels across the sector would require £3.2tr in cumulative investment over the next 30 years in clean energy, hydrogen, and e-ammonia infrastructure.
In such a scenario, demand for e-fuels in shipping could reach over 600 million tonnes a year by 2050, requiring up to 2TW of renewable electricity generation capacity to power the 1TW of green hydrogen production required to manufacture green ammonia at scale.
However, such significant investment would have a “dramatic” impact through the creation of green jobs throughout the supply chain for e-fuels, potentially unlocking four million new jobs in total by 2050, according to the report. (businessgreen)
World’s largest solar-powered truck charging depot, with 1.2MW chargers, opens in US
American trucking electrification experts WattEV have opened the world’s largest solar-powered truck charging depot, boasting 50 chargers including three 1.2MW megawatt rapid charging (MCS) chargers.
The new depot in Bakersfield is the fourth electric truck charging depot to be opened by WattEV, and is located to link San Joaquin Valley’s vast agricultural sector and growing warehousing complexes to California’s seaports and inland destinations.
Built across a 119-acre site and featuring a solar-powered microgrid and battery energy storage system, the Bakersfield truck charging depot features 32 grid-connected 360kW chargers as well as another 15 240kW CCS chargers and three MCS 1.2MW rapid chargers which are powered by the site’s microgrid. (driven)
photo: WattEV
The Southeast US Battery Belt Is Learning To Love EVs
Laid-off workers in the Southeast have a new option. As electric vehicle battery plants rise in the region, they’re accompanied by good jobs, and these jobs are better paying than any of the previous textile or furniture industry positions from years past. EV battery plants are reinvigorating areas left destitute by factory closures, to the point that the region has a new nickname: the Battery Belt.
Several multi-billion dollar battery and battery component factories have opened or been announced in Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. The growth of the battery industry isn’t happening in a vacuum, though. To realize the economic, environmental, and social opportunities that come with building a strong EV battery industry, Biden-Harris administration policies have been explicitly designed to return manufacturing and technology research, development, and production to the US. To spur growth, the administration launched the American Battery Materials Initiative alongside $2.8 billion in grants from DOE to build out the battery mineral and material supply chain.
Why particularly the south east? The region holds many advantages, for example there is plenty of land, good infrastructure (highways, ports etc), strong incentive regime as described, good access to raw materials (the largest lithium deposits in the USA) and historically the region does not have a heavy union presence. Beyond the giga-factories are also the ancillary businesses locating in the region plus R&D centres and automotive makers.
US DoE forecasts suggest that US production of batteries will increase 18-fold from 2021 to 2030. This is driven by the Democrats’ IRA initiative. It should make some workers in the red leaning southern states stop and think about who to vote for in the coming election. (cleantechnica)
photo: Toyota (battery factory in Liberty, North Carolina)
