One of the great pioneers of the digital and clean energy age, John Goodenough died this week, aged 100. He won the Nobel Prize in 2019 for his work developing the lithium-ion battery, a transformative technology if ever there was one. He also became the oldest winner of the award and quipped that he was … Read More
There is a place in the Net Zero world for each of these three: CCS, Nuclear (large and small) and hydrogen, but one must be realistic and not saddle them with the expectation that they can solve the problem. I have covered CCS and nuclear recently. This week we have a good summary of the … Read More
Regular readers will see that battery tech stories are pretty frequent here, which points to the ongoing battles to continue to deliver more powerful and more cost effective batteries. The exponential growth prospects for EV’s and energy storage depend on this. One approach is to develop batteries like the sodium-ion one, below, that avoid the … Read More
In another sign that sanity is slowly returning to this country it is encouraging to hear that the Environment Secretary has confirmed that the Environmental Land Management scheme will start to roll out as originally planned next year. Not a moment too soon. COMPANY NEWS Ineos in talks with Rolls-Royce to build mini-nuclear power plantIneos, … Read More
I suppose that any revolution has its casualties, but it is still sad to see electric van pioneer Arrival join BritishVolt in the intensive care ward. COMPANY NEWS Equinor and Hitachi Energy formalise collaborationEnergy company Equinor and technology company Hitachi Energy have signed a strategic collaboration agreement. It includes developing standardised base designs for transmission … Read More
So, we have survived the Spring Statement, which could have been better but could have been worse. Now we need to see some proper green initiatives with money backing them from the Energy Security Strategy. Now that we can get loans and zero VAT for domestic heat pumps, I thought a quick buyers guide might … Read More
This week we have all the elements of a complete zero-carbon package: Offshore wind, long term storage, hydrogen, heat pumps, plastics recycling, methane abatement. Look no further Company news Sony and Honda discuss alliance to build EVsHonda and Sony announced that they’re exploring the possibility of entering a joint venture for developing and building electric … Read More
Telstra story is interesting. I hope that Telco’s moving into energy services is more successful than their move into media twenty years ago Company news Morrisons acquires ‘significant stake’ in soft plastics plantMorrisons said the plant in Fife has an “initial capacity” of 15,000 tonnes and will process hard-to-recycle soft plastic – including chocolate wrappers, … Read More
The Trump years created such an air of despondency within the environmental industries that we felt that it would take years to recover the lost ground. Team Biden seem to be doing a great job of helping lift the gloom by moving quickly to reverse the harmful legislation and doing so with a purpose. Company … Read More
I seem to have run into a lot of sea related news this week, possibly driven by the controversial documentary on Netflix called Seaspiracy. I haven’t seen it yet but it has stirred up strong emotions. George Monbiot and others have praised it for pointing the finger towards the real mass killers of the sea, … Read More