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
wind
Lidar/flexibility/wind/bacteria/hot rocks thermal & focus on the Supreme Court
Life in the UK can hardly get more exciting: a coronation one weekend, the Eurovision the next! In the spirit of the current weirdly camp national mood I would draw your attention to an entertaining video produced by Vattenfall to promote the only by-product from the manufacture of Green Hydrogen, namely water. They enlist supermodel … Read More
DRS/UK Net Zero Review/vanadium flow batteries & focus on long term energy storage
Re-reading this week’s ‘bits, it occurs to me that if the Government were to implement enough of the recommendations of Chris Skidmore’s review, we would be a lot less likely to suffer disasters such as British Volt. COMPANY NEWS Lightsource bp closes first tax equity deal with Wells Fargo for 481 megawatt solar portfolioLightsource bp … Read More
agrivoltaics/district heating/plant based protein/Barcelona Bicibus
I had hoped to report plenty of good news on renewables coming from our new PM, but we may have to wait for that.Looking elsewhere there is good news around, such as the record amounts of renewables being generated both here (see below) and in Europe. Also good news from an unlikely source: Chris Giles, … Read More
battery optimisation/solar/solid state batteries & focus on Sweden
Enjoy a few minutes of politics free reading COMPANY NEWS Lloyds is UK’s first bank to shun fossil fuelsLloyds Banking Group has become the first full-service British bank to walk away from directly financing coal, oil and gas projects.New North Sea greenfield oil and gas developments permitted after 2021 now fall outside the banking group’s … Read More
blue hydrogen/fracking/EGS/private equity & focus on virtual power plants
Does the Government really want to restart fracking in their Red Wall constituencies, or is it all just a ruse, a virtual stick to poke us Woke-y’s with? COMPANY NEWS Iberdrola sells share of wind farm for €700mIberdrola has signed an agreement with Swiss investment firm Energy Infrastructure Partners (EIP) for the sale of a … Read More
private wire/BECCS/landfills/the Arctic & focus on nuclear fusion
Will the real Kwasi Karteng please stand up: this week our Energy Secretary has bemoaned the use of imported biomass at Drax saying that it is not sustainable and “makes no sense to me”. The next day he announces a new consultation from the govenment to encourage Bioenergy with carbon capture (see below). His stance … Read More
rooftop solar/curtailment/battery efficiency/flooding & focus on food waste
My wife showed me a piece this week in Remodelista about a gorgeous off-grid hut in Majorca HERE which included a novel power system: In fact the architect, Mariana de Delás makes an interesting point: the wheelbarrow contains power banks which run all electrical requirements in the hut, which involves wheeling the power to the user.. … Read More
banks & pensions/hydrogen island/wooden wind turbines & focus on permafrost
So, we do have a windfall tax on oil companies in the UK, but the not-an-emergency budget has left hanging the prospect that electricity generators might be hit too, which would undoubtedly affect renewables investment and, yet again nothing on energy efficiency. Company news Polestar invests in extreme fast charging battery company StoreDotPolestar has made … Read More
IEA/wind turbine blades/hydrogen/lithium metal
Regular readers will know the exasperation that each successive report from the IEA generates. Every year they have to upgrade their forecasts for renewables sales and downgrade the costs. Imagine our surprise when they finally stop playing catch-up and publish their Net-Zero roadmap (see below). Do not underestimate the significance of this. Despite their failings … Read More