It requires a pretty deep dig to find any green bits in the budget: some extra cash for offshore wind in the CfD auction. Nothing on home insulation, nothing on VAT for public EV charging, nothing on the Carbon Border Mechanism. A nothing budget.
COMPANY NEWS
bp allies with thin-film solar supplier Solivus
Solivus, a pioneering developer of lightweight solar solutions, has been awarded a three-year contract for the engineering, procurement, construction, and installation of solar PV systems for bp and its customers.
The purpose of the contract is for Solivus’ innovative thin film rooftop solar technology, designed by Heliatek, to be included in bp’s integrated energy solution portfolio.
Jo Parker-Swift, CEO of Solivus, expressed enthusiasm about the collaboration. “I have always found collaborations are the best recipe for success”, she said.
The collaboration between bp and Solivus marks a significant milestone in enabling Solivus to achieve their drive to help decarbonise the built environment. By leveraging Solivus’ innovative solar solutions and bp’s industry expertise and global reach, Solivus aims to accelerate the adoption of its renewable energy solutions. (theenergyst)
photo: Heliatek
UK NEWS
Project to convert Leeds and Liverpool Canal water into heat
A new £2.5 million project is set to use water source heat pumps to create power from Leeds and Liverpool Canal to heat homes and businesses.
The project, being developed by Peel NRE’s district heat network specialist Ener-Vate and built by Vital Energi, will see a heat pump installed within the Mersey Heat Energy Centre currently under construction at Peel Water’s Liverpool Waters at Princes Dock.
Set to be operational by Winter 2024, the Mersey Heat Energy Centre will provide low-carbon heat for over a fifth of homes in Liverpool. The water source heat pump will support the Centre in this aim via a 6km district heating network. (current-news)
photo: Peel NRE
RenewableUK and partners to tackle net zero barriers in planning system
A new collaboration between RenewableUK, CPRE and Aldersgate Group will examine the planning system and identify where changes are needed to facilitate net zero.
The organisations will “investigate how the policy landscape can enable the decarbonisation of our energy system whilst protecting landscapes, nature and communities’ right to input”.
The planning system has come under scrutiny in recent years, partially due to its role in preventing the development of onshore wind turbines across England. This is why the not-for-profit organisation Good Law Project launched legal action against the government in late January 2024.
By working with countryside charity CPRE and Aldersgate Group, an alliance of leaders from business, politics and civil society aiming to drive action for a sustainable economy, RenewableUK will be able to identify key areas to bolster decarbonisation prospects whilst also ensuring nature and communities are not negatively impacted by renewable developments. (current-news)
University of Edinburgh kicks off net zero forest and peatland restoration scheme
The University of Edinburgh has begun work on what is thought to be one of the largest nature-based offset projects undertaken by a UK university, confirming plans to expand woodland and restore peatland at sites near the city.
The University said that as part of its net zero strategy it was looking to fund nature-based carbon removals to offset emissions it could not yet eradicate at source. It is now working at a 431-hectare site overlooking the Ochil Hills in Stirlingshire and 26 hectares at Rullion Green in the Pentland Hills Regional Park near Edinburgh to plant trees and tackle peatland degradation.
The two sites are to be followed by work at further locations across Scotland, as the Universoity works to plant an estimated two million trees and restore at least 855 hectares of peatlands. (businessgreen)
Former UK coal-fired power station gets new battery
SSE Renewables has announced a partnership with Fluence and OCU Energy to develop a significant battery storage project at Fiddler’s Ferry, a former coal-fired power station site.
The project entails the construction of a 150MW/300MWh battery energy storage system, symbolising a transition from traditional fossil fuels to modern renewable energy solutions.
Construction is set to commence in the coming weeks following SSE Renewables’ final investment decision in December 2023. (energylivenews)
photo: SSE
UK sets over £1bn budget for sixth CfD allocation round
The UK Government has announced a budget exceeding £1bn for the contracts for difference (CfD) allocation round 6 (AR6) for renewable energy projects.
This is the largest budget allocation for a single CfD auction to date, and aims to support a range of renewable energy technologies.
The upcoming auction, the sixth of its kind, is scheduled to open for bids on 27 March 2024.
The AR6 budget notice outlines the allocation of funds across different technology groups, described as pots.
Established technologies such as solar and onshore wind, categorised as pot 1, will be allocated £120m, while £105m will be earmarked for emerging technologies including floating offshore wind and geothermal (pot 2).
The largest portion of the budget, £800m, will be allocated for offshore wind projects (pot 3). (powertechnology)
EV OF THE WEEK
Dodge Charger – EV with muscle car machismo
Any of you old enough to remember the cult 1971 movie Vanishing Point? This counter-culture road movie featured a taciturn Barry Newman, a blind DJ and naked girl on a motorbike and a white Dodge Challenger. Brilliant film, but, spoiler alert, it doesn’t end well for either Kowalski (Barry) or the car (HERE)
Don’t try that with the new Dodge Charger Daytona EV, which launches this summer. Unlike other EV’s where the launch is all about efficiency and range, this one was all about performance. Included in the package are “Power Shots” that can give the car extra boosts of 40bhp of power at a time. In fact it will do about 300 miles of range and 0-60 in 4.7 seconds. A “Barracuda” version will appear at the end of the year which will be even more powerful.
photo: Dodge
EUROPEAN STORIES
A new EU ecocide law ‘the end of impunity for environmental criminals’
An illegal toxic dump site in Croatia, the theft of water from a major aquifer in southern Spain, illegal trading of ozone-depleting refrigerants in France: This is just a sampling of the environmental crimes that European countries are struggling to stop. The lack of accountability for these acts stems in part from the European Union’s legal code, which experts say is riddled with vague definitions and gaps in enforcement. That’s about to change.
Last week, EU lawmakers voted in a new directive that criminalizes cases of environmental damage “comparable to ecocide,” a term broadly defined as the severe, widespread, and long-term destruction of the natural world. Advocates called the move “revolutionary,” both because it sets strict penalties for violators, including up to a decade in jail, and because it marks the first time that an international body has created a legal pathway for the prosecution of ecocide.
Environmental crime is estimated to be the fourth most lucrative illegal activity in the world, worth an estimated $258 billion annually, and it’s increasing every year, according to Interpol. (grist)
FOCUS ON: WAVE ENERGY
Wave energy to have a key role in realising the UK’s net zero ambitions
Wave energy is one of the world’s largest untapped renewable energy sources. This is about to change thanks to a recent commercial breakthrough from CorPower Ocean, combined with a new report from LUT University, demonstrating a key role for the technology in the UK’s future energy mix.
LUT University in Finland investigated a series of potential scenarios for the UK and Ireland to successfully transition towards a 100% renewable energy system by 2050. The best performing scenario in terms of managing energy system cost and security forecast that the UK should seek to harness 27 GW wave energy capacity.
With electricity consumption potentially trebling by 2050, the study shows the UK will need 27 GW of wave energy to reach the lowest cost, net zero energy system.
The report comes just days after CorPower Ocean announced a major industry breakthrough after completing the first cycle of the ocean commissioning for its first commercial scale device (see below).
Successfully verifying storm survivability and efficient power generation in normal sea states, CorPower’s C4 machine, deployed in the Atlantic off the coast of northern Portugal, has now overcome wave energy’s toughest historic challenges. (energyglobal)
Read that LUT report HERE
Wave-amplifying generator bounces twice as high as the swells
Sweden’s CorPower has announced “breakthrough” results from Atlantic ocean testing of its full-scale floating generators, which cleverly time their motions to amplify smaller waves while protecting themselves against dangerous storm conditions.
In a mechanical sense, this is a pretty standard looking anchored buoy point absorber type system; waves lift a floaty air-filled chassis up and down, and a power takeoff system within harvests energy by converting that linear up and down movement into rotation for running generators.
CorPower says it’s a novel phase control technology called WaveSpring that sets its huge C4 buoys apart. An internal pneumatic cylinder is pre-tensioned to pull the buoy downwards, such that in the absence of active control, the buoy simply sits still in “transparent” mode no matter how high the waves get. This acts as a safety mechanism under the worst conditions.
But when waves are more reasonable, things get weird and the C4 starts bobbing up and down twice as far as the amplitude of the waves, by adjusting the phase of its movements. That is, it doesn’t rise at the exact same time as the wave does, it lags behind to get a little extra energy boost, which propels it higher.
The effect makes a huge difference to power generation; CorPower claims a 300% increase in power generation compared to a similar buoy without Wavespring phase adjustments. (newatlas)
To understand how it works watch HERE
photo: CorPower
GLOBAL STUFF
EV Charging Stations Are Getting Busy Enough to Make Money in the US
Last year, the average utilization of a US fast-charging station not operated by Tesla Inc. doubled — from 9% in January to 18% in December, according to new data from Stable Auto Corp., a San Francisco startup that helps companies place EV infrastructure. Put another way: By the end of 2023, every fast-charging cord in the country was plugged in for an average of nearly five hours a day.
Rising usage isn’t just an indicator of EV uptake — Stable Auto estimates that a charging station must be pumping electrons around 15% of the time to turn a profit. In that sense, the surging utilization numbers represent scads of stations climbing into the black for the first time, said Stable CEO Rohan Puri. (bloomberg)
photo: Electrify America
Will a Dutch startup’s plan to restore Arctic sea-ice work?
Every winter when the temperatures drop, the IJsmeester (ice master) in villages around the Netherlands carefully starts to flood a field with water to form enough thin layers of ice to create a perfect outdoor skating rink.
Now a Dutch startup wants to use the same technique to help solve a major ecological problem: melting Arctic ice and its devastating effect on the climate.
For Arctic Reflections, the key aim is to boost the “albedo” – the whiteness of the ice – and its ability to reflect the sun’s rays back to the atmosphere. The Dutch startup’s other idea is to explore whether Arctic currents could spread ice thickened at strategic locations. So instead of needing as many pumps, they could potentially save 100,000 sq km of ice from melting in the summer with just 100 to 1,000 installations. (guardian)
TECHIE CORNER
Researchers develop sensors powered by ambient energy
A team at MIT have developed a sensor that can run without either a battery or a plug.
Since the self-powered sensor gathers energy from its environment, the experts envision its use in places that are difficult for people to get to, like the “inner workings” of a ship’s engine. There, it could monitor temperatures during operations, according to the researchers.
These temperature sensors can run on ambient energy, which is created from the magnetic field surrounding a wire that carries electricity. As an example, the MIT team said the sensor could be clipped to the wire that powers a motor, and it would then draw ambient energy to operate.
The design can draw power from other ambient sources, including vibrations and sunlight, per the lab report. As an application example, the researchers envision groups of sensors in factories gauging crucial metrics at a lower installation cost. (thecooldown)
