After more than 700 episodes of Titbits*, I think I get a feel for broad trends appearing in this space. I am definitely stumbling apon more articles in the sector I am calling Natural Capital, so am adding a bespoke section for these stories. It is an indicator of the broadening of the energy transition/environmental agenda. Another trend I am watching is the rapid adoption of zero carbon technologies in emerging markets. Both of these rising trends are of huge significance to the transition.
*Should anyone want to search the database, last five years of Titbits can be found HERE, with a keyword search for topics of interest.
COMPANY NEWS
Schneider Electric purchases IRA tax credits from solar manufacturer
Schneider Electric has purchased clean energy tax credits from solar photovoltaic module manufacturer Silfab Solar, with sustainable finance tech company Crux facilitating the transaction, the companies announced this week.
The purchase was made through the Schneider Electric Sustainability Business, exchanging Silfab’s 45X advanced manufacturing tax credits for funding the solar panel manufacturer will use to expand North American operations.
The deal is made possible due to the transferability provisions included in the Inflation Reduction Act, which allows clean energy manufacturers to trade earned tax credits for cash. (utilitydive)
photo: Crux Climate
UK NEWS
UK Government proposes expansion of UK ETS to include waste sector
The UK has operated its own Emissions Trading Scheme (UK ETS) since the start of 2021. Prior to this, it was a participant in the EU’s ETS. The scheme currently covers the aviation, power and industry sectors.
This week the Government has announced two consultations to expand the scope of the scheme, calling on stakeholders to provide input.
The first consultation addresses the inclusion of energy from waste and waste incineration.
Starting in 2028, the scheme will require fossil CO2 emissions from these sectors to be included. There will be a two-year phase-in period beginning in 2026, during which emissions will be monitored, reported and verified without the obligation to purchase or surrender allowances until full inclusion in 2028. This initiative is designed to incentivise the adoption of decarbonisation technologies and carbon capture within the industry.
The second consultation explores how UK-based engineered greenhouse gas removal (GGR) technologies, such as direct air carbon capture, can be integrated into the UK ETS. (edie)
NatPower Marine and Peel Ports Group to establish ‘green shipping corridors’
NatPower Marine has announced a £3 billion clean energy port plan. It will invest £100 million across Peel Ports Group’s UK and Irish ports to develop the ‘UK’s first’ commercial electric ship charging network.
Investment in Peel Ports’ network is the first step in NetPower Marine’s plan to build a global charging network with 120 ports by 2030. The network will support electric propulsion and cold ironing, the process of accessing clean power while docked.
The collaboration will see this infrastructure installed at all eight ports operated by Peel Ports. The plan also includes installing electric car, van and HGV chargers for commercial EVs passing through the ports. (current-news)
Photo: NatPower Marine
Uber to offer £5,000 grants to drivers who switch to electric cars in London
Uber is rolling out a generous £5,000 grant for its London drivers who make the switch to an electric vehicle (EV), as part of its ambitious plan to have all Uber cars in the capital go fully electric by 2025.
Drivers can use this grant either as a lump sum towards buying an EV or as weekly instalments for rental or rent-to-buy schemes. Additionally, Uber has negotiated discounts ranging from £12,000 to £17,000 on selected EVs exclusively for its drivers.
Currently, about a quarter of all Uber journey miles in London are covered by electric vehicles. With over 100,000 Uber vehicles across the UK and about half of them in London, the impact could be significant. (daily-mirror)
Octopus Energy launches money-saving “plunge pricing” for EV charging
UK electric vehicle (EV) drivers will soon be able to take advantage of cheaper public charging when green energy is abundant, as energy supplier Octopus Electroverse launches “Plunge Pricing”.
These “Plunge Pricing” events take place when there is a high supply of cheap renewable power to the grid, coupled with low demand. EV drivers will receive discounts of between 15% and 45% per kWh for charging their cars at these times. According to Octopus Electroverse, which operates over 700,000 chargers in the UK and Europe, “Plunge Pricing” could save EV drivers up to £250 a year using this new service. (current-plus)
EV OF THE WEEK
Callum Skye first appears in public
Callum are a British design and engineering company, who have turned their hand to making a bespoke EV. The Callum Skye looks to me like a reworking of the dune buggy concept for the EV age. It is designed to be a rugged all-terrain coupe with all-wheel-drive. It will run on a 42kWh battery which should be good for about 170 miles, but can be specified with super-fast charging. Thanks to lightweight construction it promises lively performance, quoting 0-60mph in under 4 seconds. The design is modular so clients will be able to specify a more urban or more rugged configuration, and the company are keen to stress that the build quality will be exceptional.
The launch was held this week in that hub for outdoors activity, Savile Row (outdoor activity-wear maybe?). Order books are now open and pricing is between £80,000 and £100,000.
Photo: Callum Designs
EUROPEAN STORIES
Johnson Matthey & Thyssenkrupp pledge to advance blue ammonia
Global demand for ammonia is estimated to grow to more than 600 million metric tonnes by 2050 due in part to its greater ease of storage and transport when compared with pure hydrogen. Operators of industrial processes, plus power generators and shipping lines are looking with increased interest at the compound. Its low carbon variant is predicted to meet two-thirds of ammonia demand by mid-century, implying an estimated market size for low carbon ammonia of over $200 billion.
Johnson Matthey reckons its patented LCHTM technology captures as much as 99% of the CO2 released in producing ammonia. Combined with JM’s autothermal reformer, or in conjunction with JM’s gas heated reformer, the LCH method has been selected for early and prestigious blue hydrogen projects such as BP’s 700MW H2Teesside hydrogen plant, and the 600MW H2H Saltend project undertaken with Equinor and German company Linde.
Thyssenkrupp Uhde brings to the partnership its unique uhde® dual pressure technology. (theenergyst)
France Names Winner of Country’s First Large-Scale Floating Offshore Wind Tender
In 2021, France opened the first tender for a commercial floating offshore wind project off the south of Brittany with a capacity of up to 270 MW.
The tender brought together ten candidates pre-selected by the Commission for Regulation of Energy (CRE), on the basis of their technical and financial capacities,
On 15 May 2024, the BayWa r.e. and Elicio consortium were announced as winners of the AO5 tender to build the Pennavel floating offshore wind farm. The offer proposed by the consortium amounted to EUR 86.45 per MWh and was selected following the examination of all projects by the CRE. (offshore-wind)
FOCUS ON: HARD TO ABATE SECTORS
Rice Has a Methane Problem That a Startup Is Promising to Fix
Rice is responsible for about 10% of global methane emissions, due to the way it’s grown. The crop is largely grown in flooded fields as a weed-avoidance practice, since other grasses aren’t adapted to live under flooded conditions. The water cuts off soil and organic matter from oxygen, which leads to the production of methane, a gas that has 80 times the near-term global warming potential of carbon dioxide.
Rize, a Singapore based startup, plans to tackle this issue by helping farmers use a simple technique called alternate wetting and drying, which involves drying out rice paddies for brief periods throughout the season. As the rice canopy grows, it becomes safe to dry out the field and thus reduce methane emissions. It’s a proven technique, but farmers aren’t implementing it because they have no incentive to, according to Ben Runkle, an associate professor at the University of Arkansas’s Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering.
Rize gets around that hurdle by selling farmers seeds, fertilizer, pesticides and other inputs for a slightly lower price than local farm stores in exchange for implementing the practice. It can offer a lower price by buying those supplies in bulk at wholesale discounts that smallholder farms can’t get.
Rize has raised $14 million in Series A funding, a round co-led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, GenZero, Temasek and Wavemaker Impact. (bloomberg) 
photo: Creative Commons
UK breakthrough could slash emissions from cement
Cement is an essential building material but its manufacture has a uniquely polluting chemistry. It is made by heating limestone to up 1600 Celsius in giant kilns powered by fossil fuels.
Those emissions are just the start. The heat is used to drive carbon dioxide from the limestone molecules, leaving a residue of cement.
Add both these sources of pollution together and it is estimated that about a tonne of carbon dioxide is produced for every tonne of cement.
A team of scientists, from Cambridge University, has found a neat way to sidestep those emissions. It exploits the fact that you can reactivate used cement by exposing it to high temperatures again. The breakthrough is to prove it can be done by piggybacking on the heat generated by another heavy industry – steel recycling.
When you recycle steel, you add chemicals that float on the surface of the molten metal to prevent it reacting with the air and creating impurities. This is known as slag. The Cambridge team spotted the composition of used cement is almost exactly the same as the slag used in electric arc furnaces and they have been trialling the process at a small-scale electric arc furnace at the Materials Processing Institute in Middlesborough.
They are calling it “electric cement” and described the event as a world first. They believe that its manufacture could be almost zero-carbon. (bbc) 
Arc furnace photo: Creative Commons
NATURAL CAPITAL
Government beefs up Sustainable Farming Incentive
The government has today confirmed a major update to its Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) scheme, expanding the number of activities farmers and landowners can undertake to curb their environmental impacts and qualify for subsidy payments.
Defra said that from July the SFI will be open to new entrants for the first time and will offer payments linked to 102 actions that have been designed in collaboration with the agricultural sector, including over 20 new options to support more sustainable food production.
Specifically, the expanded scheme will provide payments for farms undertaking precision farming, agroforestry, or a range of measures designed to boost biodiversity and climate resilience. The government will also introduce a new and expanded offer for upland farmers and more actions that can be undertaken by tenants on short-term contracts. (businessgreen)
Last-ditch effort to save EU’s Nature Restoration Law
Environment ministers from 11 EU countries have made a joint appeal to save the Nature Restoration Law from the scrapheap.
A letter signed by Environment Minister Eamon Ryan and 10 of his counterparts calls on countries that withdrew support for the law to get behind it, before it is too late.
The landmark piece of legislation, aimed at restoring degraded land and sea habitats to health, received majority backing in the European Parliament, so its passing into law was expected to be a ministerial rubber-stamping exercise.
However, a last-minute U-turn by Hungary and faltering by other countries meant it was left off the relevant agenda in March, throwing its survival into doubt.
They wobbled after a backlash from farming groups that led to demonstrations in multiple countries and riots outside EU institutions in Brussels.
Opponents say the law would take land out of use and restrict farming activities, even though it states any change of farming practices would be voluntary and compensated.
With a new parliament to be voted in following European elections next month, it has one last chance to be signed into law – when a final ministerial council meeting takes place on June 17. (irish-independent)
Can ‘rock weathering’ help tackle the climate crisis and boost farming?
There is an urgent need for farming to curb its greenhouse gas emissions, with farmers also under pressure to be more sustainable. One suggestion could help with both problems: spreading crushed volcanic (basalt) rocks on fields to help capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
It is a sustainable fertiliser; basalt is rich in minerals, so the rock powder increases soil fertility by feeding nutrients needed for plant growth. Trials at the universities of Newcastle and Sheffield (see HERE) have shown that crop yields are improved, without any ill-effects on the environment or the plants.
This process of capturing CO2 mimics a geological process called weathering. When it rains, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is absorbed by the falling rain, and when the rainwater reaches the ground it reacts with basalt rocks to form inert carbonates, which are eventually washed into the sea where the carbon stays permanently locked away on the seabed.
Many parts of the UK are rich in volcanic rocks, which can be easily ground up into powder and scattered over fields. (guardian)
Migratory freshwater fish populations ‘down by more than 80% since 1970’
Migratory fish populations have crashed by more than 80% since 1970, new findings show.
Populations are declining in all regions of the world, but it is happening fastest in South America and the Caribbean, where abundance of these species has dropped by 91% over the past 50 years.
This region has the world’s largest freshwater migrations, but dams, mining and humans diverting water are destroying river ecosystems. In Europe, populations of migratory freshwater fishes have fallen by 75%, according to the latest update to the Living Planet Index. (guardian)
photo: Walter Baxter / Creative Commons
GLOBAL STUFF
Ethiopia set to become first country to ban internal combustion cars
Ethiopia spent nearly $6 billion to import fossil fuels last year — with more than half of that spending going to fuel vehicles. In response, Ethiopia’s Transport and Logistics Ministries have announced that automobiles cannot enter Ethiopia, unless they are electric.
Many states have announced bans from 2035, but Ethiopa is not hanging around, it wants to ban ICE vehicles now.
According to a news update from the parliament, Alemu Sime, the Ethiopian Minister for Transport and Logistics, announced the completion of the nations Logistics Master Plan Monday. Details were scarce, but he has announced that, “a decision has been made, that automobiles cannot enter Ethiopia unless they are electric ones.”
Sime further explained that efforts to establish charging stations for electric cars remain a high priority, and offered that the nation’s inability to access favorable foreign exchange resources has contributed to its inability to afford to continue importing gasoline and diesel. (elektrek)
The First Electric School Bus Fleet in the US Will Also Power Homes
In an industrial corner of Oakland, wedged between a 10-lane freeway and a freight terminal, sits California’s newest source of renewable energy: a squadron of shiny yellow electric school buses. It’s the first all-electric bus fleet serving a major US school district. Starting in August, the 74 vehicles will also supply 2.1 gigawatt-hours of electricity to the Bay Area power grid, enough energy for 300 to 400 homes.
The buses are expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 25,000 tons annually in a city where 72% of public school students come from low-income families, who are disproportionately impacted by pollution from Oakland’s busy port, truck traffic and manufacturing facilities. Alameda County, where Oakland is located, has some of the nation’s worst air pollution, according to an American Lung Association report released this month.
Oakland’s electric buses are provided by Zūm, a Silicon Valley startup that now manages the school district’s fleet, as well as those in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Seattle and other US cities. Zūm began to add electric buses to its fleet in 2022 and about 10% of the company’s 3,000 buses are now zero-emission. As Zūm converts more of its fleet to battery power, Oakland offers lessons for other districts on how to ditch diesel and help pay for electrification by using buses to provide power to the grid. (bloomberg)
photo: Zum
How Airborne Dust Is Helping the Southern Ocean Soak Up Our Emissions
A new study published in Nature reveals the extent to which airborne dust is fuelling plankton blooms that absorb our emissions.
In total, the world’s oceans take up around a third of our carbon emissions, and of that, the Southern Ocean absorbs the lion’s share. Most of the carbon dioxide simply dissolves into the water, but some is consumed by phytoplankton. When plankton die, they sink deep into the ocean, locking away carbon for decades or centuries.
Like us, phytoplankton need iron, and in the Southern Ocean they draw a good measure their iron from dust that arrives on winds from Australia, Patagonia, and southern Africa. Until now, however, it wasn’t clear to how much phytoplankton depend on this dust.
To find out, scientists deployed a fleet of floating robots to measure levels of nitrate, another key nutrient for phytoplankton, at more than 13,000 locations across the Southern Ocean. When nitrate levels dropped, they inferred, it was because a plankton bloom had gobbled it up.
Comparing plankton blooms with a model of the westerly winds that deposit dust into the sea, scientists determined that dust supports around a third of the phytoplankton growth in the Southern Ocean. The findings were published in Nature. (yale360)
TECHIE CORNER
Desalination breakthrough uses sun, not electricity
Researchers at the Australian National University have developed a new approach for desalinating water that does not use electricity.
The method uses solar energy and can be deployed in remote locations, even in low-income countries.
With freshwater shortages seen in multiple parts of the globe, countries are turning to seawater and desalinating it to meet their water demands.
The World Bank estimates that as many as 300 million people in 150 countries depend on desalination for their water needs. The drawback is that desalination is highly energy-intensive.
The researchers use a phenomenon called thermodiffusion, a temperature gradient to move salt from the warmer to the colder side to bring about desalination. In this process, water remains in the liquid phase, and no energy is spent turning it into vapor and cooling it back.
In a technology demonstrator, the researchers used a narrow channel for the seawater. They sandwiched it between two plates maintained at different temperatures. The top plate was heated to over 60 degrees Celsius, while the lower plate was cooled to 20 degrees Celsius.
The channel was a little over one and a half feet long, and low-salinity water emerged from the top while high-salinity water emerged from its bottom. After a single pass, cooler and saltier water was removed, and warmer and less salty water was put back into the setup.
Each pass saw the water’s salinity decrease by three percent, and using multiple cycles, the salinity decreased from 30,000 parts per million to less than 500 ppm.
Interestingly, the heat needed to carry out the process can come directly from sunlight or even waste heat generated during industrial processes. (interesting-engineering)
photo of Guantanamo Bay Desalination Plant: Wikimedia Commons
