1️⃣ Japan Eyes Replacing Oil With Hydrogen Amid Carbon Neutral Push - The import terminal in the city of Kobe, is slated to get its debut hydrogen shipment in March. Over the next 30 years deliveries of the zero-emission fuel are expected to ramp up exponentially as the world’s fifth-biggest polluter seeks ways to replace its heavy fossil fuel use and meet a pledge to become greenhouse gas neutral by 2050.

2️⃣ Iwatani Corporation of America and Toyota Collaborate to Bring Seven New Hydrogen Refueling Stations to Southern California - Toyota will support Iwatani's plans to significantly expand the number of open retail hydrogen fueling stations by nearly 25 percent in Southern California and represents an increase of 6,300 kilograms per day of hydrogen fuel dispensing capacity. Construction of the new stations is anticipated to commence in early 2021 followed by commissioning of the first stations by midyear. All seven stations will be open to the public, providing hydrogen fuel to consumers in support of the rapidly growing demand for zero-emission fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs).

3️⃣ Decarbonization efforts driving low-carbon hydrogen solutions in US, globally - Despite challenges such as transportation costs, hydrogen markets are expected to grow over the next couple of decades for power generation and transportation applications, experts said Nov. 10.

 

1️⃣ EPIK’s Newcastle GasDock LNG project to include LNG bunkering - “The addition of LNG bunkering is a logical extension of the Newcastle GasDock project and will allow our customers to take advantage of LNG’s demonstrated environmental benefits, helping to reduce carbon emissions globally and dramatically reducing marine emissions locally,” said EPIK Managing Director, Jee Yoon. “Given the Port of Newcastle’s considerable industrial marine traffic and proximity to Sydney, our project provides an ideal platform to add LNG bunkering operations.”

2️⃣ US LNG Shipping Needs Almost Twice Global Average, Says GasLog - “U.S. exports are the most shipping intensive as the distance to most major discharge destinations is above the global average,” said GasLog CEO Paul Wogan during a third quarter conference call. During the third quarter, he said about 2.5 ships were needed for every 1 million metric ton (mmt) of exported gas, “nearly twice the global average.”

3️⃣ LNG to meet South American gas demand as Bolivian gas exports decline - According to a Rystad Energy report, Bolivian gas exports are set to become a scarce commodity in the coming years, creating supply challenges for importers Argentina and Brazil.

4️⃣ CMA CGM to Expand LNG-Powered Fleet to 26 Vessels - Container shipping group CMA CGM will expand its use of liquified natural gas (LNG) to 26 vessels, it said on Thursday, as part of efforts to reduce pollution in ocean shipping. After announcing three years ago that it would adopt LNG, French-based CMA CGM has made several orders for gas-powered ships and now plans to have 26 such vessels in service by 2022, it said in a statement.

 

1️⃣ Fuel Cell Cars: A Commercial Failure - The IDTechEx report “Advanced Electric Cars 2020–2040” forecasts fuel-cell cars globally through 2040, and finds they continue to be a commercial failure for the next two decades. While fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) have been on the table as the long-range zero-emission vehicles to challenge the battery-electric vehicle (BEV), they have major drawbacks.

2️⃣ Military vehicles to be equipped with General Motors hydrogen fuel cells - A new General Motors hydrogen fuel cell vehicle is in development for use by the military. This is a major step forward for the automaker that has been working on the release of a number of all-electric vehicles.

3️⃣ EV Battery Tech Signs Definitive Agreement to Supply a $100M EcoVille Development Project with ESS Solutions for Renewable Energy, Buildings and EV Charging Stations - EcoVille develops eco-communities by bringing together innovative technologies that enable communities to achieve self-sufficiency and carbon neutrality. Currently, EcoVille is developing projects in Squamish and Vancouver, British Columbia.

1️⃣ CIP swoops on 1600MW of US pumped hydro - Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) has acquired a 400MW and a 1200MW pumped hydro project in the Pacific Northwest in the US. The 400MW Swan Lake and 1200MW Goldendale projects are located in Oregon and Washington respectively. The closed loop pump storage hydro projects were previously owned and in development under a joint venture between Rye Development and National Grid. Swan Lake secured its 50-year Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) license in 2019.

 

1️⃣ “Israel's greatest resource isn't natural gas, it's solar power” - “This is a wonderful opportunity for the State of Israel to become a global power in green energy,” Dorit Banet, CEO of the renewable energy company Eilat-Eilot said during a panel about going carbon free at Calcalist’s Cleantech conference.

2️⃣ Nuclear vs Solar The Race For Renewable Dominance - Back in October, Texas GOP Rep. Dan Crenshaw opined that solar and wind "don't work," calling them "silly solutions." Instead, nuclear energy would be a "far better energy resource than solar and wind if [Democrats] cared about zero emissions." Crenshaw will likely be challenged on this - quite seriously.

3️⃣ Renewable Properties Begins Construction on Lake Herman Solar Project - After nearly two years of development, planning and preparation, Renewable Properties, a developer and investor of small-scale utility and community solar energy projects throughout the U.S., has begun construction on the Lake Herman Solar Project in Benicia, Calif. The 5 MW AC (7 MW DC) utility-scale solar energy project located in Solano County is the first to qualify for MCE’s Feed-In Tariff (FIT) Plus program. FIT Plus is an expanded wholesale energy supply program designed to provide competitive and predictable energy prices over 20-year terms for locally developed renewable energy assets.

 

1️⃣ PSA Marine Sets Sights on European Offshore Wind - Singapore-based integrated marine services provider PSA Marine has secured a three-year EUR 30 million equivalent sustainability-linked loan from DBS Bank.

2️⃣ 2020 could be a record year for U.S. wind turbine installations - According to data collected by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), project developers expect more than 23 gigawatts (GW) of wind turbine generating capacity to come online in the United States in 2020, far more than the previous record of 13.2 GW added in 2012.

1️⃣ NETL to award $13M to GTI and partners to advance carbon capture technology - GTI and partners, The Ohio State University, Wyoming Integrated Test Center (ITC), and Trimeric Corporation (Trimeric), have been selected for award on a project to advance Ohio State’s transformational membrane technology to provide step-out reductions in CO2 capture cost and energy penalties.

2️⃣ Total, ADNOC in Carbon Capture Pact - French oil major Total and Abu Dhabi's oil firm ADNOC have signed agreements to jointly work on opportunities in the areas of CO2 emission reductions and carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS). "The agreement brings together the best-in-class in low carbon technologies from ADNOC and Total, and expands on the long-standing partnership and collaboration between the two leading energy producers across the full value chain," Total said in a statement.

3️⃣ Dairy farmer turns to sequestration for carbon removal - With the UK Government committed to reducing greenhouse gases by 80% on 1990 levels by 2050 (Climate Change Act 2008), many industry sectors are taking a close look at their operational methods and how they can play their part in helping to reach this target. 

4️⃣ Limiting climate change now requires carbon capture, study says - Even if we stopped emitting greenhouse gas today, the Earth would continue warming for centuries. Arctic ice and permafrost are already on an irreversible path of melting. That's the finding of new research published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports. The model suggests that even if emissions were to drop to zero this year, global temperatures would ultimately rise to be 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit higher in 2500 than they were in 1850 (that's 3 degrees Celsius).

 

1️⃣ Standard Hydrogen Partners with EnfraWaste to Turn Plastics into Zero-Emission Fuel - Standard Hydrogen Company, Inc., has signed a joint venture agreement with EnfraWaste to create a new corporation called Standard Hydrogen Canada, Inc. As part of the agreement, Standard Hydrogen Canada will initially produce more than 140 metric tons of zero-emission hydrogen daily from non-recyclable plastics. Toronto-based EnfraWaste and Standard Hydrogen Company will each own 50% of the new entity, a corporation licensed to build and deploy hydrogen plants throughout Canada.

2️⃣ Vattenfall and Viridor team up to capture energy from waste heat for UK cities - The plan is to collect waste from communities, recycle it into clean heat and deliver it through pipes developed and operated by Vattenfall to homes and businesses. According to official figures, heating in buildings is responsible for around 37% of the UK’s carbon dioxide emissions.

3️⃣ Environmentally friendly method could lower costs to recycle lithium-ion batteries - A new process for restoring spent cathodes to mint condition could make it more economical to recycle lithium-ion batteries. The process, developed by nanoengineers at the University of California San Diego, is more environmentally friendly than today's methods; it uses greener ingredients, consumes 80 to 90% less energy, and emits about 75% less greenhouse gases.

1️⃣ 'No time to waste' on climate change says Prime Minister as he prepares UK plan of action - A ten-point plan expected to focus on alternative energy sources and promising green jobs is due within the next week.

2️⃣ Water industry unveils multi-billion pound 2030 net zero vision - UK water companies have drawn up a joint roadmap to rapidly decarbonise the industry within a decade, today unveiling a multi-billion pound plan to harness green gas, renewable power, electric vehicles, and nature-based climate solutions to deliver net zero emissions across the entire sector by 2030.

3️⃣ EU's lending arm approves 1 trln euro green plan - European Union governments approved a 1 trillion euro ($1.2 trillion) green "roadmap" for the bloc's lending arm on Wednesday that will see it stop financing fossil fuel projects and airport expansions, though climate groups said it did not go far enough.

4️⃣ UK launches green jobs taskforce - The UK government has launched a new green jobs taskforce to support the creation of 2 million skilled jobs to reach net zero emissions by 2050. The taskforce will “set the direction” for the job market, including in offshore wind, as the UK transitions to a high-skill, low carbon economy.

 

1️⃣ What's Next for Renewable Power Purchase Agreements? - Last year, more than 100 corporations across 23 countries used renewable power purchase agreements to buy a record amount of clean energy. Denver-based Holland & Hart energy partner Rochelle Rabeler enumerates factors that will help shape the evolution of PPAs in the near term.

2️⃣ What are carbon credits and how can they help fight climate change? - To limit global warming to 1.5°C, in line with the Paris Agreement, we need to cut current greenhouse-gas-emission levels in half by 2030 and reduce them to “net zero” by 2050. But what about activities that can’t be made carbon-free? One answer is carbon credits. By paying someone else to either reduce their emissions or capture their carbon, companies can compensate for their environmental footprint and even, in the most ambitious cases, use carbon credits to get to carbon-neutral status.

1️⃣ Australia shows reality of renewables beating the hopes of gas - Australia is turning into an example of what happens when the market leaves policymakers behind, with renewable energy attracting the investment dollars even as the conservative government clings to its vision of a natural gas future.

2️⃣ The world needs lithium. Can Bolivia’s new president deliver it? - The lithium dream is not dead. In fact, it’s bigger than ever. But whether Arce’s administration can succeed in developing Bolivia’s lithium riches — and do so in a way that benefits Bolivian workers and frontline communities — remains uncertain.

3️⃣ UK poll reveals huge public backing for renewables - New statistics unveiled today by the UK Government show the vast majority of people support renewable energy. The latest Public Attitudes Tracker, published by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, shows 80% of people support the use of renewable energy, while only 3% oppose it.

4️⃣ Turkey to rank 5th in Europe for renewable energy growth in 2020 - Turkey will rank fifth in Europe this year for increasing its renewable power capacity, which is forecast to add 22.2 gigawatts (GW) by 2025 to reach 66.8 GW, according to an Anadolu Agency (AA) report on Thursday which cited data from the International Energy Agency's (IEA) Renewables 2020 report published this month.

5️⃣ Oil CEOs believe a demand recovery is coming, but volatility is here to stay - “We face a lot of uncertainty,” Total CEO Patrick Pouyanne told an invitation-only gathering of more than 30 senior oil and gas executives, who met virtually on Wednesday for the Abu Dhabi CEO Roundtable. “We all hope that demand will recover as quickly as possible,” Pouyanne said. “Nobody knows exactly how long it will take to get out of the pandemic, when we’ll have this vaccine, and how long it will take to reopen the global economy,” he added.

6️⃣ German-Dutch interconnector expansion project delayed - The expansion project at a 850MW interconnector between the Netherlands and Germany has been delayed again to next year, transmission system operator TSO Tennet said.

 

1️⃣ Norway's Odfjell Tanker Company Commits to Zero-Emission Ships by 2030 - Odfjell the Norwegian chemical tanker and ship management company is setting ambitious targets to reduce its environmental footprint. The company announced today that it will undertake an effort designed to reduce its carbon intensity by 50 percent by 2030 compared to 2008 levels and have a climate-neutral fleet from 2050. Both targets the company said go beyond the goals set by IMO and contribute to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

2️⃣ Petrochemical Company Braskem Commits to Ending Plastic Waste - The largest polyolefins producer in the Americas and leading producer of biopolymers in the world, today announces its latest sustainability ambitions to significantly expand its efforts to eliminate plastic waste in the environment by 2030 and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

3️⃣ Green Deal: Good for a climate-neutral Europe - bad for the planet - Europe is to become the first climate-neutral continent by 2050 - this goal of the "Green Deal" was announced by the EU in late 2019. Carbon emissions shall be reduced, while forestation, agriculture, environmentally friendly transport, recycling, and renewable energies shall be pushed. In Nature, scientists of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) now show that this "Green Deal" might be a bad deal for the planet, as the EU will outsource environmental damage by high imports of agricultural products.

⚡ Have any comments? Hit the Reply button! ⚡

An email with a couple of words and/or the poll below will go a long way towards improving your #cleantech update!