Talking Climate Tech 020 redux
Wind Propulsion Startups, British Steel, Actuary Alert, Big Mouse Brain and Pylon of the Month
🚢 Wind Propulsion Startups | ❤️ Steel Again | ⚠️ Alert Actuaries | 🐭 Mouse Brain
Issued to subscribers 18th April 2025.
Here we go, Talking Climate Tech 020!
It's a round number milestone 🤷♂️ what can I say - celebrate the small victories in life! 😆
💸 Startup News is back in the room this week after the sabbatical.
As always, the Orange One has barged his way into view and features again - let's hope one day the 💥 Trump Watch section can be banished to the sideline.
💸 Startup News
As this weeks article from me is focused on the maritime sector, and considers some of the challenges around the transition to future fuels for global shipping, I thought it interesting to have a look at some of the other efficiency measures that can contribute to emissions reduction.
Lots of options here, and it all counts, because it all has investment payback and saves on emissions penalties - a range of measures across Operations, Propulsion & Hull, Machinery, Energy Consumers and Energy Harvesters are considerable.
Benefits can be significant, especially when you start to look at emissions penalties on fuel:
What's interesting about these companies is that they are either founded by, or borrow significantly from people and technologies that have filtered down from the America's Cup - fascinating to see this as a former supplier to AC teams many tides ago.
All in a similar vein to more familiar F1 technologies and knowledge transfer, migrating into the general automotive sector.
🇬🇧 BAR Technologies - First out of the gate and is delivering significant market traction. Independent DNV study on Pyxis Ocean achieved energy savings of 32% in favourable conditions, Aug 23 - Mar 24.
🇬🇧 GT Wings - Raised approx £6m to date through grants and investment, earlier stage than BAR, significant partnerships and support from the likes of Innovate UK, MTC, High Value Manufacturing Catapult and wider UK ecosystem stakeholders.
🇫🇷 OceanWings - From AC to demonstrator in 2019, onward to cargo ships in 2023. Backed by OceanZero, BPI France among others for €30m to date.
🔎 Deeper Dive
Trump Watch 💥
What's going on Stateside this week? The usual slash on burn on 'the system' and democracy, of course! 💣
Those offshore wind licenses they tore up a couple [feels like a lifetime] of months back. Now they are into halting live projects - New York State's 800 MW Empire Wind Farm. More here. 🚧
What was the 9 GW for 2035 programme in offshore wind now only has 1 GW left in the pipeline. 🪁 ⬇️
Not sure the local supply chain, manufacturers, employees and investors, etc. will be quite so keen on this economic back-step, and that's before you even consider the benefits of clean power and emissions reduction for NY. 🤯
Trump vs more climate science via defunding here. 🔬
Trump vs law firms here - some crumbled, some holding firm 💼
Trump vs Harvard here - holding firm ✋ 👏
Trump vs insider trading here - but of course 🙄
Judge vs Trump here - the fightback is on! 🥊
Hold the line...
Sweet Grid Relief ⚡
Finally, some movement on one of the UK's biggest problems, the grid backlog. News here. 750 GW in the queue! x4 of the UK need for 2030 and x2 for 2050.
Connection times are into multiple years, see my new article on Shorepower connections 2032 in Southampton Docks.
If Those Guys Say So... 🚫 😱
Actuaries, those risk modelling reserved types, hiding behind the scenes, who set the tone for global finance and insurance, capital movements, etc. Well, they are starting to raise the red flag aggressively, and have been for a while. ❗❗
This is very, very bad. The Institute and Faculty of Actuaries don't throw headlines around for clicks - a summary of their latest statements and in-depth reports here. Everyone must pay attention to this, particularly Governments, corporations and Investors. 🌏
The global economy could face a 50% loss in GDP between 2070 and 2090 unless immediate policy action on risks posed by the climate crisis is taken... Current climate targets accept large amounts of largely unrecognised nature and societal risk. This includes accepting triggering multiple tipping points where climate change thresholds, once crossed, may be irreversible and limit our ability to control climate change. There is currently no realistic plan in place to avoid this scenario.
A big red button is flashing on complete global meltdown for the climate, society, food, finances, health, economies and security. 🌐
More big-money flag raising here from JP Morgan and Wall St.
Steel Again ❤️
A week feels like a long time at the moment, time enough for the UK Gov. to buy itself a steel plant by bailing out British Steel and grabbing back the Scunthorpe plant - before the Chinese owners let procurement of raw material slide, furnaces cool, and ultimately shut down the facility. 😮
Quite dynamic when they need to be, even working on a Saturday to push through legislation in the Commons & Lords. 😅
Lots of UK coverage on this, further reading if you missed anything - excellent summary coverage from various scientific and academic talking-heads - why the right-wing political rhetoric on Net Zero and Whitehaven Coal Mine is irrelevant; moving to Hydrogen-DRI and Electric Arc Furnaces for lower carbon steel in the future; why you can't let blast furnaces cool etc. 💡
❓Why it Matters
With so much curtailment from Offshore Wind and Scunthorpe's proximity to Dogger Bank and Hornsea wind farms, logic suggests we should be able to do something productive here. Interesting test of our ambitions in the UK to deliver;
▶️ Industrial decarbonisation
▶️ Pull the industrial growth lever
▶️ Security of supply on key infrastructure
▶️ Expansion of rail, construction and offshore wind local supply chains
▶️ Regional levelling-up
▶️ Utilise curtailment, costing approx £1bn per year
Big test now for the Government, industry, technologists, supply chain and academia.
What's this!? Oh yeah, that's my strategy for UK Gov and regional growth - pay attention Ed Milliband, although to be fair, he's probably reading this anyway - The East Coast Triangle.
Grimsby and Hull are key centres for East Coast offshore wind farm construction and operational support. Scunthorpe now could do with a big order book for steel - we also have the Celtic Sea project [4.5 GW] due in the South West, plus others.
Out in the North Sea are Hornsea [6 GW] and Dogger Bank [3.6 GW] wind farms. That's my green clean power HVDC cable into Scunthorpe [through Immingham, another big industrial and processing industry hub that needs a clean power clean-up] from the wind farms, to make use of some of that curtailment we keep paying for, and feed the EAF of the future steel works. Solved. ✅
Call me Ed.... ☎️
LNG Insights 📉
Like it or not, we are all bound to LNG and global gas market supplies and dynamics for some considerable time, although rapid electrification and alternative heat solutions will help steer us away from some of the geopolitical volatility.
If you want to get a handle on what's going on in that market, the economic trends and onward impacts, then you should check in on Seb Kennedy of Energy Flux.
Journalist and Analyst, he digs deep into the relationships of global gas markets, decarbonisation and political uncertainty.
I also watched a clip of him jousting with Jacob Rees-Mogg from a few months back on GB News, great stuff! ⚔️ 👏
Here's a snapshot of the insights you can expect...some big market moves in recent weeks:
The sell-off on the Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF) since February has been so deep and so fast that investment funds have neither the means nor the motivation to rebuild a bullish narrative.
The figures are quite astonishing. Since mid-February, hedge funds sold off a staggering 220 TWh of net length in TTF futures, or 75% of their total net position.
That’s equivalent to 22.5 billion cubic metres (Bcm) of gas, or the equivalent of the entire annual gas consumption of Poland — gone in just nine manic weeks of trading.
Seb Kennedy
Ember Electricity Review 2025 ⚡
Dive into the trends report, some great charts, I will look to bring you a couple more in the coming weeks. Hint, solar is going big in all locations. Highlights:
🏡 Konfab News
Video Interviews 🎙️
Progress finally! Interviews 2 and 3 are 'in the can' as they say 🙄, 4 and 5 are scheduled across the next couple of weeks...🔥
More Articles 📝
Here is the Part 1 review on the recent Maritime UK Solent - Coastal Powerhouse Summit, which I attended a couple of weeks ago in Southampton.
Dive on into Future Fuels, Decarbonisation and Onshore Power Supplies:
Kane Watkinson
Part 2 next week with a focus on Innovation and some of those startup pitches as part of the ABP Energy Ventures Accelerator - are they 🚀 or 💣 - we shall see!
😃 Good Stuff
Mouse Brain 🐭
Wondered how big a tiny mouse brain might be? Your query is solved courtesy of the Allen Institute - about this big:
Scientists created the biggest mammalian brain map ever — detailing just a cubic millimeter, or 0.2%, of a mouse brain. The 3D diagram captures more than 2.5 miles of wiring between more than 200,000 cells.
Pylon of the Month ⚡
Here is your weekly Tower of Power. After last week's holiday detour to a Thermal Tower of Power - now derelict and a monument to past times and the arts - this week we are back to good old wire and steel from Pylon of the Month HQ.
From the UK this week, broadcasting from the rolling hills and gardens of Painshill in Surrey - a 132 kV tension pylon on the West Weybridge to Leatherhead line.
With your eyes on the prize, you won't have noticed the gothic majesty behind which you can visit.... 👀
27-metre tall square tower contains a narrow 99-step circular staircase and dominates the landscape at its western end. Climb to the top and you are rewarded with a view that includes four different counties. On a clear day, Canary Wharf and Windsor Castle can be seen.
Thanks as always, let's keep pushing forward with all things climate tech and the real-world solutions that meet our climate challenges.
Remember, the momentum is unstoppable despite everything you might see and hear! 🌍
Stay warm, cool and safe wherever you are 🙏
Kane
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