Talking Climate Tech 044
🇨🇳 Big Battery | 📦 Big Box | 🐄 BigAG | ⭐ Energy Star | ✅ NY Game Time | 🌽 Crop Yields | 🌴 Tropics Letdown
🗞️ News Roundup
Even More Battery Storage 🇨🇳
Always more, bigger, better - DJT must be envious they always get to make these announcements, surely?
A doubling of BESS capacity next year? Why not.
Beijing said it would invest $35 billion, if you've got it, flaunt it!
Current capacity, dominated by lithium-ion batteries, stood at 95 GW as of June. China has consistently exceeded past targets, having already achieved its 2025 goal of 30 GW two years early. For context, U.S. utility-scale storage is projected to reach just over 46 GW by the end of 2025
Even more global domination heading the way of BYD and CATL I think. Source.
Renewable Electricity ⚡
Often the pitch on nearly all of the UK suppliers now, be 100% renewable with us. Not always quite the case though.
Matched uses public data to calculate how much renewable energy consumers are really getting, hour-by-hour.
Dive on into the methodology here if you are so inclined. Summary:
Analysis of 15 major UK energy retailers shows that half-hourly matching scores range from 11% to 89%.
Here are your UK Top 10 Suppliers by renewable score:
Looks like 2 of the big guns, Octopus and Ecotricity need to up their game.
The Drax number looks a bit suspicious to me - I assume without looking into the data - 'renewables' based on burning thousands of tonnes a day of biomass imported by bunkered ship from North America. 🙄
Big Box 📦
Look at the size of this beast!
The Aibel and Hitachi Energy Hornsea 3 Substation topside, about to leave Thailand, onto Norway for final finishing, before making its way to the North Sea, about 160 kilometres off the Yorkshire coast.
There it will meet up with around x200 Siemens Gamesa’s 14MW wind turbines, operational for 2027. There will be x2 of these HVDC offshore converter substations.
Ørsted's project installed capacity of 2.9 GW makes it the largest single project in the world, for now. More here.
The survey is still open and running - be great to hear from you if you haven't already had your say!
Kane Watkinson
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🔎 Deeper Dive
BigAg, Big Emissions 🐄
Timely reminder for COP30 where the lobbyists, and everyone else, decend on Brazil to argue about syntax, grammar and messaging perception.
This chart shows why BigAg send so many lobbyists. Forever intertwined like Romeo & Julliet.
Emissions = Revenue
BigAg are second only to the Fossil Fuel sector of course - there were almost 1,800 registered from FF industries last time - a target to beat again. 😡
More on BigAg playbook here from DeSmog.
And to put further emphasis on it 🤯
Major meat and dairy producers emit more greenhouse gases as a group than the nation of Saudi Arabia, the world’s number two oil producer
Again, further insights from the always very good DeSmog here.
💥 Trump Watch
DoE Says No 🪫
While China is going all out on BESS, DoE thinks best to take a step back. Because that will help them catchup. 🙄
Department of Energy confirmed plans to revoke $700 million in grants to American battery manufacturers
...did not adequately advance the nation’s energy needs
More from TechCrunch.
Energy Star Saved ⭐
You might remember this one from a few months back.
They've hit the row-back button in the face of stiff opposition.
...program that costs just $32 million in annual budget but saves Americans more than $40 billion each year
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin had announced that his agency would end the program, but backlash has continued from industry groups and even Republicans in Congress - it seems not everything can be railroaded through.
Another glimmer of hope. 🤩
NY Game Time ✅
Despite Don's best strong-arm tactics, Mamdani won. Now with an East/West Coast key battle grounds established for pushback, it will be interesting to see if they can get even more groundswell behind the positive and progressive democratic movements, and get out from under the jackboot.
What's interesting about Mamdani is his climate polices, as co-benefit of affordability. Politico.
Mamdani’s three main mayoral campaign pledges were simple: Freeze the rent for two million New Yorkers. Fast and free buses. Childcare for all
And more from Time.
...using the climate fight to increase the power of communities for self-determination and reducing prices all contribute to the same goal of making the state a better place
A climate city plan really is an affordability and quality of life plan
He's delivering change and affordability via solar on schools, upgraded HVAC, free transport, flood defense, green spaces, landlord decarbonisation programs and more.
Selling the outcomes that matter to people as the primary, with the co-benefit of climate delivered within.
I've been saying it for ages; a lot we can learn and adopt here for the UK and EU as we push forward with policies that the media and RW politicians are heavily pushing back on. 💡
It's Quite Windy 🇺🇸
Don keeps telling us; he hates windmills; they don't have any anyway; China have them, but don't use them. 🙄
Apparently they will be the end of the world, birds and whales. Yet here we are:
Shell No Wind 🐚
This won't help either, Shell dropping out of Atlantic Shores 50-50 with EDF.
Apparently Shell has thought twice after the 'war on wind' heading in from Trump-town:
shifting away from capital-intensive generation projects to assets that support our trading and retail strengths
Milking the petol pumps then. 🛢️⛽
🏡 Konfab News
Episode 04 🎙️
You have a seperate email in your inbox Thursaday night this week, for EP04 with Cameron Price - here is the link to the page to watch the full interview:
Kane Watkinson
And the link to watch x6 shorts to dip your toe in before, if you prefer:
Kane Watkinson
Slotted some more b-roll into this one, skills. Let me know what you think?
Next Up 🎙️
Recap on where we are heading next:
🎬 EP06 - James, Caldera [Industrial Thermal Storage] - editing
🔴 EP07 - Stephgen, RheEnergise [HD Pumped Hydro] - recorded
🔴 EP08 - Georgia Ware, HotGreen [Industrial Heat Pumps] - recorded
🎙️ EP09 - Matthew Finn, EMEC [Test Facility] - December recording
🎙️ EP10 - Elke Mugova, Fraunhofer IEG [Minewater Heating] - scheduling
Want to get on the mic for a future discussion, or volunteer a colleague?
Drop me an message and let's discuss!
LinkedIn Mega Mix 🔊
This week, I've mostly been talking about:
▶️ EU blows €2.9bn on some wrong tech turns - read
▶️ DoE blows $100m on 'Good Clean Coal' - read
▶️ Milton Keynes + NHS + Heat Network - read
Also, just because:
▶️ Democrats call Andrew to USA + Pizza Express - read
▶️ FIFA bend the knee and give Don a 🏆 - read
😃 Good Stuff
Acoustics v Wildfires 🔊
Having worked in acoustics for 10 years, this one caught my eye.
Think of subwoofer type sound waves below the human hearing level of 20Hz being pumped at a fire - mini demo via the link. ⬇️
Trials show they can extinguish at 25ft, they think they can get to 300ft. One day could be as a replacement for sprinkler systems, but with more range. Also think of energy utility infrastructure assets, often the start of wildfires.
As wildfires cost >$400bn a year in the US alone and now whole regions are becoming uninsurable, it might have some traction.
TechCrunch again.
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🌍 Climate Watch
Failing Crop Yields 🌽
Around 1.7 billion people worldwide are living in places where human-driven land degradation is leading to falling crop yields.
News snippet from Carbon Brief via a new report from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation:
a growing threat to agricultural productivity and food security
Expect further climate change and biodiversity loss impacts, and challenges around food scarcity in the coming decades.
UK Tropical Letdown 🌴
Well, we might think we are climate leaders, and in some aspects we are.
In others, we continue to be a let down. Even though Sir Kier has made the trip to COP30...he forgot to take his suitcase of cash:
This fund aims to raise $125bn for governments and local communities that protect existing forests, such as the Amazon and the Congo basin. Lula hopes to raise $25bn from public sources, mainly developed countries attending Cop30, with the rest to come from the private sector and financial markets.
The UK won't be chipping in to this vital fund. Further reading from the Guardian here.
A drone view of mining at Carajás national forest in the Amazonian state of Para, Brazil. Tells you all you need to know about the state of the Amazon right now.
The time for action is well beyond now.
Thanks for your time, interest and support as always, let's keep pushing forward - remember, the momentum is unstoppable despite everything you might see and hear! 🌍
Kane
