Talking Climate Tech 049
🔥 Geothermal Wins | ⚡CAES Progress | 📈 GT Frenzy | ⚙️ OFGEM Gas | 🚫 Trump v Everthing | 🇪🇺 CSDDD v Lobbyists | 🇻🇪 Oil Again | 🤡 Meme of the Year | 🖤 Dirty Money | Coal Money Magic 🪨
Welcome back, catch-up time!
Far too much happening in the World since we last met on 12 December!
A mixed bag that I put to one side for a snowy-day... read on dear reader.
🗞️ News Roundup
Digging Deep ⛏️
Positive updates from Germany, one of the new kids on the block, Eavor with the Advanced Geothermal System, has fired up its power delivery element of the Geretsried project:
The Eavor-Loop at Geretsried involved drilling two vertical wells and sidetracking six horizontal wells from each (a total of 12 lateral wells).
The laterals were connected toe to toe underground with the help of Eavor’s active magnetic ranging tool (AMR), creating six pairs to form a massive subsurface radiator.
These wells represent some of the longest in the world, at a length of 16 kilometres of continuous wellbore per pair.
Deeper insight on how the project has developed over time with Michael Liebreich as an advisor and investor here.
The project will eventually generate 8.2MW of power and 64MW of heat, enough for up to 20,000 homes.
More Geothermal Digging ⛏️
Vulcan Energy Resources just raised $2.2bn to proceed with its Geothermal combo project.
Phase One Lionheart involves the construction of an integrated and renewable energy project that aims to produce 24,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide monohydrate (LHM) for 500,000 electric vehicle batteries per annum, as well as 275 GWh of power and 560 GWh of heat over an estimated 30-year project life.
More from ThinkGeo here. I did write about this project sometime ago, on LinkedIn I think, but I can't find the post right now. 🤪
I do like the project consolidation and innovative approach to bring multiple solutions and markets together - more of this joined-up thinking please.
I hope you enjoy reading this week's post! We are a free newsletter, and would like to remain so - you can always become a supporter and help keep us fired up!
CAES Long-duration Progress ⚡
Hydrostor has won final approval for it's Willow Rock Energy Storage Center in California, a 500MW / 8 hours Compressed Air Energy Storage project. More on that news from Hydrostor here.
The plant would be Hydrostor’s first facility in the US with a pipeline of 7GW across US, Canada, UK, Australia.
More on the technology here:
Gas Turbine Frenzy 📈
Sign of the times and the big AI data centre power-push. The Gas Turbine market is running at pace!
GE Vernova is almost old out through 2029 and will increase manufacturing capacity by 20 GW post production facility expansion in 2026. More on general impact of AI DC growth on GT here.
Video reminder of Elon's illegally over-permitted collection of GT's, burning away and covering Memphis with emissions here in 043
Kane Watkinson
OFGEM Goes Big ⚡️
Big numbers, lot's of histronics about grid upgrades in the mainstream media. But whats the real story here? Well for me, its why no one is talking about the epic investment in the legacy gas grid, a future stranded asset.
Most of the funding (£17.8 billion) announced today will go towards maintaining Britain’s gas networks, keeping them among the safest, most secure and resilient in the world.
The remaining initial investment (£10.3 billion) will strengthen our electricity transmission network, improve reliability and expand capacity to support the electrification of the economy and drive growth.
Yes of course we need a safe and viable gas network for decades to come. But we need to acknowledge gas is also the problem - geopolitically, volatile cost, emissions, post North Sea supply etc. And crucially, that the UK taxpayer will again be on the hook for the UK gas infrastructure decomissioning.
More from OFGEM here.
💥 Trump Watch
Watch the Birdy 🪄
Where to begin! There is the small matter of Venezula obviously, and Greenland and the new self-proclaimed Don-roe Doctrine. 😂🙄
More on that below. Of course Epstein files loom large still - probably a good time for a distraction which upsets geopolitical stability and puts everyone's focus elsewhere. 🤔
Couple of other climate related snippets that you might have missed:
❌ All stop on offshore wind. Obviously already permitted and have cleared all the 'genuine risks'. There are only 5 in the US [!!??] battling on trying to deliver: Vineyard Wind, Revolution Wind, Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, Sunrise Wind, and Empire Wind. AP.
"The Department of War has come back conclusively that the issues related to these large offshore wind programs create radar interference, create genuine risk for the U.S., particularly related to where they are in proximity to our East Coast population centers,”
❌ Dismantling the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado. Grist.
“one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country”
❌ Withdrawing from 60 intergovernmental organisations, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. PBS.
“it is contrary to the interests of the United States to remain a member of, participate in, or otherwise provide support”
❌ National Renewable Energy Laboratory becomes National Laboratory of the Rockies. Less Renewables, more a "broader vision for the lab’s applied energy research" i.e. some fossil fuel research, because we don't know much about them. Reuters.
Trump has proposed cutting the lab’s budget by 70 percent for the 2026 fiscal year
Meanwhile, like it wasn't happening, with 276 deaths and a lot of $$:
In 2025, the US suffered a billion-dollar disaster every 10 days
A great tracker from Climate Central.
Divide and Conquer 💔
More US v EU heartbreak on the horizon and this is major:
“the greatest threat to America’s sovereignty since the fall of the Soviet Union”.
My goodness, could it be the end of days event we have been fearing? 🤯
Probably a little over exagerated by the US as usual. Brace yourselves, its the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD). 💥
Sounds ominous; let's get up to speed via DeSmog:
The CSDDD, which was signed into law in May 2024, obliges large companies trading in the EU to address human rights and environmental issues in their operations and supply chains. It currently applies to 6,000 EU companies and 900 non-European companies trading inside the bloc, including U.S. firms.
A public relations firm for major U.S. polluters worked to dismantle EU laws that require large corporations to make plans for cutting emissions.
The PR company Teneo PR has been trying to dismantle the CSDDD on behalf of the usual suspects: the Competitiveness Roundtable - a coalition of companies including ExxonMobil, TotalEnergies, Chevron, and Koch Inc. 🥴
End of Days. Guess what? EU went weak at the knees, again.
Drugs or Oil 🇻🇪
Guess which one it was all about? Hint its not the drugs.
Lot's of coverage on this, I am sure you have seen plenty. Here are some informed takes:
Seb Kennedy - Energy Flux - former resident and who's wife is Venezuelan, absolute finger on the pulse as usual...What Happens Next?
Seb Kennedy
Michael Barnard - Clean Technica - Why Venezuela’s Oil Won’t Matter and Why Heavy Crude Is First Off the Market
Michael Barnard
Adam Bell - Unbalancing Mechanism - It's not about the Oil even if it is about the Oil.
Adam Bell
😃 Good Stuff
Trump Meme of the Year 🏆
Almost forgot! Check out the entries here for a recap:
Kane Watkinson
Your winner!!!
No one does fake-tan better than Donald
Not Everyone Likes Dirty Money 🖤
BlackRock’s retreat from sustainable investing has cost the world’s largest asset manager the business of at least two European pension funds.
PME Group - $69 billion in retirement savings for Dutch workers in the metal and technologies sectors, plus Dutch healthcare workers pension group PFZW withdrew about more than $16 billion.
Make the money count - earlier in the year n February, UK based People’s Pension pulled $38 billion from State Street, saying it was prioritizing “sustainability, active stewardship, and long-term value creation.”
Coal Money Magic Trick 🪨
Another gem from Oli Frost, check back in on the Private Jet fuel-tax scam video here in 045. This time, its Societe Generale in his sights. Enjoy!
That's it for this week, nice to be back in the saddle!
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
