May 26-28: Biodiversity, Transport, Sustainability, Emissions, Carbon Capture
Australia's National Battery Strategy; EU's Net-Zero Industry Act; EU Methane Regulation; Hydrogen-powered private jets;
In this newsletter:
News from governments
Biodiversity
Transport
Emissions and Carbon Capture
Sustainability
Research
News from governments
Australia has published its National Battery Strategy with AUD 523 million in production linked incentives, AUD 20 million for skill building and programs for energy apprenticeships and critical minerals trade. Energetica India | gov.au | National Battery Strategy, May 2024 (PDF)
The European Council has approved the Net-Zero Industry Act, which aims to simplify the permitting process, improve market access and support skill building for greentech products made in EU.
Progress towards the objectives of the net-zero industry act will be measured by two indicative benchmarks. Firstly, manufacturing capacity of net-zero technologies, such as solar photovoltaic panels, wind turbines, batteries and heat pumps, reaching 40% of the EU’s deployment needs. Secondly, a specific target for an increased Union share for these technologies with a view to reaching 15% of world production by 2040.
ET Energy | European Council Press Release | Net-Zero Industry Act
Europe has published a new methane regulation that
obliges the fossil gas, oil and coal industry in Europe to measure, monitor, report and verify their methane emissions according to the highest monitoring standards, and to take action to reduce them. It requires EU gas, oil and coal operators to stop avoidable and routine flaring and to reduce flaring and venting to situations such as emergencies, technical malfunctions or when it is necessary for safety reasons.
Biodiversity
Several transmission and infra companies are together funding a project to study the effect of electromagnetic fields from subsea cables on marine wildlife. Offshore Energy | FlatEMF project
In an attempt to revive populations of Orchids, severely threatened due to climate change and soil pollution, scientists are identifying the specific soil fungi these plants need to survive, and growing and transplanting them in soils to aid Orchid growth. The Guardian
Transport
Airbus is testing an autonomous system for taxiing, to avoid the growing number of collisions between aircrafts at airports. An aircraft controller system, including a virtual flight deck, computer vision devices and geo-location sensors, lidar and 4D radar, has been fitted in a truck that is being allowed to navigate through runways on airports. The most promising systems will be tested on Airbus aircraft.
Optimate’s ultimate aim is to perform a highly efficient automatic ‘gate-to-gate’ mission on an Airbus commercial airliner. Any such mission will feature 4D trajectory flight management, a tablet-operated connected virtual assistant, and overridable protections - all to support the flight crew. Initially, however, the focus is on the taxi phase.
UK and Ireland are exploring a green shipping corridor between the 2 countries. One proposed project involves setting up a commercial electric ship charging network at all ports in the 2 countries, along with charging support for commercial electric vehicles passing through the ports. Offshore Energy | GOV.UK - Funding competition for feasibility studies of UK-IE green shipping corridor
France-based Beyond Aero and Switzerland-based Sirius Aviation are working on hydrogen-powered private jets. Here’s a video of France’s first manned hydrogen-electric flight made in February this year (via ET Energy)
Energy
Russia will build 6 small nuclear power plants in Uzbekistan, the first central asian country to get nuclear energy. ET Energy
IRENA is helping deploy mini- and micro- hydro power plants in remote areas of Papua New Guinea, an island nation which has mostly run on diesel generators and at-home kerosene lamps previously though it has a theoretical hydropower potential of 251 GW. IRENA
Emissions and Carbon Capture
The EU Net-Zero Industry act aims to setup 50 million tonnes of geological storage capacity for CO2 within EU territory by 2030.
ET Energy | European Council Press Release | Net-Zero Industry Act
Rising brick imports in the UK - more than 1.4 million tons of bricks were imported in 2022 in the UK - are adding to CO2 emissions, both from production and shipping over long distances from Asian countries (Pakistan, Bangladesh). The Guardian
New research on optimizing direct air capture under varying weather conditions shows the technology to be most effective and cost-efficient in hot, dry weather (water vapour in the air competes with CO2 for absorption by the DAC membranes).
Results of this optimization study show that climates with a high average temperature are most attractive for DAC. In a cold, humid climate, the cost of DAC is approximately 40% higher. Tropical and dry, hot climates have an additional advantage of relatively constant year-round conditions, which results in easier process operation. The varying seasonal weather conditions of temperate and continental climates require dynamic process control to operate at minimum cost of DAC throughout the year.
Optimizing Direct Air Capture under varying weather conditions, Energy Advances
A carbon capture project in Australia that would capture CO2 from a coal power plant and store it in liquefied form in an aquifer under the Great Artesian Basin - one of the largest freshwater reservoirs in the world - has been denied environmental clearance. The selected aquifer is believed to not be ‘confined’ - that is CO2 could leak into neighbouring aquifers, cause ecological damage and affect groundwater quality. EnergyWatch | The Guardian
Sustainability
Hemp-based building materials to substitute timber and concrete. energypost.eu | ECEEE
Good read on PFAS from The Guardian
Research
A solar PV + hydrogen storage system for off-grid homes in The Netherlands pv magazine | Simulation and analysis of hybrid hydrogen-battery renewable energy storage for off-electric-grid Dutch household system
Power conversion efficiency of 44% achieved in thermophotovoltaic cells Innovation News | High-efficiency air-bridge thermophotovoltaic cells
Indian scientists have built an electric tiller, with swappable battery packs, that can be used on small land holdings. ET Energy | Govt Press Release
You can find all previous posts of this newsletter here.
I’m the maker of SummaryWithAI.com. You can find me on Twitter and LinkedIn. I also blog sometimes on Floating Coordinates.
