Greenify #47: Geo-engineering, e-trucks, hydrogen, and much more!
January 27, 2023
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📌 Fact of the week
2022 profits for the five western oil super majors (Exxon, Chevron, BP, Total, and Shell) are estimated at $200 billion 😳
Hottest news of the week…
Regulation 🗃 – Solar geo-engineering… not that quickly
What happened: A couple of editions ago we spoke about Make Sunsets, a company who experimented solar geo-engineering by launching balloons injected with sulphur dioxide particles into the atmosphere to cool it down. The experiment was carried out from Baja California, Mexico… Well, in response to this action, the Mexican government plans on banning any practice of solar engineering going forward.⛔
Zoom out: Solar geo-engineering refers to the act of deliberately changing the Earth’s system to control its climate. There are different ways in which this can be carried out, yet technology’s readiness and, most importantly, unknown long term consequences are significant barriers for further development. For instance, it could cause damage to entire ecosystems, it has an unknown effect on oceans, and it could dangerously alter rain cycles. 🌦️
Business 💰 – Tesla investing in E-Trucks!
What happened: Tesla is investing an additional $3.6 billion in a new battery manufacturing facility in Nevada, next to its existing giga-factory. The new site will focus on the production of the latest so called “4680 cells” batteries, trying to reach the target capacity of 2 million units per year, and batteries for the Tesla truck “Semi”. Musk promised 50k units of the innovative truck in 2024, but some analysts predict the figure will more likely be around 5k, i.e. just 10% of what Musk is promising (classic). 😉
Zoom out: Electric trucks are heavily debated in the mobility sector, with many experts believing that this heavy form of transportation cannot be electrified efficiently. In fact, trucks require huge and extremely heavy batteries to grant acceptable performance, and as a consequence require vast amounts of precious materials. Another potential solution to decarbonize heavy road transportation could be the same identified for ships and planes: hydrogen. The debate will go on for long and Musk does not seem intentioned to get distracted… 😎
Innovation 💡 - A green (?) hydrogen under-sea pipeline
What happened: Germany's Gascade and Belgium's Fluxys, two pipelines operators, are advancing in their project to build a 400km hydrogen pipeline to connect off-shore wind farms in the North Sea with the German coast. This would allow to convert electricity produced from off-shore wind farms into green hydrogen on-site, achieving maximum efficiency, and then easily transport the hydrogen toward inland, where it could connect to other hydrogen pipelines. To do so, the two companies are asking to the EU the“Project of Common Interest (PCI)” status, which would grant accelerated approval and funding! Equinor and RWE, Norwegian and German utility companies, have a very similar project… it will be interesting to see how the situation will evolve! 🤔
Zoom out: In our opinion, an hydrogen pipeline in the area is a great initiative as it connects the windiest sea in Europe with one of the most industrialized regions of the continent. The unutilized electricity generated by off-shore wind turbines in some periods of strong wind could find a scope: generating green hydrogen, and the heavy industries which populate Northern Europe can easily source a green fuel to power their operations. Without the pipeline, green hydrogen would need to be liquefied or converted into ammonia to be transported, requiring a much more inefficient process.💪
Deep dives of the week…
Chart of the week - Germany, not that good ❓
Germany has not been looking good from an energy standpoint this year. Since war broke out in Ukraine, its energy system turned out to be particularly vulnerable. High dependence on Russian gas led the country back to the dirty practice of burning coal for power. This chart is quite self explanatory… throughout 2022, in spite of France’s aging and ineffective nuclear fleet, France’s worst hour in terms of CO2 produced per MWh of electricity generated was better than Germany’s best hour.
Company of the week - A 360° improvement in lithium mining? 🔥
“Efficiency, economics and sustainability, all at the same time” is the proposal of Summit Nanotech, an innovative lithium mining company. The start-up has a patented Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) technology, which allows to extract twice as much lithium from a given amount drilled, according to its founder. This technology also allows to conserve natural resources better than traditional practices, as drilling is carried out at low pressure and low temperature. Furthermore, the company implements a great water recovery program and reinjects the brine underground, reducing water consumption and supporting the local aquifer. These features have led the company to win various sustainability prizes over the past year and also to raise $50 million, which will be used to foster commercialization.🚀
Analysis of the week - Oil pipelines, here we go again🤔
Africa has historically been a land for grabs among western nations. Rich in natural resources and precious materials, it is still the case. This week’s focus will be on one of those cases: EACOP. 💡
What is EACOP?
The East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) is a 1,443 km pipeline planned to be built between oil fields in Western Uganda to the port of Tangana. The project is jointly driven by TotalEnergies, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), and the Ugandan and Tanzanian governments. 🛢️
What’s its purpose?
According to Uganda’s prime minister, the project will enable the production of liquified petroleum gas (LPG), potentially to be used for cooking purposes by Uganda’s population, who currently relies on charcoal and firewood. 🍳
Issues?
Many. Tough to believe in the energy transition if the oil & gas majors who supposedly should lead the movement are in charge of such large fossil fuel projects. The pipeline per sé will lead to numerous emissions and its construction will damage the country’s forest and ecosystem. Why not pour all that money on renewable projects?🙏
👋 See you next Friday, for the best sum up of this coming week!
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