Greenify #52: Geo-engineering, heat pumps, and other cool things!
March 3, 2023
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📌 Fact of the week
Cobalt, a crucial battery element, which was in serious shortage during the pandemic, is now superabundant due to a decrease in the demand for electronics and a rapid increase in mining activities
Hottest news of the week…
Regulation 🗃 – Increasing support for oceans’ energy
What happened: Europe’s dominant track record on using ocean’s energy is at risk, according to statistics released by Ocean Energy Europe. 2022 has seen the lowest number of European ocean energy projects since 2010. Why? Less public funding and policy support, particularly around permits. The U.S. and China, on their side, have accelerated project deployment in the area, particularly the former on the back of the Inflation Reduction Act; The US now commits roughly $110 million for ocean energy annually. 💧
Zoom out: Tides, waves and currents can be used to generate clean electricity. One of the most interesting technologies in this space, despite still at a nascent stage, involves wave energy, where converters capture the energy contained in ocean waves and generate electricity from there. As discussed above, policy support in the area is key… to regain its leader status, Europe will try to leverage the recently launched “Green Deal Industrial Plan”, as well as implementing new regional agreements between Member States on offshore renewables to speed up technology deployments. 💸
Business 💰 – Stellantis investing in EVs’ raw materials
What happened: Stellantis, the third largest global car manufacturer, a result of FCA’s merger with Peugeot S.A., just invested $150 million in a copper mining company. The firm, McEwan copper, is developing the “Loz Azules” project, which could potentially give the Italo-French car automaker access to a giant copper mine in Argentina. By 2027, Los Azules plans to produce 100,000 tons per year of cathode copper, a key component of EV batteries. 👍
Zoom out: Investments in copper mines are particularly important as EVs use twice as much copper as gasoline-powered cars. Although this is not a huge investment, it is another signal of car makers concerned about the resilience of their EVs supply chain, and their consequent decision to vertically integrate. The investment is particularly important for Stellantis, as the company wants 100% of passenger car sales in Europe and 50% in the US to be EVs by 2030, yet it is currently lagging behind most of its European competitors. 😬
Innovation 💡 - Unstoppable solar geoengineering
What happened: A recent article from the MIT Technology Review discussed, yet again, an interesting solar geo-engineering experiment. Solar geo-engineering refers to the act of deliberately changing the Earth’s system to control its climate. The discussion is about a group of researchers in the UK that launched a high-altitude weather balloon releasing a few hundred grams of sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere. Spraying sulfur dioxide in the stratosphere attempts to mimic a cooling effect that occurs in the aftermath of major volcanic eruptions. 🌋
Zoom out: This experiment follows a similar one carried out by company Make Sunsets last year in Mexico, which we discussed in Greenify #43. In last week’s analysis we also explored iron salt aerosols, another form of atmospheric alteration following similar principles. What we are increasingly noticing is the popularity of solar geo-engineering. Ultimately, companies are realizing that curbing emissions will not be enough. 😒
Deep dives of the week…
Chart of the week - Russia-Ukraine and the effect on global CO2
As war broke in Ukraine last year, the energy markets went all over the place through 2022. What the war revealed was Europe’s fragile energy infrastructure and the continent’s high dependence on Russia. In order to diversify away from Russia, member States acknowledged the need to invest in local renewable sources and improve energy efficiency. According to the Economist, global decarbonisation of the energy system could have been fast-tracked multiple years by the war.
Source: The Economist
Company of the week - Geopura, mobile green hydrogen!
Our company of the week is Geopura, a UK-based company producing green hydrogen and manufacturing mobile hydrogen power units, in an attempt to generate electricity from hydrogen anywhere it is needed. In other words, they move hydrogen-powered electricity generators around and are able to supply them with green hydrogen. These can be used for temporary events, at construction sites, and much more. The cool thing is that the process is zero-emissions, as green hydrogen is generated through renewable-powered electrolysis and creates no emissions when burned. Not sure how efficient this process is at the moment, but companies like GM Ventures, Barclays, and others have just invested £36m in the business! 💰
Comment of the week - Hydrogen or heat pumps, what’s better for heating? 🤔
This week, inspired by a piece of analysis published by Bloomberg, we would like to summarise a big debate on two ways to decarbonize buildings’ heating: hydrogen vs. heat pumps.
What would be the costs? 💸
For hydrogen to be sustainable, it should be “green” (i.e. generated with renewable power), countries should refurbish the pipeline system and upgrade gas-burning boilers. In the UK, c.£200bn would be needed to make the existing systems fit for hydrogen, without taking into account the extra cost associated with producing green hydrogen
In order to heat buildings with heat pumps, countries need to invest in their production and installation. In the UK, switching all boilers to heat pumps could cost anything between £180bn to £300bn, but these would be much cheaper to run once installed.
What is more energy efficient? 💪
To create 70 GW of domestic heat, you need:
150 GW of renewable electricity if you use green hydrogen , as most of the GW are lost during green hydrogen generation and transmission to buildings
26 GW of renewable electricity if you use heat pumps, as little to GW are wasted and c.2/3 of heat pumps’ GW output are generated through the environment’s natural heat, captured outside the building.
The winner 🏆: So it seems like for buildings’ heating there is no game - heat pumps are more efficient and cheaper to run. Moreover, the technology is ready now, while green hydrogen has a long way to go before getting scale.
What is the current situation with heat pumps? 🔎
European countries have started to understand their utility, with sales reaching 3m in 2022, ~ a 30% increase compared to 2021, according to BNEF!🚀
Americans seem a bit slower in picking up this trend, but this week may have changed everything, as Elon Muck himself said that Tesla could start making heat pumps at some point! Not a bad news, as residential heat pumps could reduce global carbon emissions by at least 500 million tonnes by 2030, according to the IEA.
👋 See you next Friday, for the best sum up of this coming week!
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