Greenify #98: Nuclear fusion, recycling and CO2 capture!
February 17, 2024
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📌 Fact of the week
Romania has launched its first ever green bond, raising €2 billion. On the topic, interesting stat from the European Commission: Over the period 2019-2022, the highest rate of adoption of green bonds as a percentage of the change in total debt is observed for Sweden (42.5 %).📊
Hottest news of the week…
Regulation 🗃 – Fusion partners
What happened: On Wednesday, Britain signed a memorandum of understanding with Canada to work more closely on fusion power development. The two countries will collaborate in areas such as R&D while try to align their regulatory landscapes to allow for higher fusion penetration. This “deal” comes after another recent cooperation established between the UK and the United States on nuclear fusion. 🇬🇧
Zoom out: Part of the agreement between Canada and Britain includes upskilling the workforce. We think this is a very interesting topic, as an issue associated to the energy transition has to do with retraining the existing workforce to learn “new” jobs. This is something we are witnessing as workers transition from oil and gas to renewables, and is something which we will see more of in the future. The IEA has also written a whole report about the topic, give it a read if you are interested. 📂
Business 💰 – Huge partnership for solar panel recycling!
What happened: Qcells, a leading solar module manufacturer, has entered a partnership with Solarcycle, a company specializing in recycling. This collaboration marks a significant step in solar panels recycling, especially as Qcells plans to expand its production capacity to 8.4 GW per year by the end of 2024 and Solarcycle's innovative process claims to retain 95% of the panels' material value, compared to the conventional 50%. 👏
Zoom out: Solar panels recycling is important as it allows to reclaim valuable materials like aluminum, silver, copper, silicon, and low-iron glass for reuse in the manufacturing value chain. The importance of recycling solar panels also lies in addressing the environmental challenge posed by the disposal of decommissioned panels. As the solar industry grows, the potential waste generated could significantly impact landfills, with estimates suggesting that the U.S. industry alone could contribute 10 million metric tons of waste by 2050, without effective recycling 😰
Innovation 💡 - An innovative way to capture CO2 from the sea
What happened: Banyu Carbon, a Seattle-based startup, is innovating the carbon sequestration market with a novel approach that leverages sunlight and seawater to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the ocean surface. This method uses a synthetic molecule that reacts with sunlight to become acidic, and when introduced to seawater, it triggers a chemical reaction that efficiently captures CO2 from the water. Seawater, once decarbonized, becomes naturally ready to absorb additional CO2, creating an interesting CO2 capture cycle! 💣
Zoom out: Direct capture from sea-water has been going for a while, but this process stands out for its low energy requirements and potential for cost reduction, positioning Banyu Carbon's solution as a sustainable alternative to traditional, energy-intensive carbon capture methods. The company is now setting the stage for larger-scale implementations in the future. 💪
Deep dives of the week…
Chart of the week - Fusion on the grid
In our Regulation news, we briefly touched on nuclear fusion. As a reminder, nuclear fusion is the process by which two forms of hydrogen are mixed and heated to extreme temperatures, causing them to combine and release energy. Compared to today’s relatively popular nuclear fission, fusion does not have any radioactive waste associated to its processes, hence making it cleaner than fission. A McKinsey report also looks at the potential for fusion penetration on the European grid.🔥
Deal of the week - Daze keeps the Italian climate-tech industry alive
Daze, an Italian provider of electric vehicle (EV) charging solutions, secured €15M in a Series A funding round from CDP Venture Capital, the European Innovation Council, SIMEST’s Venture Capital, Founders Future, Prana Ventures, and 035 Investimenti. 💰
Daze designs, manufactures and commercializes EV chargers for homes, with a focus on central Europe. Its chargers stand out for features like intelligent charging power balancing and photovoltaic system integration. 👍
The company plans to use the funds to expand its presence in Spain and France, enter new European markets, and aim to become a global leader within five years, further enhancing its charger range and introducing automatic to bidirectional charging technologies. 🚀
👋 See you next Friday, for the best sum up of this coming week!
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