ACWA Power -- a Saudi developer, investor and operator of power generation, water desalination and hydrogen plants -- has reached financial close for acquiring the first group of assets for the Jazan integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) project. The plant will be built by a joint venture that includes Saudi Aramco, Air Products and Qudra.
First gas flows through Nord Stream 2 will commence as soon as the Swiss operator gets the regulatory green light, expected in early November. "If the German regulator hands its clearance tomorrow, supplies of 17.5 billion cubic metres (bcm) will start the day after tomorrow," the Russian President Vladimir Putin told a televised forum.
JERA has reported a stark rise in operating revenue in the three months to September though net income retreated. Despite an impairment loss of 32.3 billion yen in the overseas power gen business, net income increased due to the world's economic rebound from the Covid-19 pandemic and rising profits from LNG sales through its JERA Global Markets gas trading arm.
Large banks in Europe are late in setting the necessary targets to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 and there is a lack of transparency when it comes to trackable metrics, ZEB-consulting finds. Western European universal banks are found to cause most emissions worldwide due to their strong exposure to CO2-intensive sectors such as transport, traffic or energy.
The world’s largest hydrogen fuel cell (78.96 MW) has started operation near an LNG-fuelled power plant run by KOSPO in Incheon, South Korea. The fuel cell gensets were supplied by POSCO Energy and Doosan Fuel Cell, and project cost came to 340 billion won ($292 million).
Rolls-Royce affiliate MTU has launched Series 500 and Series 4000 gas engines, ready for 25% hydrogen co-firing. The engines and conversion kits for 100% hydrogen operation will be available for customers from 2025.
Wärtsilä's third quarter sales increased 11% to €1,103 million as demand stabilises in the manufacturer’s two end-markets, marine and power gen. Demand for energy storage stays strong, the company said with regards to a €100 million order from AGL Australia for a 250 MW/250 MWh system.
Pivot Power, part of EDF Renewables, has activated a 50 MW lithium-ion energy storage system in Kemsley, Kent, to support the integration of renewable energy into the UK’s National Grid. The device, supplied by Wärtsilä, is the second to go live as part of Pivot Power’s nationwide rollout of Energy Superhubs, following the first activation in June in Cowley.
Gazprom is taking steps to increase capacity and throughput at its Amur Gas Processing Plant (GPP), under construction in the east of Russia. The state-run company said its GPPs are part of an inteagrated process chain to boost the recovery rate of valuable components from ethane-rich gases, as well as the output of products like helium.
Russian gas company Gazprom has repaired pipelines and storages nationwide to ensure reliable winter supplies to domestic and foreign customers as prices for pipeline natural gas and LNG have soared. According to preliminary data, Gazprom produced 399.4 bcm of gas in the first 9.5 months of 2021, a 16.6% rise compared to the pre-year period.
Voith will take over Siemens Energy's 35% stake in the joint venture Voith Hydro for an undisclosed purchase price, with the transaction is still subject to regulatory approval. The move allows Siemens Energy to focus more on its core business of transporting and storing energy, decarbonising industrial processes, and generating electricity with little or no emissions.
Mitsubishi Power Americas and El Paso Electric (EPE) have agreed to jointly develop strategies to attain an 80% carbon-free resource mix by 2035. The two partners will convert EPE’s Newman Power Station’s newest unit from 100% gas generation to running on a blend of up to 30% hydrogen, and then to being 100% fuelled by hydrogen.
Unlike rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, flow batteries use large tanks of liquid to store energy which has made the technology “prohibitively expensive” because it relies on pricey electroactive metal salts. Researchers at the MIT are working on alternative approaches that use less expensive electroactive materials derived from organic compounds.
Britain’s new Net Zero Strategy claims up to £80 billion of additional private green investment needs to be raised to reach the government’s 2030 emission target. “Renewables, particularly offshore wind deployment already reached £100 billion in 2020,” the UK energy minister Kwasi Kwarteng told the BBC this morning, saying it would be “realistic” to raise sufficient funds to meet targets.
News in Brief
Decarbonising UK homes
Jan 19 – Just 9 million hot water cylinders are currently installed in British homes, leaving a gap of 18 million homes whose heating would need to be decarbonised for the UK to meet Net Zero. According to the trade body HWA, the political focus of decarbonising heating has been solely on the heat source; such as boilers and heat pumps – while little to no focus has been on hot water cylinder. This gap in in government policy, which could result in unnecessary costs to consumers.
Cresta to fund Lapis Energy’s CCS projects
Jan 18 – Texas-based Cresta Fund Management has agreed to finance Lapis Energy’s CCS and clean hydrogen projects. The two partners are now looking to identify, design and develop projects for the permanent sequestration of CO2, targeting customers within the heavy industry and petrochemical companies.
GE to repower Long Lake plant
Jan 17 – GE will modernize four generors at the Long Lake hydropower plant in northwest US, operated by Avista Utilities. Once refurbished, the plant will have an installed capacity of more than 100 MW. The first modernized Long Lake unit is scheduled to go into operation at the end of 2024 and the last one in 2029
mtu to power Romania’s largest data center
Jan 14 – mtu Series 4000 gas generators will provide electricity heat and cooling for Romania’s largest data center. ClusterPower is building a 273,000-squaremetre technology campus near Craiova by 2025, where it will host five data centers with a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of 1.1
Green hydrogen from Quebec
Jan 13 – Charbone has agreed to provide the US propane distributer Superior with green hydrogen from its Sorel-Tracy facility in Quebec, Canada, starting from the third quarter of 2022. The hydrogen will be delivered directly from Charbone’s H2 plant to Superior’s customers which include mining, power generation, transportation and industrial energy users.
Cresta to fund Lapis Energy’s CCS projects
Jan 12 – Texas-based Cresta Fund Management has agreed to finance Lapis Energy’s CCS and clean hydrogen projects. The two partners are now looking to identify, design and develop project for the permanent sequestration of CO2, targeting customers within the heavy industry and petrochemical companies.
US rivals Australia as world’s largest LNG exporter
Jan 11 – Analysts at the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) are confident that the growth in US LNG exports could see America’s liquefaction and send-out capacity exceed that of Australia and Qatar – the world’s two largest LNG exporters. Looking ahead, the EIA expects US exports of the super-chilled gas will rise 17% from 2021 levels to average 11.1 Bcf/d from December through March.
Africa’s first FLNG plant arrives in Mozambique
Jan 10 – Coral Sul FLNG, Africa’s first-ever floating LNG facility has arrived in Mozambican waters. The plant is critical to develop the US$7 billion Coral South project, led by the Italian oil and gas company Eni. Some of the produced gas will be used for power generation in Mozambique, though most will be liquefied and sold to global markets.
GE snaps up Opus One Solutions
Dec 23 – GE Digital has agreed to acquire Opus One Solutions Energy Corp, a Californian software company that helps utilities integrate renewables and Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) at scale across the electric grid. The transaction is expected to close within 30 days, GE stated without disclosing what price was paid for the takeover.
Qatar invests in Rolls-Royce’s nuclear power business
Dec 22 – Qatar Investment Authority, the state’s sovereign wealth fund, has agreed to invest £85 million in Rolls-Royce SMR, the company’s new technology for small-scale, low carbon nuclear power. UK business and energy secretary Kwasi Kwarteng called the investment a “clear vote of confidence” in the UK’s nuclear innovation. It follows £210 million Qatari investment in the development in Small Modular Reactors. Now fully funded, Rolls-Royce SMR business also received £490 million through commercial equity and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) grant funding.
JERA helps Japanese film producer curb emissions
Dec 20 – Toho, a Japanese film producer and entertainment company, will get support from the country’s largest power producer JERA to reduce CO2 emission from film production. To that end, JERA will supply zero-emissions energy to Toho and draw up a roadmap to decarbonise the media company as a whole.
Tractebel develop concept to store H2 offshore
Dec 17 – Tractebel Overdick and partners have developed an offshore infrastructure and processing facilities concept that relies on the storage of hydrogen (H2) in offshore caverns. The design study outlines a scalable offshore platform for the compression and storage of up to 1.2 million cubic meters of hydrogen.
Ethatec uses CO2-free power to produce ethanol
Dec 15 – ESG Clean Energy has signed a letter of intent (LOI) with Ethatec to use ESG’s patented CO2-free gensets to its ethanol production. Ethatec uses waste from bakeries and pizza factories which is being crushed and then mixed with water and enzymes and heated in a multi-stage mashing process to saccharify the starch. It is then cooled and fed into fermentation tanks, where yeast is added. for alcoholic fermentation of the sugar. After 72 hours, the mixture is fed to a distillation system where ethanol is obtained.
Anax helps Magellan mine bitcoin under US$12m deal
Dec 16 – Ohio-based Magellan Scientific has entered a long-term accord, worth US$12 million, with Anax Power to generate zero-emission electricity from natural gas flows for Magellan’s distributed data centres, using 500 kW Anax turboexpanders. This green power will be used to lower the carbon-intensity of bitcoin mining and help US interstate pipeline operators and utilities accelerate their net-zero emission goals.
Cryogenic insulation market to top $4.6m by 2026
Dec 14 – The global market for cryogenic insulation is forecast to reach $4,659.85 million by 2026, expanding at an annual rate of 8.76% over the next five years. According to ResearchandMarkets, companies need to keep investing in R&D to deliver more efficient products at a lower cost and improve product durability.
Industry wary about new German energy policy
Dec 13 – The German industry is closely watching how the new coalition government will implement its clean energy policies. Security of supply is a major issue given that the coal exit date has been pushed forward by eight years to 2030, while electrification of transport and hard to abate industries is set to push up demand substantially. To decarbonise traffic, over 15 million electric cars are meant to be on the roads by the end of this decade.
ADNOC awards FEED contract to Technip
Dec 10 – Technip Energies has been awarded a Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) contract to integrate carbon capture technology to ADNOC’s Ghasha mega project in Abu Dhabi. The Ghasha Concession is the world’s largest offshore sour gas development, where ADNOC together with Eni, Wintershall Dea, OMV and Lukoil aim to develop up to 1.5 billion cubic feet per day (bcf/d) of natural gas, as well as condensate and oil.
