India’s first high-voltage direct current (HVDC) link has been commissioned by Siemens and Sumitomo Electric to counter the electricity deficit in India’s southern region and improve the grid stability. The 2,000 MW interconnector allows the TSO to optimise energy flows between Pugalur in the southern state Tamil Nadu and Trichur in Kerala on India’s south-western coast.
Israel-based GenCell has designed a non-metal based catalyst, following 6 years of research to reduce cost. In the process, GenCell removed the noble metal platinum from its nickel-based catalyst compound, CEO Rami Reshef explained. Instead, it developed a cracker that extracts hydrogen from liquid ammonia to generate electricity by means of alkaline fuel cells.
Two smart charging technologies – Vehicle to Grid (V2G) and Vehicle to Building (V2B) – have been launched by Virta and Marubeni in the UK. With V2G, the charged electricity from a car battery can be pushed back into the grid, giving National Grid a tool for on-demand power supply to balance rising volumes of intermittent renewable energy.
Wärtsilä will supply two GridSolv Quantum energy storages, with 200 MW combined capacity, for two projects in southern Texas. The order was placed by Able Grid, part of the North America energy investors MAP RE/ES. The storage systems are due to start operations in January 2022.
The dramatic rise Asia’s spot LNG price in mid-January and subsequent decline has greatly impacted prices at the UK’s National Balancing Point (NBP) gas trading hub. Analysts observe that UK gas and electricity prices have become more sensitive to increasingly volatile global LNG markets.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) plans a $75 million R&D center on long-duration, low-cost energy storage. To be built Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland, Washington, the Grid Storage Launchpad will consist of 30 laboratories, assessing battery prototypes and new storage technologies under ‘real world’ operating conditions.
Gas end-use deliveries in the United States decreased in three out of four sectors in 2020. The electric power sector consumed 31.7 Bcf/d, a 2% increase from the previous year according to government statistics, as Henry Hub gas prices fell to their lowest point in decades.
Steel and other energy-intensive industries have “no future the UK,” lobbyists claim, blaming the government’s 2050 Net Zero emissions target for the rise in electricity prices. Figures by the industry association UK Steel indicate electricity prices in Britain are between 60% and 80% higher than those in France and Germany.
A heavy haul truck, carrying an INNIO gas engine weighing 93 metric tons from the Austrian town of Jenbach, has reached Saarbrücken, Germany. Four further J920 FleXtra engines will follow to form the heart of a new combined heat and power plant (CHP), operated by Energy SaarLorLux. All five engines are due to reach Saarbrücken by March 16.
SOGEC, a joint venture between Sojitz Corp and Osaka Gas, has agreed to provide LNG to two onsite gas power plants at Acecook’s food processing factories in Vietnam. LNG shipping costs will be subsidized under Japan’s Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM) and help Acecook switch its industrial power plants from coal to natural gas.
Britain’s engineering major Rolls Royce announced today its Power Systems unit is expected to recover from the effects of the pandemic by the end of 2021. Revenues will be back to 2019 levels by 2022, the company said, stressing its success in China will allow it expand its business in Asia.
Western Gas is re-examining the idea of delivering natural gas from its Equus project in Australia at competitive prices to the East Coast via a transcontinental pipeline. The feasibility of that pipeline is being examined together with the infrastructure company APA Group, comparing the cost of transporting gas by pipeline versus LNG shipments.