Singapore-based lithium-ion battery recycling technology company Green Li-ion has closed a $20.5 million Series Pre-B funding round.
Investors in the round include TRIREC, Banpu NEXT Company Limited, Equinor Ventures and DPI Energy Ventures.
Other investors in the company include EDP Ventures, SOSV, Envisioning Partners and Energy Revolution Ventures.
Mirova, an affiliate of Natixis Investment Managers, has confirmed that the Mirova Gigaton Fund - which will invest in the clean energy sector, including battery storage - has raised $171 million at its first closing.
US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), Swedfund and Sida are among the capital providers.
The blended finance debt fund will aim to accelerate the clean energy transition in emerging countries in Africa and Asia Pacific predominantly, as well as Latin America and the Middle East.
The fund’s target size is $500 million and it expects to deploy $1.2 billion of private debt throughout its life primarily to small and medium-sized enterprises in solar home systems, agri-solar, commercial & industrial solar, telecom tower solarisation, mini-grids and other sectors such as e-mobility, battery storage, climate-smart food systems, energy efficiency and carbon credit pre-financing.
We look at the biggest obstacles for floating wind as the sector strives for commercial maturity, including technology standardisation, tow-to-port and safe working in a dynamic environment.
Floating wind will achieve full commercial maturity by 2035, according to a majority (59%) of 244 floating wind experts in a survey that DNV published last month. This includes 25% of respondents who said the sector would hit the milestone by 2030.
DNV also forecast that 15% of installed offshore wind capacity globally would be in floating projects by 2050, which is significant given the major head start enjoyed by the fixed-foundation sector. That would be the equivalent of around 300GW floating wind farms in operation worldwide by 2050, which is five times the 57GW of overwhelmingly fixed projects in operation at the end of 2022. This could be transformative.
Yet there are still significant hurdles that the sector needs to overcome to reach that point. Ditlev Engel, CEO of energy systems at DNV, said some of the barriers to the growth of floating wind could be fixed by governments setting supportive policies that would attract investment in both the floating wind projects themselves, as well as in the port and grid infrastructure. But the industry can also play a significant role in driving down installation costs, including through greater technology standardisation.
In this article, we will look at some of the major hurdles that floating wind companies are yet to overcome, based on recommendations in three recent industry studies.
The DNV report, ‘Floating Wind: Turning Ambition Into Action’, also sought industry views on investment and risk mitigation in floating wind. The most popular reasons for companies when deciding which markets to invest in were potential market size (21%), regulatory and political stability (16%), and power grid stability (12%). This is no great surprise: investors will naturally be drawn to the markets where there is the biggest growth potential and where they are unlikely to receive unexpected shocks.
Respondents were also asked how they would mitigate risks in this fast-growing part of the wind sector. Technology standardisation (22%) was the most popular way they saw to reduce risks, followed by regulatory certainty (18%) and reducing uncertainty in operations and maintenance (15%).
This hints at two big challenges for floating wind to overcome in the next decade.
First, there is the need for the industry to move to standardised technology from the more-than-50 floating wind concepts currently in development; and the second is the need to gain greater clarity over operational processes and costs. However, DNV added the effects of standardisation were unlikely to be seen until the mid-2030s.
Finally, it found that 61% of respondents expected floating wind to be the same price or cheaper than fixed-foundation offshore wind projects by 2050, while 39% thought it would be higher. This could fall from over €200/MWh now to under €50/MWh.
One major hurdle in floating wind O&M is how quickly the industry can move beyond tow-to-port strategies, which is where the turbine and platform have to be physically towed to a port for repairs. This is costly and time-consuming, but it will continue to be part of the market until the industry can deliver O&M innovations for floating wind.
The World Forum for Offshore Wind discussed this last month in a white paper called ‘Onsite Major Component Replacement Technologies for Floating Offshore Wind’. It said this evolution would need to happen quickly so floating wind developers get an accurate idea of how much it will cost to operate and maintain their projects. This will be especially important for projects due to reach commercial operation around 2030.
This will include innovations such as cranes that can be attached to offshore turbines to remove risks associated with the movement between floating turbines and repair vessels; vessel cranes adapted from those used on fixed offshore wind projects; and other concepts using hoisting or climbing facilities. It said these on-site solutions can reduce repair time and downtime, while eliminating the need to disconnect turbines.
However, there is a lot to consider. Turbine makers want solutions that require them to make the fewest modifications to turbines; floating technology designers need to develop platforms that could accommodate on-site heavy maintenance systems; and heavy maintenance suppliers need clarity on the standardisation of floating designs. None of these are straightforward as companies look to make major investments in their systems and technology.
Last week, consultancy RCG published a report with health and safety organisation G+, called ‘Floating Offshore Wind Hazard Identification’, that identified the biggest safety risks as floating wind moves towards commercial maturity. It categorised the risks in three categories: O&M, installation and new markets.
First, it highlighted challenges related to the motions of floating turbines alongside the vessels, such as the challenges of working in a dynamic environment, including at height; motion sickness; and platform access for vessels and helicopters.
Second, it covered risks involved in developing and scaling up an industry, where it identified gaps in safety guidance around quayside operations, towing, mooring and cable installations, offshore heavy lifts, and decommissioning.
And third, it identified risks involved with growing floating wind in new geographies, including how new markets can learn from established markets and players. This is common when looking to establish an industry in a new market. But as the industry rushes to achieve maturity in the next 12 years, or less, there is no time to lose.
Chinese turbine maker Mingyang has formed a partnership with UK advisory Opergy Group to support its entry into the UK offshore wind sector.
Mingyang said it was looking to bring its 18MW offshore turbine platform to the UK, as well as working on onshore wind, solar and hydrogen developments.
Given the lack of publicly available information on the topic, it’s perhaps no surprise that, when it comes to looking into just how much a PR agency costs, figures vary wildly.
Given the lack of publicly available information on the topic, it’s perhaps no surprise that, when it comes to looking into just how much a PR agency costs, figures vary wildly.
What makes this doubly interesting is that the three-way relationship between the agency fee, the agency output and the desired outcome of the client isn’t always a straightforward linear correlation.
We’ve seen £40k a month PR campaigns nose-dive spectacularly into the ground, and we’ve seen £7k press launches and £3-4k a month fixed retainer projects achieve outcomes far exceeding the expectations of both the agency and the client.
So, as a prospective client, how can you establish the size of budget you need to invest in a PR campaign, in order to deliver results? How do you know that the proposal you like most represents good value?
To understand what your PR campaign or project fee is actually buying, first you need to consider the variety of agencies out there.
Ask yourself 4 questions:
Are you seeking to engage with a business or consumer-centric audience group? All but the largest PR agencies will offer a route to one or the other, but rarely both.
Does the project or campaign you’re planning require an intimate understanding of the sector in which you operate? If so, there may be agencies out there that have taken the positive decision to work only on campaigns in your area. Meaning your budget is invested in achieving results, not bringing your PR team up to speed.
You probably work with a variety of service providers in a variety of countries. As with all sectors in our shrinking globe, the physical location or your PR team may not determine the best partner for you. But we’d argue that the geographic reach of their experience should. Does your prospective partner have a demonstrable track record of success in the country or region you’re targeting?
Are your needs centred on media profile or market reach? Do you need public affairs support? Or help engaging with stakeholders? Perhaps what’s you’re really after is marketing content? Or digital and design services? Perhaps it’s all of the above. Be clear with yourself and your prospective partners which services matter to you. And don’t assume that all agencies can excel in all services.
Taking the time to consider these questions should help you trim down a field of hundreds of potential PR partners to a field of tens, or even single digits.
Consider then what motivates each company? Are they independent or part of a wider group? How long have they been in business and have any of your peers worked with them previously? What’s the chemistry like?
You’re now ready to answer the question about how much it will cost you to hire a PR agency!
Typically, agencies will offer best value to retained contracts employing a fixed monthly fee and delivery against a pre-determined plan or set of KPIs. Retained relationships tend to have the inherent flexibility to dial different service lines up and down as needs change.
The alternative is to contract a PR team to work on a bespoke project, with tightly defined parameters in terms of timeframe, deliverables and services.
Either way, what you’re really buying is time and expertise. Any prospective partner should be able to break down their headline quote for you by both time input and the seniority of the personnel delivering the work. If they can’t, you might reasonably ask yourself how they delineated their quote in the first place.
The cost here involves your time. Or specifically, the time taken by whoever has been assigned to manage the agency relationship – acting as the primary point of contact between the two teams and the person to whom the agency will naturally gravitate to remove roadblocks and campaign obstacles.
Note here that the person assigned to manage the agency need not be the same person who hired the agency in the first place – although they do need to have a clear understanding of the aims and objectives that the agency is delivering against and they do need to command the respect of the internal team – including senior executives.
Tell us about the type of campaign you have in mind and we’ll prepare you a detailed quote!
We work on projects and retainers of all shapes and sizes, for businesses across the globe. At the lower end of the spectrum, we have a handful of clients spending a few thousand pounds, at the upper end of the spectrum, we have a growing number of clients investing double digits each month for a programme involving multiple service lines. The majority of our clients sit somewhere in between.
Irrespective of the scale of investment, all of the programmes we work on share two common threads: they have decarbonisation in mind, and they’re founded on an active, bilateral decision to build a partnership.
BlackRock-owned fund Climate Finance Partnership is buying 31.25% of the 310MW Lake Turkana wind farm in Kenya from Finnfund, the Investment Fund for Developing Countries and Vestas.
United Arab Emirates green fuels firm Ocior Energy has signed a deal with Indian state Gujarat to develop a $4.8bn green hydrogen and ammonia project, as well as associated renewable energy generation.
Enel Brasil has won a 15-year power purchase agreement to supply Brazilian coating company Portobello Grupo with electricity from the Ventos de Santa Esperança 21 project in Bahia state. The project is part of the 353MW Morro do Chapéu Sul II complex. The deal is equivalent to 87.6GWh per year.
German utility E-wikom has picked Nordex to supply nine turbines for the 50.4MW Ostprignitz wind farm in Brandenburg, Germany. The project is due to be commissioned by the end of 2024. Nordex has also signed a 20-year servicing deal.
China has a 79 per cent share of global lithium-ion battery manufacturing capacity, but Germany is set to overtake the US as its biggest challenger
· China has 79% share of global lithium-ion battery manufacturing capacity
· But Germany set to overtake US as country with second-biggest share of market
· However, Inflation Reduction Act could jeopardise battery manufacturing in Europe
China is the currently the overwhelmingly dominant force in battery manufacturing.
The country’s share of global lithium-ion battery manufacturing capacity stood at 79 per cent in 2021. No country gets even close to competing – to put it into perspective, the country with the second-biggest share of global lithium-ion battery manufacturing, the US, has a measly 6.2 per cent of the market. For the record, the countries with the biggest shares of global lithium-ion battery manufacturing capacity in 2021 were as follows:
1. China – 79%
2. US – 6.2%
3. Hungary – 4%
4. Poland – 3.1%
5. South Korea – 2.5%
6. Japan – 2.4%
7. Germany – 1.6%
8. Sweden – 0.6%
9. UK – 0.3%
10. Australia – 0.1%
But China’s stranglehold on the industry is becoming a growing concern for the energy storage and electric vehicle industries. This is largely part due to the fact that the global Covid-19 pandemic resulted in China imposing some of the strictest and longest lockdowns in the world, the result of which was that supply chains were severely disrupted. At the height of the pandemic, it was estimated that the battery supply chain would require at least six months to ramp production up to pre-Covid-19 levels.
Such was the extent of the disruption that the global energy storage and electric vehicle industries were spooked. Consequently, the push to develop battery manufacturing capacity in countries other than China has gathered pace, and this is not confined to lithium-ion battery manufacturing given there are concerns about China not only being the country with the fourth largest lithium reserves (2 million metric tonnes), but also having substantial interests in lithium mines in Australia, which is the country with the second largest lithium reserves (3.8 million metric tonnes). In an effort to level the battery manufacturing playing field, recent developments have included BHE Renewables, LLC, a Berkshire Hathaway Energy business, selecting Our Next Energy (ONE) earlier this month to build a factory in Jackson County, West Virginia that will build utility-scale battery storage systems using “Michigan-made” lithium iron phosphate battery cells. Also, this month Graphene Manufacturing Group (GMG) received regulatory and local authority approvals for the commercial scale manufacturing of batteries at its existing Richlands site in Brisbane, Australia, with a view to targeting the energy storage market.
Elsewhere, last month Germany-headquartered organic flow battery manufacturer CMBlu Energy said it was fully committed to establishing a US manufacturing presence. Yet it should be pointed out that establishing a manufacturing base can be difficult in some parts of the world. For example, last month energy storage company Fluence said that it would “localize” its technology in India by the end of 2024, but conceded that establishing battery manufacturing in the country would be challenging. The company admitted that it did not foresee having manufacturing facilities in India until 2025 at the earliest and, consequently it would rely on overseas battery suppliers – mostly in China – for the time being.
However, it is Germany that is expected to soon have the second-biggest share of global lithium-ion battery manufacturing. In 2021, while China sold the most electric vehicles – a total of more than 3.5 million, which equated to a 52 per cent share of the global market – it was Germany that sold the second highest amount, a total of 696,000, which was higher than the total number of sales in the US, which stood at 631,000.
Given Germany’s thriving electric vehicle market, the establishment of a reliable battery supply chain is a key priority. In an effort to tackle this problem, scientists at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have been working on developing a process that would facilitate economically viable lithium mining within Germany’s borders rather than relying on imports from the major lithium-producing countries such as Australia, Chile, China and Argentina.
The KIT scientists believe they have potentially solved the problem and have secured patent protection for a process that would involve extracting lithium using a minimally invasive process from the deep waters in geothermal plants of the Upper Rhine Trench. The process consists of lithium ions first being filtered out of thermal water and then being further concentrated until lithium can be precipitated as a salt. KIT says that, compared to traditional methods of lithium production from South American salt lakes and Australian solid rock, for example, its method has significant advantages. These advantages include the fact that the existing infrastructure of geothermal plants, through which up to two billion litres of thermal water flow every year, can be used, and – in contrast to classic mining – hardly any overburden is produced and the land consumption is minimal.
There have been reservations expressed about Germany’s ability to establish itself as a lithium-ion battery manufacturing powerhouse that could potentially be second only to China in the next two years. One analysis has claimed that more than two-thirds (68 per cent) of lithium-ion battery production planned for Europe is at risk of being delayed, scaled down or cancelled. This is due to the fact that subsidies being offered in the US – as a result of the Inflation Reduction Act – mean that lithium-ion battery facilities such as Tesla’s in Berlin and Northvolt’s in northern Germany are “among the projects that stand to lose the greatest volumes of their slated capacity as the companies weigh up investing in the US instead”, according to analysis by clean transport campaign group Transport & Environment.
However, last week, US President Joe Biden and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen highlighted the issue of disruptions to transatlantic investment flows and pledged to “coordinate our [the US and EU’s] respective incentive programs so that they are mutually reinforcing”. Yet, what this amounts to in practice – and whether any such initiatives have teeth – remains to be seen.
Yet there is confidence that Germany will substantially increase its share of global lithium-ion battery manufacturing capacity by 2025. Indeed, the expectation is that, in two years’ time, Germany will take over from the US as the country with the second-biggest share of such capacity. China’s share of the market is expected to drop by almost 14 percentage points from 2021 to 2025, with Poland expected to be a big winner as it increases its share of the market from 3.1 per cent to 4.8 per cent. The US’ share is expected to only increase slightly – from 6.2 per cent to 6.3 per cent, while Hungary’s share will grow from 3.2 per cent to 4 per cent. South Korea and Japan will remain major players, though both will see their market share approximately halve. Once you take those seven countries out of the equation, the “rest of the world” will also see its share of global lithium-ion battery manufacturing capacity increase substantially from 2021 to 2025, growing from 1.2 per cent to 6.8 per cent.
Sungrow has agreed a deal to supply Constantine Energy Storage (CES), a grid-scale battery energy storage platform, with its liquid-cooled battery energy storage system.
Sungrow and CES are working on a pipeline of projects totalling 825MWh of capacity spread across five “ready-to-build” sites in the UK. Construction has already started at Ocker Hill, near Birmingham, and Capenhurst, near Chester, both of which will be energised later this year and are each 57MW/165MWh, which Sungrow says represents the “longest duration grid scale BESS [battery energy storage systems] in the UK to date. The remaining projects will be operational in 2024 and are still subject to contractual agreement.
The CES platform is funding the construction of projects, which are being developed by Pelagic Energy Developments, a subsidiary of Constantine Group. CES will acquire these sites once operational and operate them long-term. The CES platform is majority-owned by institutional investors Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo) and Railpen, along with Constantine Group.
ZEN Energy has acquired the 111MW Templers Battery Project - located 60 kilometres north of Adelaide, Australia - from RES.
The project, which will store 270MWh of energy, is expected to cost more than $200 million and provide an estimated 181 jobs during construction.
It will be ZEN’s first utility-scale battery in Australia.
Japan's Daiwa Securities has bought a minority stake in the 174-turbine 1.2GW Hornsea 1 offshore wind farm in UK waters. Danish utility Ørsted is the largest owner in the project, which it developed, with other shareholders including Octopus Energy Generation, GLIL Infrastructure, Equitix, Greencoat UK Wind and TRIG.
Italy's ERG has signed a 12-year power purchase agreement to supply eyewear firm EssilorLuxottica with 75% of the electricity from the 42MW Partinico-Monreale wind farm near Palermo, Italy. The project is due to be commissioned by the end of June 2023.
ABO Wind and Braya Renewable Fuels have formed a joint venture to add green hydrogen production to a Braya refinery in Come By Chance, Canada. Abo Wind Canada is developing a 1.4GW pipeline of grid-connected wind, solar and storage projects as well as 11GW of renewables for green hydrogen production.
The Ayala-led ACEN Corporation has teamed up with US firm BrightNight to build a 1.2GW portfolio of hybrid wind and solar projects in India, backed by energy storage. The partners plan to deploy $250m equity in the developments.
The South African Government’s Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) has invited “interested parties” to register prospective bids for storage projects totalling 513MW under the Battery Energy Storage Capacity Bid Window of the Independent Power Producers Procurement Programme (Battery Energy Storage IPPPP).
The DMRE said the capacity to be procured in the Northern Cape relates to the following interconnecting transmission substations as follows:
Substation (Maximum Capacity at Substation)
Aggeneis (77 MW)
Ferrum (103 MW)
Garona (153 MW)
Mookodi (77 MW)
Nieuwehoop (103 MW)
Total 513 MW
For more information, click here
Renewable energy producer Axpo has plans to dramatically increase the amount of energy storage it develops in Europe and, in the latest move, the company has acquired a 20MW/20MWh facility in Sweden from RES and Scandinavian Capacity Reserve (SCR).
The project will be operational in 2024.
The lithium-ion based facility will be built in Landskrona and connected to the grid by local energy company Landskrona Energi.
Following the sale, RES will support Axpo with the provision of construction management, asset management and operation and maintenance services.
Rondo Energy and Calgren Renewable Fuels have confirmed that a 2MWh Rondo Heat Battery at Calgren’s facility in Pixley, California - described as “the first electric thermal energy storage (ETES) system in commercial operation in the US” - is up and running.
The Rondo Heat Battery captures intermittent renewable electricity, stores it at very high temperatures in brick materials, and delivers continuous industrial heat on demand.
The battery has been described as a “milestone both for energy storage and for the future of ethanol production” because the installation is the highest temperature ETES system in commercial operation worldwide, according to Rondo, storing and transferring energy above 1,000°C.
Vulcan Industries has acquired the entire share capital of Forepower Lincoln (FPL 250) Limited, a 240MW UK lithium-ion battery storage project in a £2.6 million deal.
FPL 250, the location of which was not specified by Vulcan, holds a grid connection contract - to connect to the National Grid infrastructure - and an option to lease a parcel of land for a minimum of 25 years.
“Vulcan has been engaged with the vendor over the last year to identify and develop a pipeline of battery storage opportunities and this acquisition is the initial project in this evolution,” a statement said. “Further projects are expected to be brought into the Vulcan Group in due course.”
Israeli hydrogen firm H2Pro has teamed up with Japan's Sumitomo Corporation to partner on green hydrogen projects. These include Sumitomo using H2Pro electrolysers at 100MW-plus projects, primarily for green ammonia production.
Neoen has launched a €750m rights issue to help it grow capacity in operation and under construction from 6.6GW at the end of 2022 to over 10GW at the end of 2025. This includes solar, wind and storage projects. https://www.webdisclosure.com/finance/stocks/neoen-sa/news/1142849.html
Siemens Gamesa has won an order to install its B108 recyclable blades on 44 of the 100 turbines at RWE's 1.4GW Sofia offshore wind farm in UK waters. This follows the use of the blades on some turbines at RWE's 342MW Kaskasi project in the North Sea.
Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners has bought South African developer Mulilo Energy, which has developed 440MW of operating wind and solar projects. Mulilo also has a 25GW development pipeline of onshore wind, solar and storage projects.