So says analysis released this week by research firm Rystad Energy.  It finds that 1GW of electrolysis capacity has already been installed in China.

However, Rystad also notes that most of this capacity will be built in the north, where wind and solar resource is high, and not co-located with the likely demand centres for hydrogen in transport and industry in the eastern cities.

It notes that provincial targets combined would produce a million tonnes a year by 2025. The northern regions of Inner Mongolia and Gansu alone respectively aim for 480,000 tonnes and 200,000 tonnes of green H₂ a year by 2025, not only exceeding national targets, but local demand too.

As such, the research firm highlights that China’s energy companies are putting more effort into linking up supply and demand via new hydrogen pipelines.

These include Sinopec’s planned 400km pipeline between Inner Mongolia and Beijing — which would be able to initially carry 100,000 tonnes a year from 2027 before scaling up to 500,000 tonnes a year — as well as its subsidiary China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering Corporation’s proposal for a 6,000km network by 2050.

Rystad also tracks a 737km hydrogen pipeline from the province of Zhangjiakou to the port of Caofeidian, which traffics both international and domestic cargo, to be developed by Tangshan Haitai New Energy Technology at a cost of $845m. “If realized, it would be the world’s longest hydrogen pipeline,” the research firm notes.

While the Beijing government set its green hydrogen targets as part of a wider push to peak the country’s emissions by 2030 and reach carbon neutrality by 2060, Rystad warns that stricter standards and faster deployment of renewables will be needed to prevent extra emissions from electrolysers’ demand on the grid.

The research firm says that 217GW of new solar and 76GW of new wind power were installed in 2023 to decarbonise China’s grid — although coal still dominates the country’s power generation. It also estimates that a million tonnes a year of green hydrogen production capacity would need 20GW of extra onshore wind.

“Consequently, hydrogen projects compete directly with other substantial electrification needs throughout China,” the research firm warns.

Additionally, the country currently has separate standards for “low-carbon” hydrogen, which is given a threshold carbon intensity of 14.51kgCO₂e/kgH₂, and “renewable” or “clean” hydrogen, which must have a carbon intensity of at most 4.9CO₂e/kgH₂. However, it is unclear whether these also account for potential induced emissions from using grid electricity and upstream methane emissions.

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Greg Jackson’s bouncy renewables-to-heat pumps creation, privately held, gained more than 1.9 million net customers in the twelve months since March 2023, latest statistics from Ofgem reveal.

That rocket skywards puts the generator-retailer on a market share now of 22%, with 6.8 million households served.  Octopus was the only large energy supplier to increase its market share over the past year.

The company’s spokespeople say it is persuading more Brits than any of its rivals to switch away from existing suppliers.  Over the same period, the firm accepted more than 800,000 customers from other providers, equal to one account switched inbound every minute.

In a separate mass transfer, 1.3 million households moved over from Shell Energy Retail following Octopus’ takeover of the business in late 2023.

The figures mean Octopus is now officially the UK’s largest electricity supplier, only eight years after launching to the market.

Company spokespeople point to the brand’s popularity among its own customers. Octopus Energy comes out on top in almost every service ranking, including Which?, Trustpilot and Money Saving Expert. It is also the only energy supplier named as a Which? Recommended Provider for seven years in a row.

TIME Magazine has named Octopus as one of the world’s ‘100 Most Influential Companies’. Britain’s government recently featured it as a poster child for the country’s businesses in its ‘GREAT’ campaign, intended to attract foreign investmen.

After rapid worldwide expansion, including into Japan & Italy and investing in both European offshore wind and in Xlinks, the Morocco-to-Devon wind and solar mega-venture, Octopus says it is active in 18 countries, looking after almost 8 million households globally. It is also one of the largest investors in renewables in Europe, managing a portfolio worth £7 billion.

The technical core of Octopus’s success – its Kraken platform for billing, fulfilment and power trading – is now licensed to 54 million customer accounts across 16 countries. It is increasingly being adopted in other sectors such as water and broadband.

Pictured above with Kraken boss Deepak Ravindran, Octopus’ founder Greg Jackson commented: “We’ve invested relentlessly in outstanding people and technology to deliver better customer service and lower costs.  Today’s news shows that this works.

“I hope that we can inspire both entrepreneurs and existing companies”,  Jackson went on.

“By investing for the long-term, and by truly focusing on customers, they can deliver success for themselves and for those they serve.”

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Attracted by Britain’s status as the world’s second biggest offshore wind market and a global leader in renewables development, JERA Nex – the acronym stands for ‘Japan New Era’ – has an ambition to develop 20GW of renewables worldwide by 2035, through selective acquisitions and partnerships.

Producing about 30% of all Japan’s electricity, the parent company JERA is a 50:50 joint venture formed in April 2015 by two electric leviathans, TEPCO Fuel & Power and Chubu Electric.

Tokyo Electric Power Company – TEPCO – is the firm responsible for the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant, flooded by a tsunami in 2011.

JERA committed in 2020 to zero carbon generation by mid-century. Its developing renewables portfolio grew to 30GW last July, with the purchase of Parkwind, Belgium’s largest offshore wind platform.

Parkwind and other operating assets, plus JERA’s 10GW development pipeline, will be transferred to JERA Nex.

The new division’s aim is to leverage the UK’s expertise in financing and developing renewables projects, as well as drawing on our talent pool to develop capabilities in core markets.

The new division will be headed by Nathalie Oosterlinck, pictured, currently head of global renewables at the parent JERA.

She said: “With the launch of JERA Nex, we are bringing together passionate renewable energy people from across the world”.

“Our teams have already delivered pioneering offshore wind farms, from the Taiwan Strait to the North Sea, as well as leading several onshore projects across the world.”

Yukio Kani, the parent JERA’s chair and global CEO, said: “We have outlined a vision to reach zero emissions by 2050. The birth of JERA Nex plays a critical role in our strategic pillars for delivering that ambition.

“JERA Nex will enable us to draw upon expertise from across the world to develop renewable projects, forge partnerships, and build assets that contribute to a future of decarbonized energy with sustainability, affordability, and stability.”

The firm employs more than 300 renewable and energy industry experts.

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Licencing Kraken, the operations and software platform underpinning Greg Jackson’s challenger supplier, to both the gas company serving Japan’s capital city, and to Coventry-based water company Severn Trent, represents two globe-straddling transactions for Octopus, now risen in its seven years of existence to become Britain’s Number 2 power firm, in terms of account numbers.

Kraken, a German word for Octopus, has been the operational information hub of the UK challenger, its ‘deep brain’ supporting service provision, customer account management, plus transactions and billing.

Purchased in the British supplier’s early days and developed further under Boston Consulting alumnus Deepak Ravindran, Kraken has attracted increasing licencing income from utility and broadband providers as far apart as Sydney, Silicon Valley and Houston, as well as Tokyo.

Today’s deals bring the total number of energy, water and broadband accounts Kraken is licensed to manage to between 40 and 50 million, halfway towards the company’s goal of managing 100 million by 2027.

‘O-heyo, Tako-kun ‘ / Hello, little octopus

In the land of the rising sun, the first of today’s deals will see Kraken managing 3 million electricity customers of Tokyo Gas, with potential to add around eleven million gas customers in future.  Tokyo Gas has been a Kraken client for the past two years.

Founded as long ago as 1885, publicly quoted Tokyo Gas’s total of eleven million customers ranks it as Japan’s biggest retailer of natural gas.   Sales of ‘low voltage’ electric power began as recently as 2016, the year Octopus took off in Britain.

Back home, from today Coventry-headquartered water utility Severn Trent  is also now paying for Kraken to manage its 4.6 million accounts, including via customer service interactions, also powered by Kraken.

Extended and developed by Octopus Energy Group, Kraken has disrupted the energy sector with its operating efficiencies, drastically reducing the cost-to-serve, and improving customer and employee satisfaction.

Kraken launched to the market in 2016 with Octopus as its first client. It turbocharged Octopus’ rapid expansion and helped make it the only energy supplier to be Which? recommended six years in a row.

Severn Trent is the first water company to achieve the highest rating for its environmental performance from The Environment Agency for four consecutive years. The Midlands based FTSE 100 plans to invest £12.9bn in its region, bringing 7,000 jobs and major new projects that include laying new water mains the length of the UK – twice – in response to climate change and population growth.

 ‘Goin’ back to Jackson, / Hotter than a pepper sprout’

Of today’s licencing deals, Octopus CEO and founder Greg Jackson, pictured with Ravindran, observed: “Japan is the largest competitive energy market in the world – and no company is more respected than Tokyo Gas. Combined with Japan’s stringent requirements for customer service and the need to decarbonise rapidly, it’s a huge privilege for Kraken to be chosen”.

Tokyo Gas CEO Shinichi Sasayama explained; “We visited Octopus Energy and Kraken in London back in 2019, and were impressed by  their excellent business model and the platform that supports it. We are delighted that just a few years later Tokyo Gas is the first company in Japan to license the Kraken platform”.

Deepak Ravindran, CEO of Octopus’ Kraken Utilities arm, declared: “Unleashing the power of Kraken unlocks both better service for customers, and operational efficiencies never seen before in utilities. We’re thrilled to join forces with Tokyo Gas and Severn Trent as we gear up to bring our cutting-edge tech to even more utilities.”

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Britain’s state-backed trade guarantors UK Export Finance stood behind the Salfords, Redhill firm, as it sought to market the world’s first ever technology for distributed recycling of argon.

The inert gas, one of chemistry’s supposed noble fluids, is colourless, odourless, tasteless and non-flammable.  More interestingly argon is a brilliant catalyst, and thus critical to the manufacture of solar cells.

Cell makers use argon gas to purify silicon, the feedstock heated to produce ingots later sliced into cell wafers. Conventional processes use vast amounts of argon, with some producers needing to ship in many tankers of the gas every day for use only once.

GR2L positions its ArgonØ technique as a world’s first. The kit allows cell producers to recycle up to 95% of the argon they use.

Argon capture and re-use are boons too to other advanced manufacturing, such as microelectronics, 3D metals printing and heat-treating clever widgets for planes, satellites and rockets.

GR2L founder Rob Grant learned of a chance to supply his recycling know-how to backers of a vast PV panel factory, slated for construction in Gujarat, western India.

With yearly panel output planned to rise this decade to 2 GW, Mundra Solar Technology is to be located on the Mundra Solar Techno Park, a coastal development between Mumbai and Pakistan. Backers include Gujurat’s tax-exempt Special Economic Zone and port operators Adani.

To secure the order, the Surrey SME faced a financing conundrum. To seal the deal, it had guarantee to assure the buyer that it could deliver, a commitment likely to have meant putting cash on ice, via a surety deposit at its bank, Lloyds. But that would have drained off the development funds GR2L needed to equip a production line to deliver the very same order which it wanted to secure.

A £475,000 guarantee issued under UKEF’s Bond Support Scheme resolved the would-be exporter’s Catch 22. The bond offsets that part of GR2L deposit, allowing it to devote funds towards delivering for the Mundra venture.

Grant commented: “With brand-new argon creating up to a tonne of carbon dioxide for every tonne of produced gas, our cutting-edge recycling technology helps solar panel factories reduce their scope 3 CO₂ emissions.

“Building on our existing export successes, support from Lloyds and UKEF helped us to secure this latest opportunity and develop our established international presence. I look forward to commissioning our machinery by the end of 2023.”

Colin Walls, Lloyd’s regional director for trade & working capital, said: “GR2L is exactly the type of business we want to see thriving.

As a bank, it’s fantastic to see the exporting ambitions of this firm grow with the support which we can offer alongside UKEF’s through our Working Capital facility. Their contract with Mundra Solar Technology Ltd is testament to that.”

Prime minister Rishi Sunak was last weekend in Delhi with G20 heads of government. Brexit can be assumed to have no impact either in easing or obstructing GR2L’s deal.

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The increasingly global cleantech group made the announcement as prime minister Rishi Sunak arrived in Japan yesterday to attend the G7 economic summit.  Octopus’s Zoisa North-Bond is pictured with the PM at a reception in Tokyo.

The company plans to invest £1.2 billion into solar and wind generation in the region. Half that sum will go into Japanese renewables.

A further £300m is earmarked to expand Octopus’s tech innovation and energy retail hub in Tokyo. The hub has contributed to development of Octopus’ tech platform Kraken.  Increasing local staff tenfold by 2027 could create as many as 1,000 green jobs for UK and local talent, the company said.

Japan is now Octopus’ second largest market after the UK. Through a two-year old joint venture with Tokyo Gas, the company serves nearly 200,000 retail customers, and targets millions more.

The move could also boost the firm’s British generation assets. It is looking to Asia-Pacific investors and others to raise £400 million by 2028 to build more UK wind and solar farms, and strengthen supply chains.

Japan’s clean energy intentions include boosting offshore wind capacity by 150 GW this decade and pushing solar capacity to more than 1 TWp.

The parties stressed the key role played in the deal by the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) trade agreement, recently signed by the British government.  According to Octopus, it provides UK companies with increased protection and opportunities in member states.

Octopus founder Greg Jackson said: “International cooperation is the key to creating an energy transition which benefits consumers and economies as well as the climate.

“Our partnership with Tokyo Gas has grown ever stronger.  Linking our businesses in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore to the UK and Europe, our operations in Japan have helped create a unique global technology ecosystem benefiting everyone. I’m excited to take it even further with today’s announcement.”

Julia Longbottom, Britain’s ambassador in Japan, welcomed the deal.  “This investment demonstrates Octopus Energy’s strategic foresight and commitment to sustainable development, and is a vote of confidence in Japan’s vast and largely untapped renewable energy potential.

“Japan’s renewable energy market is ripe for investment. Now is the right time for British companies to step up collaboration with our Japanese partners, bringing together our shared expertise and commitment to green energy.

“The launch of our newly-forged UK-Japan renewable energy partnership marks a significant milestone in our bilateral collaboration; one that could set the stage for a boom in renewable energy projects in Japan. As we navigate this new era of energy transition, I am confident that UK companies, exemplified by Octopus Energy, will play an integral role in shaping a sustainable and prosperous future for the UK and Japan.”

The two nations share a bi-lateral Framework Agreement on renewables and offshore wind. It enables both countries to collaborate in innovation, capitalising on the immense potential of offshore wind power.

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The Perth-based generator-developer today said it has committed sums ultimately peaking at £153 million, or $280 million, for an 80% stake in a partnership company to be set up with Pacifico Energy.    Around £22 million of the sum depends on the alliance’s performance.

Japan is targeting 10 GW of offshore wind by 2030, and up to 45 GW by 2040, as the country seeks to decarbonise and achieve greater energy independence.  The nation’s nuclear output has dropped by 75% since the 2011 Fukushima catastrophe.

Tokyo is backing its wind targets with periodic auctions, designed to inject certainty into wholesale power prices.

SSE Renewables says it is building more offshore farms than any other constructor in the world.  Committed to 7 GW of upcoming British and Irish projects, the Perth-based firm is those nations’ largest aspirant turbine operator.

After 2025, it intends adding at least 1 GW of generation assets each year, en route to annual output from renewables of 30 TWh a year by 2030.  The firm is confident it can beat its own targets.

Today’s deal announced to the London Stock Exchange brings shared ownership of several early-stage offshore projects in Japan, totalling ‘multiple’ GWs. Two already have grid access.  Both fixed and floating turbines are contemplated.  Up to 20 Japanese staff will join the planning team.

Japan now joins Spain, Portugal, Denmark and Poland as markets where SSE Renewables is pursuing offshore projects.  Today’s acquisition, it believes, may open doors to the East Asian market, where up to 140 GW of new offshore turbines are expected to be spinning by 2050.

SSE Renewables’ managing director Jim Smith said: “Today is an exciting next step for us as we enter Japan which has huge ambitions for offshore wind deployment”.

“In Pacifico Energy we have found a fantastic local partner with hugely complementary local capabilities, experience and insights. These can help bring our expertise in developing, building and operating offshore wind to Japan. We want to help realise Japan’s renewables ambitions and be a significant part of their offshore wind plans during the decades ahead”.

In another offshore-related development, TotalEnergies today announced the consortium behind its bid for the 2 GW West Orkney offshore farm, the ‘N1’ ScotWind plot near Caithness.

Macquarie offshoot Green Investment Group and local developer RIDG are the French giant’s partners.  Development pacts have been signed with EMEC, the Orkney-based maritime renewable centre, and Orkney and Scrabster harbours.

Crown Estates Scotland anticipates announcing in December its winners in the 10 GW ScotWind round.

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