In new research published in the Journal of Cleaner Production, they show that electrifying Ukraine’s steel sector to have near zero emissions would generate $164 billion worth of additional gross value added, compared to a pathway based on traditional coal-based steelmaking.

Electrifying eastern Ukraine’s coal-fired forges to run on low carbon renewables could radically also shift the nation’s steel industry from the coal fields of the Donbas towards western and southern regions, and accelerate economic growth.

Robust production of green steel would have ripple effects across Ukraine’s entire economy, argues lead author Dr Alli Devlin, from Oxford University’s Department of Engineering Science

“The vast destruction of Ukraine’s iron and steelmaking assets represents a stark opportunity to rebuild a thriving industrial sector which is independent of fossil fuels”, writes Dr Devlin.

“Ukraine is well positioned to supply European green steel markets, which will provide employment throughout the value chain, and deliver returns to the economy well beyond the original investments.”

Steel makes up a big chunk of Ukraine’s economy. Before Putin’s psychosis, its 21.4 million tonnes produced in 2021 ranked Ukraine as the world’s 14th biggest producer.  But its steel is among the world’s dirtiest, with 2020’s 48 Megatonnes of CO_{2 equivalent}, making up 15% of the country’s entire carbon emissions.

Ukraine wants to join the Eurpoean Union. When it succeeds, it will become subject to the trading block’s EU Green Deal’ target, which mandates for steel at near zero emissions by 2030.

Curiously, south Wales nurtured eastern Ukraine’s early history of producing iron, then steel in industrial volumes, first for Imperial Russia, then for the Soviet Union.

Donetsk, capital of the Donbas coalfield, was named Yuzovka for nearly 50 years until 1919, in honour of Merthyr Tydfil-born John Hughes. Hughes was the forgemaster who sailed from Britain in 1869with over 100 of his countrymen, miners and skilled iron smelters, to set up one of Imperial Russia’s first high-volume iron furnaces.

A Welsh-speaking community in eastern Ukraine with an English-language school and churches dedicated to saints David & George, prospered until 1919. In that year Russia’s new Bolshevik government nationalised the town’s iron works, forcing many families to return to Wales.

So great was Donetsk’s affinity with Britain that, after Putin’s annexation of the Donas region in 2014, locals even jokily campaigned to have Britain assume sovereignty of the city, in view of the region’s debt to John Hughes.

In their new paper, Dr Devlin & colleagues suggest new electrified steel mills should be situated close to cross-border rail hubs and close to the best sources for solar & wind energy.

This strategy would significantly increase demand for land and sea transport services, re-routing them towards Western/EU markets, and also create new demand for the production of green hydrogen and green ammonia for fossil-free fuels.

The report lays out an investment bill of $62 billion over 20 years for Ukraine’s full recovery in steelmaking: $46bn for renewable energy kit, $7bn for energy storage, and $9 billion for electric furnaces. Based on recent performance, the team believe every $1 invested in Ukraine’s basic metals industry would yield an additional $3.28 elsewhere in the economy.

The World Bank estimates that Ukraine’s full post-war recovery and reconstruction needs will require $486 billion.

The Oxford paper says Ukraine’s green steel requirements amount to only 6% of the country’s total $486 bn post-war reconstruction bill, as calculated by the World Bank for the nation’s first decade free of Russian attack.

Ultimately, says the paper, Ukraine could provide the world’s template for the urgently needed transition towards low-emission steel . Now comprising around 8% of total global emissions, steel ranks top of all human production sectors, at 2.8 Gigatonnes of CO₂ per year. In comparison, air transport accounts for only 2.5%.

The war-ravaged country last year outranked England in the new capacityof onshore wind capacity which it commissioned.

With prospective international donors and private investors gathering in Berlin today and tomorrow for the Ukraine Recovery Conference 2024 , the Oxford researchers hope that green steel will be high on the agenda.

“This research is not just another feasibility study”, declared report co-author Dr Vlad Mykhnenko, the university’s associate professor of sustainable urban development.

“It is a call to action for steelmakers, investors, and politicians to ensure that after the war we really build back better.

“Green steel would become a sustainable growth promotion machine for Ukraine’s post-war development, and would generate almost twice as much economic growth than the traditional coal-based steel. This means more income and higher living standards for all Ukrainians”.

Through its research commercialisation arm Oxford University Innovation, Oxford is the number one filer of patents among Britain’s universities.  It’s ranked first in Britain too for commercial spin-offs, having created more than 300 new companies since 1988. Over a third of those have sprung into life since 2019.

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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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Headed by Devrim Celal, the fulfilment platform has announced a multi-year deal with municipal utility Saint John Energy, (SJE) in New Brunswick on Canada’s east coast, licencing Kraken’s end-to-end customer service platform.

As Kraken’s first partner in the North American energy market to license its customer platform, SJE can now use Kraken to support its progress towards a decentralised, decarbonised grid for its 36,000 customers.

SJE will adopt Kraken’s end-to-end utility operating system, enabling it to create & brand new green energy-focused services, deliver advanced customer care through relentlessly efficient processes, and flexibly manage its distribution network.

Kraken, which is part of Octopus Energy Group, will import and integrate all of SJE’s residential & business customers onto its all-in-one customer service, billing, optimisation, and asset management platform.

As Canada’s oldest incorporated city, Saint John on the 45^th parallel has been a test bed for electrification. Its 70,000 or so inhabitants face average January temperatures of minus 12 Celsius, and 167 days a year when temperatures do not rise above freezing point.

So the municipal power provider has had to come up with energy innovations, deemed among the most forward-looking in north America. More than 75 percent of the city’s customers have homes & premises heated by electricity. More than 70 percent of customers rent water heaters, and more than 20 percent of residents rent heat pumps.

In 2019, SJE became the world’s first utility to deploy a Tesla Megapack to store power, cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and reduce grid strain.

As the utility continues to employ solutions to reach Net Zero, the partners say Kraken’s end-to-end management platform will be critical in supporting the utility’s future energy transaction needs while easing emerging grid constraints resulting from new technologies in renewable generation and consumer low-carbon behaviours.

Greg Jackson, founder of Octopus Energy Group, said: “Around the globe, Kraken partners with some of the most trusted energy brands to decentralise, decarbonise, and above all, modernise the grid.

“Saint John Energy’s track record as an innovative early adopter makes this partnership a natural fit for us as we look to drive the energy transition worldwide. As our first utility and distribution partner in North America, we are excited to support Saint John Energy in bringing more affordable, reliable solutions to its customers in Canada.”

Ryan Mitchell, president and CEO of Saint John Energy said: “We’re proud and excited to partner with Kraken, which not only has a transformative platform but an international reputation for best-in-class solutions tailored to the energy industry.”

“Implementing its solutions will give our customers more information and control over their energy needs” Mitchell added.  “It will allow Saint John Energy to pursue more innovative solutions in clean energy and the transition to Net Zero.”

The Canadian deal follows Kraken’s recent pilot partnership to reduce grid constraints in Connecticut, its successful U.S. launch of SmartFlex, and a licensing agreement with a Texas-based energy asset manager, Tenaska.

Kraken currently looks after 54 million utility customers across the globe. Managing around 155,000 domestic devices— or over 38 GW of contracted power, it stands as one of the largest residential virtual power plants in the world.

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Currently headquartered in Billericay, Xlinks intends by 2029 to be importing into north Devon the first renewable energy from solar and wind farms in southern Morocco.

Once completed, Xlinks’ clean generation combined with battery storage is expected to supply 3.6GW of affordable, reliable power, meeting approximately 8% of Britain’s current electricity needs.

Its generation and batteries will be connected exclusively to Britain via twin 3,800km HVDC sub-sea cables.  Scotland’s government last year pledged £9 million to re-purpose Hunterston B, the defunct Ayrshire nuclear power station, as a factory making the cables.

Working to its mission “The Energy to Change the World”, Massachusetts-based GE Vernova Financial Services is GE’s recently formed investment division for energy projects.

It joins Octopus Energy as well as Octopus founder Greg Jackson, as investors in Xlinks. Other stakes include £25 million from Abu Dhabi’s national utilities managers TAQA, and participation by TotalEnergies.

GE Vernova was set up in 2022, following General Electric  announcing the previous November its intention to split into three publicly traded companies. The following year, GE named them as GE Vernova, GE HealthCare and GE Aerospace.

It has deployed what it calls “sizeable capital” into projects worldwide through development financing, direct equity investments, and capital raising from private & public financial institutions.

Scenarios constructed by Britain’s independent Climate Change Committee see UK electricity demand as potentially doubling by 2050, to 600 terawatt-hours. Against that background Britain’s government has acknowledged Xlinks’ potential.  D-ESNZ are developing an outline business case.

James Humfrey, CEO of Xlinks First, the megaproject’s financing arm, said: “Bringing in an investor of the calibre of GE Vernova represents a further strategic step in the Morocco–to-UK power project’s development, as we progress the project across several fronts.

“Xlinks is committed to meeting the UK’s need for reliable, affordable, zero-carbon energy while maximising the socio-economic benefits of the project in Morocco.”

For GE Vernova Financial Services, CEO Nomi Ahmad answered: “We are pleased to be part of the Morocco – UK Power Project, as collaboration across the energy sector is key to ensuring that more affordable, renewable energy is delivered to help meet the UK’s electrification demands and help the nation meet its net zero goals.”

INTEREST DECLARED: The author was educated close to Billericay.

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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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The deal sees Octopus’ Sky fund (ORI SCSp) take a 50% stake of Lintas Green Energy, an Oldenburg-based experienced and fast-growing green energy developer to accelerate their growth across the country.

The investment will help build new wind and solar farms, targeting 1 GW by 2030 – enough clean energy to power 370,000 German homes.

Lintas has already built green energy projects in areas like Lower Saxony. The state last year covered 100% of its electricity demand from its own renewable generation for the first time.

The developer currently has more than 20 green energy projects in its fast-growing pipeline across several more states, including Hesse, Bavaria and Saxony-Anhalt.

Octopus’ funding will enable it to expand further and form energy supply deals to help energy-intensive businesses decarbonise their operations.

The news comes as Octopus ramps up its renewables activity in Germany, with plans to channel more than €1 billion into the country’s clean energy infrastructure by 2027.

Octopus entered Germany’s renewables market in June 2022 and has rapidly accelerated its projects. This is Octopus’ 8th investment in the market and follows hot on the heels of its acquisition of Schiebsdorf solar farm, the largest solar farm in its portfolio.

Octopus is also partnering with major German corporations to help them cut emissions. Just last month it struck a deal with one of the country’s largest steel producers, Salzgitter Group, to supply it with solar energy for the production of green steel.

Alex Brierley, co-head of Octopus Energy Generation’s fund management business, said: “Germany has been a leader of the global ‘Energiewende’ since the 80s. We’re proud to be able to help the country speed up this transition by backing green projects and developers that are driving a cleaner, cheaper future.

“This latest deal with Lintas Green Energy is our 8th renewables deal in Germany and our first investment in a company creating new green power – and it won’t be our last.”

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Cable maker XLCC has signed papers to turn EdF’s defunct, decommissioned former nuclear plant at Hunterston, on the Ayrshire coast, into Europe’s biggest fabrication spot for high value, long distance DC cables, or ‘interconnectors’ as the jargon calls them.

Demand is booming worldwide in the cables business.  XLCC reckons its revamped factory will need up to 900 top-skilled staff.  Now it is setting up a centre to train them.

The manufacturer has signed a lease on premises in Irvine, north Ayrshire, to house a dedicated hub for passing tech savvy to the next generation.  Primed with its first students – pictured, the training hub will be in full swing by June.

Underpinning XLCC’s ambitions is its relationship to Essex-based Xlinks, the giga-project using £16 Billion from investors including Octopus Energy and its boss Greg Jackson among others, to port current from southern Morocco’s solar & wind farms via four 3,000 kilometre DC links under the Atlantic littoral, linking with Britain’s National Grid on landfall in north Devon.

Xlinks announced last month that industry alumnus James Humfrey is to be its new CEO.

XLCC’s lease on its 12,500 sq ft training site in Irvine was secured with the support of Scottish Enterprise, which provided a £200,000 grant towards its fit-out. The new centre will be XLCC’s main training hub for its cable jointer apprentices and workers in the Hunterston factory.

The specialist firm says the training centre’s location offers chances to develop relationships with employers in Scotland’s industrial south-west. These, says XLCC, can benefit to become the foundation of its preferred suppliers when the Hunterston factory reaches peak output later this decade.

The first cohort of the cable-maker’s skilled tradesfolk for tomorrow began their courses in October. Apprentices are working toward NC, HNC or HND in Electrical Engineering accreditations, depending on previous qualifications, and on day release. The course has been designed in partnership with Ayrshire College.

Recent board level appointments at XLCC include engineering leader Vegar Syrtveit Larsen’s arrival as its chief technology officer.

Company operations director Alan Mathers said: “The Irvine facility gives us a platform to deliver a very high standard of training for our apprentices, with a focus on cable jointing.

“We are proud to be playing a central role in stimulating economic growth in north Ayrshire and making a positive difference to community life.”

Adrian Gillespie, CEO of Scottish Enterprise, said: “We continue to work closely with XLCC as it seeks to address the growing global demand for HVDC subsea cables, themselves crucial for the energy transition. The establishment of this new Training Centre is an important milestone as the company seeks to deliver its ambitious plans for Scotland, by helping to ensure it has the highly skilled workforce it needs now and in the future.

“This transformational project also provides significant economic opportunities for the local supply chain in Ayrshire and beyond.”

Frank Mitchell, chair of Skills Development Scotland, said: “Ayrshire has a long and proud history of passing on skills through apprenticeships. In investing in these fantastic new facilities, XLCC are offering future generations of local talent a direct route into high-quality enduring careers. This project demonstrates the value that forward-thinking employers place on apprenticeship pathways, generating the skills needed to deliver a Zero Carbon future”.

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James Humfrey, pictured, has 25 years’ experience in leading complex international projects, most recently with state hydrocarbon firm ADNOC in Abu Dhabi. There he led project and business development including the establishment of a new $25 billion chemical park.

Humfrey also led ADNOC’s New Energies Division, developing the region’s first world scale blue ammonia plant and CCS pilot. He also delivered the acquisition of a stake in Masdar, the Emirati-owned renewables generator with a 20GW portfolio.  Humfrey pioneered the formation of Masdar Green Hydrogen, as well as serving as a director of the firm’s Infineum offshoot.

Xlinks co-founder Simon Morrish will continue as group CEO, working hand-in-hand with Humfrey on the scheme’s development. He remains responsible for key strategic relationships and growing Xlinks’ portfolio of projects.

Morrish founded Xlinks in 2019, spearheading the concept and development of the project linking southern Morocco to its intended landfall in north Devon.

Xlinks is being designed to generate 11.5GW of zero-carbon power from southern Morocco’s sun and wind, delivering 3.6GW of reliable electricity to Britain alone for an average of 19 hours every day.

Power will run through 4,000km of high voltage DC subsea cables cables run under the sea bed.  Once complete, the project will be capable of supplying 8% of Great Britain’s electricity needs.

With commissioning set for the end of this decade, the project’s backers intend its low-cost, clean power will flow to over 7 million British homes.

With a capital budget of £16 Billion, the venture’s investors include global energy brands such as TotalEnergies, the Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (TAQA) and Britain’s Octopus Energy.

Stabilising intermittency from Xlinks’ unprecedented renewables capacity, an onsite 22.5GWh/5GW battery will provide storage to guarantee near-constant flows of flexible and predictable clean energy into the National Grid.

“I’m delighted that James has joined us to lead and grow a world-class team to deliver our ambitious vision“, said Morrish.  “We have other markets that are excited to harness the enormous benefits that long distance HVDC connectors can deliver to help solve the intermittency of renewables.

Humfrey said: “Joining Xlinks First as CEO is a fantastic opportunity to lead the first-of-its-kind Morocco – UK Power Project in achieving its goal to deliver a near constant, clean and affordable supply of electricity to the UK. This will play a key role in the Morocco and UK’s future prosperity.

Sir Dave Lewis, executive chairman of the Billericay-based developer, added : “James Humfrey brings a wealth of expertise in delivering large complex energy projects to Xlinks, along with experience of working with major global investors in the industry.

”James’ appointment will allow our Founder and Group CEO, Simon Morrish, to focus on developing future energy projects to boost the global grid and help meet global net-zero targets.”

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The company already has operations in Britain and Australia. Now it is allying with Milan-based battery developer ACL Energy and BW ESS, a global storage firm.

ACL will lead its international partners towards satisfying the peninsular’s burgeoning demand for grid-scale batteries, expected to be one of Europe’s most active.  Italy’s transmission system operator Terna estimates that Italy will need around 27GW of energy storage capacity by 2033, accommodating a planned 120 GW+ of renewable generation connected to the Italian grid.

Each of the trio will become joint shareholders in three projects at development stage totalling 395MW connection capacity, and jointly fund them.

Penso Power CEO Richard Thwaites, pictured, said: “Italy is a priority market for us and the combination of skillsets that this joint venture brings together positions us to take a leading role in Italian energy storage.

“We have been working closely with BW ESS for several years and have benefitted from having them as a shareholder and project partner.  We regard the ACL team very highly and are delighted to formalise our partnership with them.”

The 111MW project in Lombardy and the 97MW project in Puglia have been submitted to the Italian Ministry of Energy for approval.  The 187MW project in Piemonte will be submitted for approval later this year.

ACL Energy managing partner Nicola Locascio said: “We are proud to enter this partnership with international players with such successful track record in the energy storage industry such as Penso Power and BW ESS”.

In October 2021 Penso and BW Group announced a joint venture agreement which commits BW to fund the build out of Penso Power’s UK project pipeline totalling more than 3GWh.

ACL Energy was advised by the law firm Eversheds Sutherland.  BW ESS and Penso Power were advised by the law firm Bird & Bird.

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The UK-headquartered firm has hired energy infrastructure veteran Laurie Fitzmaurice – pictured – to head the unit in Texas, with a remit to harness partners in jointly removing more than six million 6Mt of CO₂ from the planet’s atmosphere every year.

New research from consultants Foresight Transitions highlights what Drax calls BECCS’ ‘critical and cost-effective’ role in aiding the Biden administration in achieving ambitious decarbonisation targets, as well as the technologies’ potential for job creation and regional economic development within and outside the US.

In Britain, Drax’s plans for introducing BECCS technology to its pellet-burning plant in north Yorkshire and its transformation into the world’s largest carbon removals facility recently received planning approval from the Sunak administration.

Drax will formalise the new entity in the US later this year.   Fitzmaurice, whose experience embraces leadership at Amazon Web Services, will lead a team tasked with project development, delivery and and sales of CDR credits, power and deployment of the parent group’s billion-dollar global capex programme in BECCS technologies, all designed to sequester the gas and achieve negative CO2 emissions.

The UK-led combine calls in aid new research from Foresight Transitions, a specialised consultancy centred on Imperial College, London.

The consultants’ US-focused study concludes BECCS is necessary to help the United States deliver a zero-carbon power system by 2035 and become net-negative by 2050.

The study concludes that the integration of BECCS is a cost-effective solution, outweighing other technologies, whilst strengthening system reliability across America’s three biggest regional grids  – CAISO, MISO, and ERCOT – and reducing interconnection delays.

Drax Group CEO Will Gardiner said:  “The creation of this business marks another step in Drax’s journey to enable a zero-carbon, lower-cost energy future. Our recent success is grounded in providing secure, renewable energy and our future is focused on playing a critical role in tackling climate change through the generation of secure, renewable power and the large-scale removal of carbon dioxide.

“I am excited to welcome Laurie as President of our new US-headquartered carbon removals business. We have a limited window of opportunity to capitalise on our first mover advantage and I am confident that the time is right for this approach.

“The new entity will bring focus and will scale the company’s ability to deliver carbon removals to organisations looking to reduce their carbon footprints. Delivering the ambitious targets will see the new entity become a leader in the growing carbon trading market.”

Fitzmaurice responded: “I am delighted to have been asked to lead Drax’s new US-based business at such a crucial point in the growth of the carbon removals industry. We have enormous potential to play a significant role in tackling climate change and improving the lives of billions’.

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The dams, including one on the Säveån river in the country’s south-west, add another 9 GWh in output capacity to Downing’s hydro portfolio, previously at 206 GWh.  All 34 assets are located across the UK, northern Europe, Iceland and Scandinavia.

All the plants benefit from what DORE told investors this morning is ‘meaningful’ reservoir capacity enabling better water storage and management to optimise production.

With a core objective of accelerating the world’s transition to Net Zero, DORE is part of Downing LLP. Its staff of 60 professionals are concentrated in London. Since 2010, the group has built a portfolio of 180 renewables projects, amounting to more than £850 in assets under management.

The group said its Hydro AB operational unit has continued the roll-out of software and hardware upgrades across its portfolio to allow the relevant hydropower plants to participate in the frequency containment markets, in addition to their electricity generation activities.

The deals were finalised last month. At that time, improved operating hardware had been installed at 20 plants and the first submission to the Swedish Transmission Operator (SvK) for pre-qualification had been made. The residual sites are expected to be submitted for pre-qualification during the first quarter of 2024. The Company expects that the pre-qualification approval process will be finalised and nearly all relevant facilities will be phased into the Frequency Containment Reserves (FCR) markets during the first and second quarters of 2024.

Group head of energy & infrastructure Tom Williams commented: “Following our recent Icelandic hydropower acquisition, we are pleased to add another five hydro plants to the DORE portfolio. We are also delighted with the progress of the software and hardware upgrades to the hydropower fleet and hope to see the first facilities participating in the Swedish frequency markets this quarter.”

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Britain, the Netherlands and France installed the most new capacity.  Foremost was the Hollandse Kust Zuid project, at 1.5GW the world’s largest operational wind farm now operating.  The first three of Dogger Bank’s four phases will soon surpass its Dutch forerunner, however.

Investments committed last year to build the continent’s new offshore parks also reached new heights.  WindEurope’s analysts count a total of €30bn raised in 2023 across eight wind farms. When built they will together contribute 9GW of new capacity.

2023’s funding success was a recovery from Putin-oppressed, Covid-cursed 2022’s all-time low, when only €0.4bn of deals were sealed.  Unclear laws and licencing, plus unhelpful market interventions depressed that year’s market.   Investment go-aheads in consequence slipped back, reaching confirmation only in the most recent twelve months.

Growing confidence in 2023 among Europe’s offshore wind players stemmed from big advances in enabling policy. The European Union published its EU Wind Power Package with 15 immediate actions to support the European wind sector. 26 European governments signed the European Wind Charter, committing to swiftly implement the actions ascribed to them in the EU package.

In Britain, the trade body believes investors have recovered from 2023’s fiasco of no new marine projects being presented as candidates the government’s fifth allocation round (AR) for Contracts for Difference.  The failure prompted government raised the ceiling price by 66% for 2024’ upcoming offshore auction round, AR6.   WindEurope speculates that the new elevated AR6 ceiling price could open UK coastal waters this year to record investment inflows.

Sparking added hope too for the trade body UK was Orsted’s final investment approval for Hornsea 3, at a planned 2.9GW  Europe’s biggest offshore  wind venture. RWE acquired the 4.2GW Norfolk Offshore Wind Zone portfolio and underlined its determination to re-start the 1.4GW Norfolk Boreas project, previously halted.

2024 – big for auctions, big for elections

If all Europe’s wind-favouring nations run their auctions as planned this year, at least 40 GW will be be progressed, WindEurope believes. Germany, Denmark join the UK, France and the Netherlands as the top five countries auctioning capacity over the next two years.

France will announce the results of Europe’s first commercial-scale floating offshore wind tender. Germany will auction almost 9GW this year alone. As a comparison: all of Europe auctioned 13.5GW of new offshore capacity in 2023.  Poland’s Baltic coastline looks set to boom; by 2040 the country wants to have 18 GW generating.

WindEurope’s analysts warns however against a feature known as uncapped negative bidding, used in 70% of last year’s auctions.  The practice deters developers, leaving them shouldering extra costs arising from negative, undercutting tenders, which they either pass onto final consumers, or to turbine suppliers and constructors.  Better bid rules are needed, the experts counsel.

Even if the continent meets its builds its intended 5GW of new offshore capacity every year up to 2027,  the body says that will still leave the continent needing to build 24 GW every year later in this decade.

Read the summary in full here.

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The arrangement with Close follows the announcement that the Reading-based company has just completed a major equity raise of £65m. This gives Enviromena funding of up to £270m to facilitate the build out of its ever-growing pipeline.

In addition to the 500MW target, Enviromena will also utilise the funding to grow its self-developed ground mount solar pipeline to more than 2GW by 2025.

The firm says its pipeline is already looking strong, with over 400MW of projects set to be submitted into planning in the next six to nine months.

The funding will also enable the company acquire ready-to-build, fully consented solar projects from third parties to help turbo charge its growth plans.

Headquartered in Berkshire and with a regional office in Italy, Enviromena delivers transformative clean energy solutions across Europe. It vaunts more than 15 years’ global experience in developing, designing, constructing, managing and operating ground-breaking renewable energy projects.

Enviromena has already constructed over 120 solar farms in the UK and is set to announce the commencement of works on over 150MW of solar, include many due to commence in 2024.

Christina Allen, the developer’s chief legal officer added: “We are delighted to complete on this facility with Close Brothers. We have worked extremely hard to bring this together and create a long-term relationship allowing us to focus on growing the business and to build out our extensive pipeline. We are looking forward to working with Close over the coming years as we continue to contribute to the UK’s Net Zero ambitions.

Enviromena CEO Chris Marsh said: “Close Brothers have a strong track record in the renewables industry, so we are delighted to announce this latest arrangement.

“Enviromena is committed to leading the transition to a world powered by clean energy by providing safe, affordable, and reliable clean energy solutions to customers across the UK and Europe.

Richie Kidd, head of sales for Close Brothers’ energy team, commented that “working closely with Enviromena for a number of years, we’re delighted to support the team in providing facilities that will allow them to grow their portfolio in both the construction and acquisition of projects.”

Pictured is the developer’s Bryngwyog solar farm in Wales.

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Reinforcing the price-cutting truth of accelerated renewables deployment, the think tank reports canny Teuton customers cashing in.  Those who switched suppliers collected cuts in the nation’s Putin-pushed, generally high tariffs.

Although the sun shone less in Germany in 2023, solar farms and roofs produced 61 TWh,  one TWh up on the previous year.

That strong expansion in solar PV capacity keeps Germany up to pace for targeted carbon emissions by 2030, the pro-green consultancy report.

Wind, beating gas for the first time as Germany’s single biggest power source, also set new records in Europe’s biggest national power market, around a third bigger than Britain’s.  Consistent breezes spun German turbines, overwhelmingly land-based, to produce 138 TWh, beating 132 TWh from the nation’s coal-fired plants.

With only 2.9 GW of new turbines added, though, Agora’s analysts complain wind expansion last year ran at half what Germany needs.  2024 promises better, they believe, adding that a current 7.7GW pipeline of unbuilt but permitted wind farms are the minimum the country needs.

Germany also benefitted from strong renewables and nuclear generation across Europe’s integrated grids. It imported 69 TWh of largely low carbon power, half of it from neighbours’ wind and hydro plants, plus 24 percent from French, Polish and Belgian nuclear stations.  At the same time it sold 58 TWh of home-produced electricity abroad.

Across the EU, Agora calculates that renewable energy production increased by 5 percent last year.

Total carbon emissions from German energy industries, including refineries and district heating on top of power generation, amounted to 210 million tonnes of CO₂, a drop of 18 percent on 2022’s planet heating.

German generators’ shunning of Russian gas underpins the nation’s extraordinary 3.9% drop in electricity consumption last year. Mothballing of coal-fired plants cut 15 m tonnes of emissions. Easing back output from lignite facilities added 29 million more.

Astonishingly, some power and gas tariffs also fell, the consultancy reports, particularly for firms and households who switched suppliers.

“Prices for existing customers remained high, as electricity providers generally delay passing the fall in prices on the electricity exchange to customers“, the report notes. “Natural gas prices also fell in 2023 but remained above pre-crisis levels“.

“The price of electricity is more strongly affected by levies and surcharges than the prices of fossil fuels such as oil and gas. This is slowing the switch by households to climate-friendly technologies such as electric cars or heat pumps,” Agoraenergiewende director Simon Müller cautioned.

Despite German renewables’ record-breaking, Müller says gaps remain in national energy policy.

“2023 was a two-speed year,” he said. “The energy sector notched up a climate policy success with its record level of new renewable power, taking us closer to the 2030 target,”

“But we don’t consider the emissions reductions from industry to be sustainable. The drop in production due to the energy crisis weakens Germany’s industrial base. If emissions are simply shifted abroad as a result, this won’t benefit the climate. The buildings and transport sectors are also lagging as far as structural climate protection measures are concerned.”

Read AgoraEnergiewende’s summary and further analysis in English here.

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Viking extends between Bicker Fen substation in Lincolnshire and Revsing in southern Jutland, on Denmark’s mainland.  It will initially operate at 0.8GW, with transmission ramped over coming months to the full 1.4GW rating. That’s enough, says NG, to meet the power needs of up to 2.5 million UK homes.

A joint venture with Denmark’s grid system operator Energinet, Viking is National Grid’s sixth interconnector.  Construction began in 2019, and has clocked up more than four million working hours thus far.  The link’s first power flowed on 21 December.

NG and ministers say Viking enables Britain to import cheaper, lower carbon Danish power when needed, increasing Britain’s energy security, and potentially cutting costs for UK consumers.

In its first year of operation Viking Link is expected to save approximately 600,000 tonnes of carbon emissions, equivalent to taking 280,000 cars off UK roads.

National Grid’s interconnectors are run by its National Grid Ventures offshoot. NGV operates outside the parent’s core regulated businesses in Britain and America, developing energy projects, technologies and partnerships to accelerate the development of Britain’s clean energy links.

NGV president Katie Jackson said: “This record-breaking new link is a fantastic example of engineering and collaboration with Energinet.

“As we deploy more wind power to meet climate and energy security targets, connections to our neighbouring countries will play a vital role increasing security of supply and reducing prices for consumers.

Principal contractor Siemens Energy built the converter station in the UK, stepping up current for marine transmission. The German engineers designed, installed and commissioned additional switchgear on both sides.

Prysmian made Viking’s HVDC offshore cable, laying it too in a seabed trench with its custom-made vessel the Leonardo Da Vinci.

Engineers Balfour Beatty laid the onshore stretches cable in Britain. These comprises 118 sections, stretching for 67km between Bicker Fen and Sutton-on-Sea.

Rebecca Sedler, managing director of National Grid Interconnectors, hailed the switch on.

“Viking Link is an achievement for both Denmark and the UK” she said, “and consumers in both countries will benefit from this infrastructure for many years to come.  Viking highlights National Grid’s dedication to the UK’s clean energy transition.”

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