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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Based at Lichtenfels, near Kassel in central Germany, Voodin Blade Technologies says its lumber blades help turbines reduce CO2 emissions by up to 78% against conventional materials, and cut up to 20% from turbine production costs.

The four year old start-up has attached its innovative structures, 19.3 metres in length, to an existing turbine tower already erected at Breuna, near Kassel.  60- and 80-meter blades are also taking shape on the firm’s drawing board.

Voodin’s boss Tom Siekmann says that while up to 90% of wind turbines are recyclable, conventional blades are currently not. Their usual construction is of fibreglass and carbon fibre sealed with epoxy resin.  Though some manufacturers are trying, the materials have proven difficult and expensive to break down.

Holz on to your Hütte! Wir in it, to spin it!

Conventionally sourced turbine blades have a working life of up to 25 years. With the first generation of blades now reaching end of life, towers – sometimes known in Germany as ‘white asparagus’ – need to be re-equipped with replacements.

Voodin makes its wooden blades from laminated veneer lumber, or LVL, a sandwich of many thin layers, glued together.

“At the end of their lifecycle, most blades are buried in the ground or incinerated. This means that, at this pace, we will end up with 50 million tonnes of blade material waste by 2050. With our solution, we want to help green energy truly become as green as possible,” said Siekmann.

Voodin Blade Technology uses CNC – ‘computer numerical control‘ – lathes to create complex 3D shapes.   The method allows for a high level of automation, obviating the moulds used in conventional manufacturing.  CNC milling also adds flexibility and versatility to designs as they advance to reality.

Increased automation means less labour and so cheaper production. Manufacturing thus does not need to be offshored to countries with lower labour costs, avoiding delay in supply chains. Production can even be achieved closer to the host turbine parks, further trimming back emissions and transport costs.

The company believes wooden blades can even flourish in challenging working offshore, where around 85% of current turbines are located

“According to all our tests, our blades are even more durable than the existing fiberglass blades, as they show fewer fatigue characteristics and are proven to endure all kinds of onshore weather conditions extremely well,” Voodin co-founder Jorge Castillo explained.

Blade on the feather, body between the knees

Traditional German respect for wood, natural materials and forests runs deep in the country’s ecological culture.  Former Bundestag MP Josef Göppel, a past advocate for community energy in Angela Merkel’s government, represented a forestry-dependent seat in Bavaria.

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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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Dutch nuclear consultancy ULC-Energy and Danish fuel cell developers Topsoe have signed co-operation understandings with the Crewe-based world brand, in the next stages of what Britain’s government sees as a renaissance in the cumbersome, overcentralised technology.

Topsoe contribute proprietary know-how in building electrolysis cells based on solid oxide materials SOECs.  Low-carbon nuclear heat released at very high temperatures by their reactors of their British partners could contribute the energy needed to split green hydrogen from water.

Smaller than the atom-splitters of over-budget, always delayed leviathans such as Hinkley Point C, SMRs promise to be less expensive. Modular designs using components made offsite to a template and at lower cost indicate, or so government and investors hope, faster and further deployment of SMRs.

Initially focused on demonstrating synergies between SMRs and SOECs in a conceptual study, the three companies will also evaluate the potential operational flexibility of the combination in a future energy market based primarily on renewable power.

ULC-Energy CEO Dirk Rabelink said: “Hydrogen will play an increasingly important role in balancing future energy markets.

“We expect nuclear energy, especially in combination with high temperature electrolysis, to be able to produce zero-emission hydrogen competitively on a stand-alone basis. Additional value associated with the operational flexibility will further enhance the business case for this solution.”

Nuclear energy combined with SOEC technology could produce hydrogen more cheaply than alternative electrolysis processes because of the high temperatures, which means less electricity is needed, the partners said. Nuclear power plants can provide energy up to 95% of the time, far higher than other sources.

Topsoe’s Sundus Cordelia Ramli added: “With our SOEC technology, we can produce more hydrogen relative to influx of renewable power input when compared to competing electrolysis technologies. To enable net zero by 2050, we need to look into all possible technologies, and we’re confident that our electrolysis technology will be one of the key components.”

“SMR power plants will also be able to switch to deliver power to the grid when needed, providing back-up to variable power sources when they are not available. “This is expected to be a competitive solution compared to alternatives, like long duration energy storage solutions or hydrogen combustion for electricity generation,” the parties declared.

Harry Keeling, Rolls-Royce SMR’s head of industrial markets, said: “The production of low-cost hydrogen is a critical step on the pathway to decarbonising our wider society.

“Our agreement with ULC-Energy and Topsoe is an exciting step toward unleashing the potential of the Rolls-Royce SMR. Its ability to flexibly provide thermal and electrical energy supports a wide range of industrial applications, chief amongst these being the large-scale generation of low-cost hydrogen.”

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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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From Turkish supplier Hydropower Engineering, RheEnergise will source the 500kW turbine and install it early next year at the Devon test site.

The device is a key component in RheEnergise’s proprietaryHD Hydro® system.

Designed to be dug into as many as 6,500 low UK hillsides, plus over 100,000 more in Europe alone, HD Hydro is – or so RheEnergise claim – scalable and more widely deployable than conventional pumped hydro, of the type that established at Engie’s Dinorwig’s 1.7GW ‘electric mountain’ in Snowdonia, or Drax Group’s 440MW ‘hollow mountain” at Cruachan in Bute & Argyll.

At times of low energy demand and thus cheap electricity, R-19, RheEnergise’s proprietory high-density fluid is pumped uphill between underground storage tanks sunk into a low hillside. As energy prices rise, the benign fluid is released downhill and passes through turbines, generating electricity to supply power to the grid.

RheEnergise says in theory it can offer generating stations as small as 10MW, from vertical elevations of 100m or lower, or 2.5 times less than conventional hydropower drops.

RheEnergise’s analysis of potential project opportunities has indicated that North America houses 345,000 potential locations, and half a million more across Africa & the Middle East.

The firm’s supplier Hydropower Engineering draws on Turkey’s successful experience with conventionally sized turbines. The country’s mountainous landscape and many rivers make it a natural home for hydroelectricity. Over 700 hydropower plants make up about 30% of the country’s electricity generating capacity.

Today’s deal with its Turkish turbine supplier follows RheEnergise’s agreement in August with British firm Mercia Power Response to examine the feasibility of getting 100MW of HD Hydro into commercial operation by 2030, utilising Mercia’s existing grid connections in the UK.

RheEnergise CEO & co-founder Stephen Crosher, pictured, heralded the turbine order as “an important milestone in our efforts to deliver our demonstrator project.

“The expansion of the long duration energy sector, and using new technologies like our HD Hydro storage system, is vital as the UK and other countries are placing a greater reliance on wind and solar to meet their future energy needs and to achieve Net Zero.”

Caglar Cinar of Hydropower Engineering (HPE) said: “We are excited to be given the opportunity to work with RheEnergise in a new and innovative part of the international hydro sector.  Given that their HD Hydro system can be deployed in many more locations than conventional forms of hydro, and quickly too, we see our turbine order from RheEnergise as a first of many”.

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The London-headquartered international Energy Industries Council finds that contractors in supply chain firms selling into energy generation and distribution companies are increasingly seeking commercial security in legacy hydrocarbons, frustrated by governments’ equivocation around the need for Net Zero.

A lack of consistent work identified by the EIC in green projects is raising concerns worldwide that Net Zero 2050 ambitions will be missed, according to the body’s seventh annual Survive and Thrive report, released today.

Worldwide investment in drilling and selling hydrocarbons has boomed back to pre-Covid levels, according to values & projects tracked in the EIC’s Financial Investment Decision (FID) database.  It finds that oil & gas projects are more immediately valuable to middle-sized contracting firms, energy intermediaries & enablers That means they are more likely to attract full funding from the enabling sector, compared to renewable and transition technologies.

Ventures in oil and gas, whether upstream, midstream, or downstream, get the readiest financial approval from suppliers’ boards, averaging around 20% for projects due to begin over the next five years, the EIC report finds.

Renewables projects & those in energy transition technologies stand much a lower chance of winning the nod from directors of enabling contractors.  Every proposal related to offshore wind stands only an 8% of approval, for example. For projects related to new ways of making hydrogen, approvals run at 3%. With projects related to carbon capture (CCUS), board-level greenlighting runs at only 2%. Ventures around floating offshore turbines register just 1%.

Real-world evidence thus points, the report concludes, to a gap between widening governments’ green rhetoric and the reality of what businesses register in their order books.

The EIC’s 900 member companies range across energy sub-sectors.  Its EICDataStream resource is a worldwide database of energy projects in development, and its EICAssetMap records operating energy assets. The association this year won the King’s Award for Enterprise.

Its Survive and Thrive paper depicts a fast-changing global energy landscape, where investors and business owners are experiencing once-in-a-generation levels of growth and profitability after ten lean years for the energy sector.

A decade of underinvestment in global energy infrastructure, coupled with energy security concerns and a return to normal activity levels after COVID-19, has led to high energy prices, rising costs, delayed renewable energy projects, and worries about skill shortages.

From interviews with nearly 100 heads of energy contacting firms worldwide, the EIC report flags up warnings over new policy challenges.  The most serious is the fragility and jeopardy of Net Zero ambitions.

“Never before have we heard such vocal concern from our members about the growing gap between Net Zero dreams and industry reality”, say the authors. They calls for policy makers to table urgent new approaches to the goal, or accept a reality that targets will be missed and damage will be done.

“The much lower level of funding for green projects, compared to hydrocarbons, highlighted in this report, is having a direct impact on energy supply chain businesses”, said EIC CEO Stuart Broadley.

“They are not seeing enough renewable and transition-related work cascading down into their order books. This is such a lost opportunity. The supply chain wants to be part of, and to drive, net zero solutions, but opportunities just aren’t there, in anything like enough volume or profitability.”

 “It’s high time for a reality check, ” Broadley argues. “We ask governments and energy policy makers to act now, to bring stakeholders together to address this energy policy crisis, to re-ignite funded demand for clean energy products and services, and to provide the right policy environment to encourage investment, innovation and the seeding and rooting of world-class, green-technology exporting businesses.”

The lack of breakthroughs to ease trading across international markets remain an enduring bugbear for supply chain contractors. For the seventh year in a row that absence heads the enabling firms’ list of complaints.

The report also seeks clarity around a developing skills crisis, sparking worries about the sustainability of any future growth, when the green revolution arrives.

Read the EIC report here.

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Launched in 2019, GeoPura seeks to strip carbon from sectors most reliant on diesel to make on-site power, such as construction, infrastructure and outdoor events.

Its mobile, green hydrogen-fuelled generators have made on-site electricity for the National Grid, contractors Balfour Beatty and the BBC, among others. They provided temporary EV charging at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Developed in partnership with über-engineers Siemens Energy, GeoPura’s HPU device is built around industrial hydrogen cells.  A standard unit provides 250kW output, 80kW thermal power and 216kWh battery storage, equal to the needs of 80 homes. High-speed EV charging is among possible configurations.

A typical diesel generator rated at 250kVA would emit 960g of CO2 per kWh, as well 327.5g of CO per hour of operation, the firm claims. In contrast, and with water as its only emission, GeoPura says its hydrogen power unit is far quieter than a diesel burner.

At home in Nottingham and from a second plant in Newcastle, the £36m investment will enable the engineers to step up HPU output alongside partner Siemens Energy.  GeoPura plans to deploy at least 3,600 more over the next ten years.  More than six million tonnes of emitted CO₂ will be avoided over their working life, the firm calculates.

CEO Andrew Cunningham observed: “Green hydrogen is too often seen as a technology that will happen in the future.  GeoPura and our partners are delivering a commercially viable technology today.

“This investment allows us to build on our installed base of HPUs and hydrogen production infrastructure to stimulate the green hydrogen economy, and then expand the use of clean fuels into other hard-to-decarbonise areas of our energy system.

Cunningham concluded: “The world can’t afford to wait a decade for green fuels to scale – we must act now”.

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Watercycle Technologies, a deep tech company focused on furthering high-yield, low-cost, mineral extraction, is pledging its unique technology to magic the battery industry’s most valuable metal from a shaft of super-heated salty water beneath Lazio, near Rome.

Its partner is Energia Minerals (Italia), a subsidiary of quoted Altamin, owner of mines in central Italy. Using the British firm’s propriatory DLEC approach – Direct Lithium Extraction & Crystallisation – , the duo will extract samples from a borehole in Lazio.  In October Altamin won two exploration licences for lithium from the region’s government.

Subsurface strata running from Rome north into Tuscany provide Italy’s bedrock for geothermal brines. Temperatures up to and beyond 200 degrees Centrigrade run at least four geothermal power stations.

With its UK partner Cornish Lithium, Watercycle are already piloting extraction of the valuable metal from brine-filled caves and aquifers under the West Country.

DLEC’s compatibility with a wide range of water salinities delivers, or so Watercycle claims – dramatic reductions in costs, carbon emissions and water consumption compared with current processes

Baggy, chemical, and happy on Mondays

Under the deal Watercycle will test brines extracted from a borehole in central Italy.  Once the waters’ specific chemistry is understood, dedicated membranes will be fabricated by the team.  Watercycle will then pass the brine through its DLEC process, and analyse both the resulting lithium-rich extraction and the lithium-purged residue.

Watercycle will then process the lithium-rich solution to produce lithium carbonate salts. This latter stage it presents as a key differentiator compared to standard extraction practices.

If successful, the two parties will examine the potential for initiating large-scale testing in Italy.

“Each brine has different characteristics”, explained Watercycle CEO Dr Seb Leaper.

“It’s part of our development model to test multiple brines to further prove the efficacy of our technology and provide leading edge, sustainable solutions for lithium and critical mineral extraction from them.

Watercycle’s CTO and co-founder Dr Ahmed Abdelkarim added: ““Our technology has taken years of development both within the University of Manchester and now within Watercycle.

“We are not only successfully partnering with lithium brine developers but also making fantastic headway in the extraction of multiple critical minerals including cobalt and graphite from spent batteries and the utilisation of our processes in desalination, critical in today’s world where water shortages are being becoming more pronounced.

In materials science, Manchester University, home to Alan Turing and early computing, has more recently been world-renowned for graphene. The super-strong lightweight material won the 2010 Nobel Prize for physics for its developers Professors Andre Geim & Kostya Novoselov.

Watercycle’s labs are in the university’s Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre.

Interest declared: the author was educated partly at Manchester University.

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The soft white metal is critical to batteries and devices used in renewable power, in automotive charging and components used in consumer electronics. The world in 2040 is projected to need four times more critical minerals, including lithium, than it does today.

Green Lithium Refining, set up in January 2021 and now headed by Sean Sargent, Dominic Kiernan and Alex Cheesman, is behind plans for the plant, to be located in the controversial Teesside Freeport.   Up to 250 continuing jobs in manufacturing, plus 1,000 more ensured for the plant’s construction, are promised as part of the deal.

The firm intends Teesside to host the world’s first merchant-scale lithium refinery outside Asia.

China currently dominates lithium refining, commanding 80% of the world’s purifying capacity, as well as making 77% of battery cells, and 60% of components dependent on the metal. Japanese and Korean plants contribute to Asia’s 89% capacity share for purifying the metal.

Europe has no big lithium refineries.  In late 2017 the EU Commission set up the European Battery Alliance, but with only sketchy plans for ore processing.

The UK government has backed Green Lithium with a grant of more than £600,000 through the Automotive Transformation Fund, a £1 billion pot primed the month after an original founding trio set up Green Lithium.

“This is levelling up in action” D-BEIS secretary Shapps commented.  “We’re backing companies, like Green Lithium here in Teesside, to grow the new, green industries across the UK, sparking jobs and growth for decades to come.

In May, the company signed a deal to source lithium ore from behemoth commodities trading firm Trafigura.

The highly conductive alkali metal, easily worked at room temperatures, is currently mined or extracted from salt flats, in locations as far afield as south America, the US, China and Australia.

Andes’ “lithium triangle”

Prospectors are seeking for new sources adding to the 80 million tonnes of ore identified worldwide in 2019 by the US Geological Survey.

The ‘lithium triangle’ of Bolivia, with 21 million tonnes, Argentina’s 17 million tonnes and Chile with 9 million tonnes, head the world’s treasure stores.

The Andes mountains make exploiting those reserves difficult, with only Chile producing 18,000 tonnes of untreated ore in 2019.

Even the US, with 6.8 million tonnes of reserves, produced in 2019 from only one site, a brine-extraction plant in Nevada. In the same state the following year Elon Musk acquired rights to source the metal from brine pools close to Tesla’s battery Gigafactory in the desert.

UK industry reaction to today’s Teesside announcement was energised and warm. For the Green Finance Institute, programme director Lauren Pamma observed:

“The UK currently produces around 2GWh of battery capacity a year, but will need to ramp up to over 90GWh a year to maintain the car industry at its current size. Key to establishing this capacity is building a world-leading, home-grown supply chain from raw material processing through to recycling.

“The Teesside lithium plant is a great example of how the public and private sectors can work together to deliver just that” said Pamma.

A GFI report in May advised its client the Coalition for the Decarbonisation of Road Transport that investing billions now in EV batteries and their supply chain could yield £ 24 billion to the UK economy by 2025.   But investment must be rapid to head off European competition, the report warned.

Full GFI report here.

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A spin-out from Queen’s University Belfast – pictured -, and based in the city, MOF Tech claims to have developed an energy-efficient solution to isolate carbon, promising lower emissions from cement works, steel works or energy-from-waste plants.

Cement and other heavy industries are estimated to emit over 30% of the globe’s carbon pollution.

MOF Tech claim world-leading expertise in a class of nanomaterials known as metal-organic frameworks.  They are crystalline materials able to store, separate, and capture targeted gases like CO₂.

The Belfast firm’s unique technology uses only 20% of the energy burned by traditional technologies such as amine scrubbing when seizing CO₂.

Headed by Dr Conor Hamill and Dr Jose Casaban, the company says it can manufacture the MOFs on an industrial scale in an environmentally friendly way that is both inexpensive and scalable.

The funding will enable MOF Tech to further develop its technology and scale its business.

In May 2022, MOF Tech announced it begin a trial with HeidelbergCement, Cementir Holding and Buzzi Unicem, the world’s dominant trio for cement companies.

Hamill said: “I’m delighted that Clean Growth Fund and Barclays have chosen to invest in our company. The willingness of these two leading funders in cleantech reinforces our own confidence in our work and gives us scope to expand our operations in Belfast and secure new business opportunities. With our cost-competitive end of pipe system, we can make commercial carbon capture a reality and a key part of the climate solution.”

His co-chief executive Casaban  said: “We are thrilled to work with Clean Growth Fund and Barclays to accelerate the roll out of our unique MOF-based CO₂ capture technology to deliver against the pressing demand from heavy industries to meet their Net Zero targets.”

Clean Growth Fund’s investment director Stephen Price said: “Given the challenges facing industries like cement and steel to cut their CO₂ emissions and their energy use, we are excited about the massive potential for MOF Tech across the world.

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Through its patented Accelerated Carbonation Technology process, Carbon8 combines industrial residues with captured CO₂ emissions, to produce high-value minerals.  ACT speeds up the natural process whereby minerals are made in nature through combining with carbon dioxide.

Aggregates for use in construction and in fertilisers are among ACT’s fruits. Carbon8 is also researching other potential uses.

Vicat Group was Carbon8’s first commercial strategic customer in September 2020 when a CO₂ntainer was deployed at Vicat’s cement plant, near Lyons.

The CO₂ntainer helps boost growth in the use of alternative fuels in the cement-making process and uses captured CO₂n to carbonate cement-plant dust by producing quality aggregates.

Carbon8’s technology is likely to be rolled out at other Vicat cement plants in France and beyond.

Pilkington commented: “Vicat Group and EDF Group share Carbon8’s vision of pioneering cleantech solutions for heavy industry and helping industry achieve their Net Zero ambitions. The investment made by EDF and Vicat is hugely valuable as we accelerate the growth of our business, and maximise the positive impacts – capturing carbon, re-using residues – that we can offer to industry. We are delighted to have the support of these two major companies, and the continued backing of our other investors.”

 Vicat Group R&D director Laury Barnes-Davin explained the cement maker had been drawn to Carbon8’s two-part technology: capturing CO₂ emitted, and using it to make aggregates for use in building projects.

“Under our commitment to limiting our environmental impact, Vicat has looked at a number of innovative ideas for reducing its carbon emissions. We were drawn to It opens up great potential for our operations not just in France but also in all the countries where we work across the globe.”

EDF Group’ chief innovation officer Julien Villeret added: “The development of CO₂ sequestration is key to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. The solution developed by Carbon8 enables our industrial customers to accelerate decarbonization rapidly while integrating themselves into a circular economy logic.

“This investment is fully consistent with the raison d’être of EDF Group, which aims to build a carbon neutral world.”

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The Surrey-based firm has added its shareholder Bosch to its existing partnership with Weichai Power, China’s giant engine & power train manufacturer.  Under the non-binding deal, the trio will collaborate in technology licencing:

• Ceres and Bosch will licence their know-how to Weichai, the majority shareholder in a new China-based joint venture to build low-carbon solid oxide engines for vehicles and stationary power.  Ceres will invest £20 million over time, in return for an immediate seat on the joint-venture’s board.
• Though not a direct shareholder, Ceres will licence its technology via its 28% German shareholder to a second Bosch-Weichai joint venture, intended to build stacks of solid oxide fuel cells. Ceres will receive royalty payments.

Ceres anticipates license fee income in the region of £30 million from both ventures over the next three years, in line with terms agreed in the original Weichai-Ceres agreement in 2018.  Minimum payments and annual royalties will starting flowing, once each JV begins operations.

No production targets were disclosed in this morning’s announcement.

Detailed agreements are now being prepared, towards signing definitive contracts for both collaborations.

Ceres Power’s CEO Phil Caldwell couldn’t have been happier.  “This exciting collaboration represents an important step in Ceres’ ambitions for the Chinese market and a critical part of delivering global manufacturing capacity for our technology,” he said.

“We have every confidence in our partnership with Weichai and with the addition of Bosch’s expertise in industrialisation and manufacturing have the potential to establish one of the strongest partnerships in the fuel cell industry.”

In January 2020, Bosch boosted from 4% to 18% its holding in the Surrey engineer.

Founded in 2002, Weichai Power is a Hong Kong-quoted offshoot of the Weichai Corporation. In 2019 it contributed earnings of 9.11 Billion yuan, or £ 1.06 Billion to its parent.

By mid-morning Ceres Power’s share price on the London Stock Exchange had risen over 24% to 642p, valuing the company at £ 986 million.

Hydrogen is a key potential output of Ceres’s solid oxide electrolysers. The carbon-free gas is made essentially by reversing the fuel cells’ function.  “Ceres has a credible path to delivering hydrogen at scale”, said Caldwell in September 2020.

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The manufacturer, owner of the Andrex, Kleenex and Huggies brands, will benefit from a contracted 160GWh every year from the generator’s Cumberhead turbines, powering three factories and two distribution depots.   55,000 tonnes of carbon will be stripped out of Kimberly-Clark’s footprint annually.

“This PPA – [power purchase agreement] – is the first of many that will be needed to deliver the energy transformation we are aiming for,”  said Oriol Margo, Kimberly-Clark’s sustainability leader for its EMEA operations.

Last June per reports Octopus Renewables Investment Trust committed to pay Cumberhead’s developer RDC Partners a total of £75 million for rights to build the 12-turbine, 50MW project.  Per the same report, the site 22 miles south of Glasgow is set to become fully operational by this July, and generate for a planned 25 years.

The deal is the smallest in today’s trio of industrial PPAs announced by Octopus Renewables with European clients.

In Estonia, Britain’s cephalopod-inspired powerco will generate for Eesti Energia, the Baltic’s biggest utility.  A five-year deal will see 1,400 GWh off-taken each year and distributed to the supplier’s 425,000 customers.   Eesti Energia is keen to speed up its green transition, expanding its renewable alternatives to its dependence on shale gas.

From its Ljungbyholm onshore turbines in Sweden, Octopus will supply 1,500 GWh annually over ten years to insulation and building composites maker Owens-Corning.

Zoisa North-Bond, Octopus Energy Generation’s CEO, said: “This assortment of PPA deals we’ve signed is a massive step forward for decarbonisation agendas across Europe – something that’s become even more important after COP26.

“To clean up grids across the world, we need large energy users to commit to green energy and sign more PPAs like this to cover their production and provide more clean energy to their end customers.

“Eesti Energia, Kimberly-Clark and Owens Corning are ahead of the curve on making the switch”, the Octopus boss added.

Launched in 2010, Octopus Renewables is part of Octopus Group. The renewables subsidiary manages over 3GW of generating assets.  Its European interests, valued at £3.4 billion, include one of the continent’s biggest solar portfolios, plus onshore wind.

In December 2021 Octopus Energy Group was valued at approximately $5 billion, following a $600 million investment from Generation Investment Management and a $300 million investment from Canada Pensions Plan Investments Board. It was the company’s third major investment round since launching to the market.

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In a joint statement to investors, engineers Nova Innovation and Atlantis Energy welcomed D-BEIS’s unveiling of a new, ring-fenced £20 million per year budget, available for 15 years to submerged turbines, as part of the government’s Contracts for Difference (CfDs) arrangements.

D-BEIS announced its long-term funding package for tidal turbines on Wednesday,  providing further details in yesterday’s revised framework for the upcoming Allocation Round 4 of Contracts for Difference.

Announcing Westminster’s long-term support, Scottish Secretary Alister Jack described the Conservatives’ allocation of funding for tidal power across the UK as “tremendous news”.

“Harnessing the powers of our seas is a vital step in our transition to the use of greener, cleaner energy and underlines the UK government’s commitment to create and protect highly-skilled jobs while on our journey to Net Zero by 2050“, the minister said.

This morning Nova and Atlantis together voiced their appreciation.

Nova Innovation CEO Simon Forrest said: “We are delighted that tidal stream energy has been recognised by the UK Government as a core part of the UK’s green industrial revolution.

“The ring-fenced investment will deliver a route to market for tidal energy companies such as Nova Innovation and Atlantis Energy, turbocharging the delivery of tidal energy across the world.”

Atlantis Energy is the subsea wing of global clean tech generators SIMEC Atlantis. The group’s projects include the conversion of the former Uskmouth coal-fired power station to burn waste pellets.  The marine unit’s CEO Graham Reid added:

“We would like to thank all who have championed our industry and believed in the global role tidal stream energy can play in the fight against climate change.”

Both innovators teamed up earlier this year to accelerate the gestation of the MeyGen tidal site in the Pentland Firth near John O’Groats.

With four trial turbines each of 1.5 MW already commissioned towards a potential capacity of 400MW, MeyGen in the Pentland Firth is the largest consented tidal power location in the world.

Home to the world’s biggest tidal array and to the world’s most powerful tidal stream turbines, it has all consents necessary to deploy 80MW of tidal power as its next stage.

By mid-century, power generation across all the UK’s tidal races could be bigger than all of the nation’s present nuclear output.  A recent report by the Royal Society highlighted that  the UK is capable of delivering over 11GW of tidal stream energy by 2050, 50% greater than current nuclear capacity.

The innovators share the belief that tidal stream energy can deliver 100% clean, 100% predictable energy, without visual impact, complementing intermittent renewables like wind and solar.

Export earnings beckon.  With in-country partners, Atlantis is already developing its marine turbines off western Japan, having passed technical tests set by Tokyo’s government.

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