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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The firm, a fourteen year spin-off from Oxford University, has allied with scientists at Germany’s Fraunhofer Solar Energy Institute to make a perovskite-based panel which achieves a record 25% conversion efficiency, advancing on conventional panels’ benchmarks in the low 20s.

Last May the firm achieved a world-beating rate of  28.6% for energy conversion by a single perovskite-coated cell. Small losses are incurred when as many as 72 cells are assembled into a single solar panel.

Greater things are yet to come. According to the company, stabilising the volatile perovskite mineral and layering it on standard silicon cells grant a theoretical maximum efficiency of over 43%, compared to less than 30% for standard silicon-based cells.

More efficient panels generate greater power from the same area, thus reducing the cost of electricity output, and making solar technology more attractive to investors and site owners.

Solar power accounted for an estimated three-quarters of renewable capacity additions worldwide in 2023.  So panel efficiency offers transformative potential in developers’ drive worldwide towards an all-electric future.

Dr Chris Case, Oxford PV’s chief technology officer, said: “Our record-breaking solar panels demonstrate that we are on the cusp of the next solar revolution, which will be delivered, in part, by our tandem cell technology.

“Solar energy is currently among the most cost-effective and sustainable energy sources“, Case added. “Our continuous advancements in technology will further enhance module efficiency – producing more electricity from the same area – and extending their use to all market sectors from residential, commercial through to utility scale.

The manufacturer’s CEO David Ward added: “This new world record is a crucial milestone for Oxford PV, proving that our tandem solar cells can deliver record-breaking performance when assembled into solar panels.

“It is the first step in what will be a transformative 2024, as we begin to deliver market-ready panels from our factory in Germany and continue our global search for a new high volume manufacturing site which will enable us to bring our technology into the mainstream.”

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Running across the Great Sunburnt Country for 3,000 kilometres from Darwin to Adelaide starting on 22 October, the competition brings some of the world’s greatest scientific and engineering talent to Australia.

Vehicles can only be powered by the energy of the sun.  University-affiliated teams push the limits of technological innovation, crossing the Lucky Country’s Dead Red Centre in solar-powered contraptions which they have designed, engineered and built themselves.

Top Dutch Solar Racing is a multidisciplinary solar racing team based in Groningen. The team stands out as it is not linked to a single technical university; instead its members include students from a variety of institutions and at various educational levels.

Ain’t no Verstappen us now

Four months ago Oxford PV, a 13 year old spin-off from the British university, achieved a world-record efficiency of 28.6% for converting light to power with its commercial-sized tandem solar cell, which features a perovskite coating laid on silicon. That’s around five points better than conventional silicon-only cells.

With an R&D base in Oxford and a factory near Berlin, Oxford PV plan to focus on home roofs and other area-constrained surfaces, when volume sales start early in 2024.  The company is clear-eyed about taking its technology beyond 30% efficiency.

Oxford PV and Top Dutch Solar Racing engineers have been working together for months, building and testing the technology that will power the team’s vehicle in their second attempt at the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge. The team narrowly missed out a podium spot in 2019, finishing in fourth place.

Motion without lotion

Video of the launch event of their latest car follows: .

Chris Case, Oxford PV’s co-founder and chief technology officer, said: “Our highly-efficient solar photovoltaic technology integrates with standard silicon solar cells to deliver more power in the same area – critical for enabling more affordable clean energy – as well as now hopefully powering the Top Dutch Solar Racing team across the Outback.

“We will be cheering Green Thunder the whole way.”

For the Dutch racers, photovoltaic engineer Laura de la Fuente Esteban added: “Over the past year our team has been studying how to capture the sun’s energy using innovative technologies that will allow us to compete against teams with over 10 years of experience.

“Tandem silicon solar cells from Oxford PV can outperform traditional silicon solar cells by at least 20%“, she added. “They represent the next big leap forward for solar power, as silicon cells approach their theoretical limits.”

Motion without lotion

Beginning in 1987, the World Solar Challenge occurs once every two years. In 2019, a record 53 entries from 24 countries were received and around 1,500 participants were observed and followed by a global audience of more than 25 million.

The Aussie organisers say the race’s challenge is not just about finishing the fastest, but about innovating towards a future of green mobility.

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Already two years into test production in a plant near Berlin, the firm’s co-founder Dr Chris Chase tells the Financial  Times today that the UK’s lack of incentives leads the manufacturer to rank the USA or Europe’s mainland as better homes for a base to step up production of its ultra-efficient solar panels.

The 13 year old university spin-off announced this week a record conversion efficiency for its cells, which use a microfilm of the synthesised perovskite mineral.  Against standard coated silicon which convert up to 24% of light into electricity, perovskite achieved 28.6% in lab tests two years ago.

The firm’s new tandem silicon-perovskite sandwich structure pushes that to 33.2%.  Its first commercial sales are set for early 2024.

Twenty per cent of upfront costs of Euro 44 million to build the firm’s existing German plant two years ago were met by Berlin’s regional government. Britain in contrast offered ‘zero incentives’ for such investment, Oxford Perovskite’s co-founder Dr Chris Chase told the FT.

“It seems to me the rest of the world is staking their future on solar and the UK is not”.  Chase told the newspaper. Germany and the US were strong candidates for its next plant, he added.

OP is owned by Swiss solar developer Meyer Burger and Chinese power technologists Goldwind.  Listing its shares is the next step, in what Chase told the FT would be a multi-million fund-raising round. NASDAQ in the US or Hong Kong were being considered, he said.

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With less energy needed in its manufacture, and less carbon emitted, perovskite holds out potential as the solar industry’s replacement for sand-derived, plentiful silicon.

Recognised by Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute, technology innovators Oxford Perovskite hold the world record conversion efficiency of 26.8% for the material, achieved two years ago in lab tests.  In contrast, conventional, commercially deployed silicon-based cells struggle to reach 20%.

Perovskite has downsides, though.  It can be less stable in contact with other cell components. That shortens its working life, reducing attractiveness to buyers.  Worse, the best performing perovskite compounds contain lead, harmful to health and environment.

SUNREY is funded by Horizon Europe, the European Union’s research and innovation programme, within the framework of the Green Deal Initiative worth approximately £3.75m.  The acronym stands for ‘Boosting SUstaiNability, Reliability and EfficiencY of perovskite PV through novel materials and process engineering’,

Along with Leicester’s researchers, the Teesside academics will seek improvements in electrode materials and charge transport methods, innovate cheaper deposition techniques and streamline manufacturing processes.

Modelling the material’s degradation during a panel’s decades on a roof is also a focus.

The project is being coordinated by the Fraunhofer Institute, near Berlin. Other research institutes, universities, and European manufacturers will contribute.

Teesside’s professor David Hughes said:  “We are delighted to be taking part of this project which is destined to have a major impact on the production of renewable energy. “Making perovskite solar cells more efficient and sustainable will enable us to harness the power of the sun more effectively, with minimal environmental impact.

“This technology will be of vital importance as the world looks to a future without fossil fuels.”

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