Royal Dutch Shell will build an 820,000-tonnes-a-year biofuels facility at the Shell Energy and Chemicals Park Rotterdam, the Netherlands, formerly known as the Pernis refinery. Once built, the facility will be among the largest in Europe to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable diesel made from waste. Shell expects... Read more →

BASF SE (BASF) and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL) announced a strategic partnership on battery materials solutions, including cathode active materials (CAM) and battery recycling. The collaboration aims at developing a sustainable battery value chain, in support of CATL’s localization in Europe and contributes to achieving both companies’ global... Read more →

Germany’s Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) is making a total of €500 million available by the end of 2025 for the further development of the public charging infrastructure in Germany. The aim is to set up a total of at least 50,000 charging points (of which at... Read more →

The UK government has launched a Hydrogen Strategy intended to create a thriving low-carbon hydrogen sector—blue and green—in the UK over the next decade and beyond. The UK’s first Hydrogen Strategy drives forward the commitments laid out in the Prime Minister’s 10 Point Plan for a green industrial revolution by... Read more →

In order to provide a basic fast-charging infrastructure for medium- and long-haul traffic, the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) is putting out tenders for the construction and operation of 1,000 fast charging locations, each with several charging points. (Earlier post.) This will create several thousand new... Read more →

A study recently published by the European Commission’s Joint Research Center assesses how best to identify at the European level an additional fifth category of batteries—those used for Light Means of Transport (LMT) such as e-bikes and similar new products—which would ensure their appropriate collection and recycling. The current 2006... Read more →

Last week, the European Commission adopted a package of proposals to make the EU’s climate, energy, land use, transport and taxation policies fit for reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels (Fit for 55). (Earlier post.) One element of that economy-wide set... Read more →

The European Commission has adopted a package of proposals to make the EU's climate, energy, land use, transport and taxation policies fit for reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels (Fit for 55). The EC said that achieving these emission reductions in... Read more →

Enel X, the Enel Group’s advanced energy solutions business line, and the Volkswagen Group signed an agreement aimed at setting up a full function joint venture of equal partners to enhance the electric vehicle (EV) uptake in Italy. The JV will operate in Italy as Charging Point Operator (CPO) by... Read more →

TES, one of the world’s largest providers of sustainable technology lifecycle services, has agreed to a deal that secures the future of a 10,000 square meter (approx. 110,000 sq. feet) recycling facility in the Port Of Rotterdam, Europe’s largest seaport. The facility, strategically located adjacent to the waterways of the... Read more →

Less than one year after its launch, the French battery company Verkor has raised €100 million (US$119 million) in funding. Co-led by EQT Ventures and Renault Group, with participation from the French Government and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region, the funding will support the company’s expansion, and trigger the construction of the Verkor... Read more →

Shell Gas & Power Developments B.V. and Uniper Hydrogen GmbH have signed a memorandum of understanding (“MoU”) to explore accelerating the development of a hydrogen economy in Europe. Under the MoU they intend to find joint opportunities to couple industrial and mobility demand with hydrogen supply, production and storage. The... Read more →

Leading commercial vehicle manufacturers Volvo Group, Daimler Truck and the TRATON GROUP have signed a non-binding agreement to install and operate a high-performance public charging network for battery-electric heavy-duty long-haul trucks and coaches across Europe. The joint aim is to initiate and accelerate the build-up of charging infrastructure to enhance... Read more →

Europe’s demand for biodiesel for cars and trucks has likely wiped out forests the size of the Netherlands since the introduction of the EU’s green fuels law in 2010, according to a new study by Transport & Environment (T&E). T&E is calling on the EU to end support to palm... Read more →

The European Commission should set ambitious targets for e-kerosene, a green synthetic fuel, when it proposes the world’s first sustainable jet fuel law this month, environmental NGO Transport & Environment (T&E), Lufthansa, the Global Alliance Powerfuels, pilots’ representatives, and other aviation industry and energy players have said. The group, which... Read more →

The European Environment Agency (EEA) has published its provisional data about the CO2 emissions of newly registered passenger cars and vans in Europe in 2020. For cars, the data show a 12% decrease in average cO2 emissions, compared with 2019. Average van emissions decreased slightly, by about 1.5 %. According... Read more →

The European Council adopted its position at first reading on the European climate law, ending the adoption procedure and setting into legislation the objective of a climate-neutral EU by 2050. This follows a political agreement reached with the European Parliament on 21 April and the Parliament’s adoption of its position... Read more →

The EU-funded research project HyFlexFuel recently successfully produced biocrudes via hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) from a variety of biomasses, including sewage sludge, food waste, manure, wheat straw, corn stover, pine sawdust, miscanthus and microalgae in a pilot-scale continuous HTL plant at Aarhus University (Denmark). HyFlexFuel, Process overview. Copyright: Bauhaus Luftfahrt Biocrudes... Read more →

Project AIR—an industrial concept to produce methanol from a large variety of recovered end-of-life streams and hydrogen from electrolysis—has been awarded approximately €30 million by the Swedish Energy Agency, and is now applying for EU Innovation Fund to realize the project. The project is being carried out by the Swedish... Read more →

The Zaragoza, Spain City Council is ordering 68 Irizar e-mobility electric buses—51 12-meter units and 17 articulated. These buses will be progressively incorporated into the service from the last half of next year and will be operated by Avanza. This is the largest electric bus project to date for Irizar... Read more →

Germany will invest some €227 million to support the electrification of rail, with a focus on batteries and hydrogen fuel cells, including charging and refueling infrastructure. Currently, 61% of the rail network in Germany is electrified with overhead lines. Conventional rail vehicles with diesel engines are currently used almost exclusively... Read more →

FCC Medio Ambiente and Irizar will start production of the first 10 Irizar ie urban electric trucks to be used for collection of refuse. Production of these 10 units includes 4×2 and 6×2 of two and three-axle versions. The Irizar ie urban truck incorporates in-house technology developed by the Irizar... Read more →

The European Commission’s Joint Research Center (JRC) published a policy brief showing that delivery of large amounts of renewable hydrogen over long distances could be cost-effective. This finding is important because access to sufficient amounts of renewable hydrogen at low cost is essential for achieving a climate neutral Europe by... Read more →

A new study by Delta-EE, a specialist new energy research & consulting company, has found that the total announced project capacity of the rapidly growing European hydrogen electrolyzer market would take the green hydrogen sector to 2.7 GW by 2025—a nearly 50-fold increase on capacity built over the last ten... Read more →

Average emissions from new passenger cars in Europe increased for the third consecutive year in 2019, reaching 122.3 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometrer (g CO2/km), according to the European Environment Agency’s (EEA) final data. Data about newly registered vans show a stable trend. Key reasons include the growth in the sport... Read more →

European new car registrations were up by 261% in April 2021 (registering 1,029,008 units) from April 2020, but still far from pre-pandemic levels—down by 23% from April 2019, according to figures from JATO Dynamics. According to JATO data for 26 markets across the region, April 2021 recorded the lowest total... Read more →

Total greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union (EU) decreased by 3.8% in 2019, according to latest official data published by the European Environment Agency (EEA). These data confirm the EEA’s preliminary estimates, published in October 2020. The large decline in emissions, achieved before the COVID-19 crisis, was mainly due... Read more →

ESB and dCarbonX have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the joint assessment and development of Irish offshore green hydrogen subsurface storage. This partnership represents another milestone in Ireland’s emerging hydrogen economy as part of its transition to a low-carbon future. Under this agreement, ESB and dCarbonX will work together... Read more →

As part of the UK’s Royal Mail’s continued drive to reduce emissions associated with its operations, it has converted the last-mile fleet of a Bristol Delivery Office to be 100% electric. The Bristol East Central Delivery Office, located in the City’s Easton area, has had its 23 entire fleet of... Read more →

The European Commission’s Joint Research Center recently published a report analyzing research and innovation (R&I) in low-emission alternative energy for transport in Europe. The analysis focuses on selected EU-funded projects from TRIMIS with end dates from 2019 onwards. The Transport Research and Innovation Monitoring and Information System (TRIMIS) is the... Read more →

Germany’s Federal Ministry of Economics (BMWi) and the Federal Ministry of Transport (BMVI) selected 62 large-scale hydrogen projects this week, which are to be state-funded as part of a joint European hydrogen project (Important Project of Common European Interest, IPCEI). We are making Germany a hydrogen country. In doing so,... Read more →

Germany’s Federal Council has passed the “Law for the Provision of Comprehensive Fast Charging Infrastructure for Pure Battery Electric Vehicles”, or SchnellLG for short. With this law, the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) has the legal basis for the targeted expansion of a Germany-wide network of fast-charging... Read more →

PEUGEOT has become one of the first manufacturers to offer in series production, from 2021 onwards in the compact utility van segment, an electric version powered by a hydrogen fuel cell in addition to its battery-electric version. The new PEUGEOT e-EXPERT Hydrogen includes a new mid-power plug-in hydrogen fuel cell... Read more →

Rio Tinto and InoBat, a European battery technology and manufacturing company, signed a Memorandum of Understanding to work together to accelerate the establishment of a “cradle-to-cradle” battery manufacturing and recycling value chain in Serbia. The partnership will cover the full commodity life-cycle from mining through to recycling of lithium. Rio... Read more →

The European Association of Automobile Manufacturers (ACEA) has published an interactive map showing the number of truck-specific hydrogen refueling stations required in Europe (the 27 EU member states plus the UK) by 2025 and 2030 for each country. Full interactive map is here. The first hydrogen fuel‐cell electric vehicles are... Read more →

Germany is adding another €100 million to its successful promotion of private charging stations for electric cars in residential buildings, bringing the total to €500 million. Purchase and installation of the wallboxes are supported with a grant of €900. So far, around 385,000 applications for around 470,000 charging points have... Read more →

Fuel tankering in commercial aviation is the practice of overfueling with less expensive fuel purchased at one airport to avoid purchasing more expensive fuel at another—in other words, flying with extra fuel on board to save money. Calculating the benefit of tankering is highly flight-specific; extra fuel increases the takeoff... Read more →

In the first quarter of 2021, hybrid electric vehicles made up 18.4% of total passenger car sales in the EU, almost doubling their market share in a year, according to data from the European Association of Automobile Manufacturers (ACEA). Demand for electrically-chargeable cars also increased in Q1: battery-electric vehicles made... Read more →

Nikola Corporation, IVECO and OGE have entered into a letter of intent for a collaboration to establish a business structure for transporting hydrogen via pipeline network from production sources to hydrogen fueling stations in support of fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEVs). The collaboration is expected to enable cost-effective distribution of hydrogen... Read more →

Truck makers and environmentalists have joined forces to push for the deployment of 11,000 charging points for electric trucks across the EU by 2025, rising to 42,000 by 2030. The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) and Transport & Environment (T&E) made this call to the European Commission in a joint... Read more →

Toyota Motor Europe (TME) has started KINTO Europe GmbH, a limited liability company with headquarters in Cologne, Germany. Toyota Financial Services Corporation (TFSC), Japan, holds 51% of the company’s shares, with the remaining 49% owned by TME. Both TME and TFSC are wholly owned by Toyota Motor Corporation, based in... Read more →

Toyota Motor Europe (TME) Fuel Cell Business will supply and integrate fuel cell modules into a zero-emission train prototype as part of the FCH2RAIL project in Europe. The main objective of the FCH2RAIL project is to develop, build, test, demonstrate and homologate a scalable, modular and multi-purpose Fuel Cell Hybrid... Read more →

A team from Fraunhofer IPT is developing a continuous production line that will be able to process fuel cell components in cycles lasting just seconds. The pilot line is set to be presented at the Hannover Messe Digital Edition from 12-16 April 2021. In a live stream, Fraunhofer IPT, together... Read more →

Germany’s Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure has launched a new €300-million program for the construction of EV charging stations. We build the charging infrastructure where it is needed in everyday life and that is with the people “on site”—at supermarkets, hotels, restaurants, swimming pools or sports fields. We... Read more →

The UK Government is awarding more than £54 million ($US$75 million) to three projects to advance the next generation of electric trucks and hydrogen buses. The 3 projects are: £31.9 million (US$44.3 million) to develop electric propulsion systems for heavy goods vehicles in Cwmbran, Wales. The EPIC project led by... Read more →

Following several years of research and development, Central & East European (CEE) oil and gas corporation MOL has stepped up the value chain and has become a biofuel producer through the realization of an investment in the Danube Refinery. Bio feedstock will be co-processed together with fossil materials increasing the... Read more →

The Volkswagen Group and bp intend to work together on extending and speeding up the deployment of ultra-fast electric vehicle (EV) charging facilities at bp retail sites across the UK, Germany and elsewhere in Europe. Extensive ultra-fast charging networks are seen by both companies as essential to accelerate the adoption... Read more →

Seven companies from the GET H2 initiative in Europe want to build a cross-border pipeline for green hydrogen. From Lingen (Emsland) to Gelsenkirchen and from the Dutch border to Salzgitter, production, transport, storage and industrial acceptance of green hydrogen are to be connected in several steps between 2024 and 2030... Read more →

The EU should promote the use of green hydrogen and ammonia by ships as part of its upcoming maritime fuel law, major shipping industry players and environmentalists have told the European Commission. The FuelEU Maritime initiative will require ships carrying EU trade to progressively switch to sustainable alternative fuels. In... Read more →

The all-new Toyota Yaris (earlier post) has been named as the 2021 European Car of the Year. Selected by a jury of 59 automotive journalists from across Europe, the fourth-generation Yaris receives the award 21 years after the innovative first generation was named European Car of the Year in 2000,... Read more →