Porsche, Siemens Energy and partners are developing and implementing a pilot project—the “Haru Oni” project—in Chile that is expected to yield the world’s first integrated, commercial, industrial-scale plant for making synthetic climate-neutral fuels (eFuels). Electrolyzers will use wind power to produce green hydrogen. In a second step, plans call for... Read more →

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL) has joined a wide-ranging corporate-academic partnership in a zero-emission initiative called the “Wind Hunter Project,” seeking new applications for hydrogen fuel and wind power. In addition to MOL, the participants include Ouchi Ocean Consultant, Inc.; the National Maritime Research Institute (NMRI) of National Institute of... Read more →

bp and Ørsted signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) to work together to develop a ‎project for industrial-scale production of green hydrogen via the electrolysis of water using ‎renewable power, producing zero emissions. In their proposed Lingen Green Hydrogen project, the two firms intend to build an initial 50 ‎megawatt... Read more →

The technology group Wärtsilä has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) tied to a License and Cooperation agreement with UK-based Anemoi Marine Technologies for the future sales and servicing of Rotor Sail solutions to the shipping industry. Rotor Sails, also referred to as Flettner Rotors, are vertical cylinders which, when... Read more →

The National Science Foundation has awarded $39 million to a team of engineers and computer scientists at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) to build a first-of-its-kind testbed—DERConnect—to improve the understanding of how to integrate distributed energy sources such as solar panels, wind turbines, smart buildings and electric vehicle... Read more →

Cargill and BAR Technologies have embarked on a strategic project with naval architect Deltamarin to bring cutting edge wind propulsion technology to commercial shipping. The project will see BAR Technology’s WindWings—large, solid wing sails that measure up to 45 meters in height—fitted to the deck of bulk cargo ships to... Read more →

Hybrid systems of floating solar panels and hydropower plants may hold the technical potential to produce a significant portion of the electricity generated annually across the globe, according to an analysis by researchers at the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). A paper on the work is... Read more →

VoltH2 is preparing to build a green hydrogen plant in North Sea Port and has signed a cooperation agreement for its construction in Vlissingen. North Sea Port is the 60-kilometer-long cross-border port area that stretches from Vlissingen on the North Sea coast in the Netherlands, some 32 kilometers inland to... Read more →

The consortium behind the WESTKÜSTE100 project received the go-ahead and funding approval from the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy that will make it Germany’s first hydrogen project included in the “real-world laboratories fostering the energy transition” program. The project is backed by an investment volume totalling €89 million... Read more →

Statkraft, Europe’s largest generator of renewable energy, has agreed to a deal to help further decarbonize the UK’s power sector and deliver a new approach to managing the stability of the grid. Statkraft UK will install GE’s Rotating Stabilizer technology—i.e., giant flywheels—at its stability project at Keith in the northeast... Read more →

Norsepower Oy Ltd., the leading global provider of auxiliary wind propulsion systems, and SEA-CARGO, leading logistics provider in the North Sea market, announced an agreement to install two of Norsepower’s largest Rotor Sails (earlier post) on board the SC Connector, a sidedoor Ro-Ro. The agreement also marks the installation of... Read more →

The US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) announced nearly $20 million in small business awards for Phase I Release 2 projects under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs. More than 100 projects across 26 states will... Read more →

The UK has awarded £7.5 million for the next phase of Gigastack, a new renewable hydrogen project, as part of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Hydrogen Supply Competition. (Earlier post.) The Gigastack project, led by ITM Power, Ørsted, Phillips 66 Limited and Element Energy, will show... Read more →

Ørsted (formerly DONG Energy), Everfuel Europe A/S, NEL Hydrogen A/S, GreenHydrogen AS, DSV Panalpina A/S, Hydrogen Denmark and Energinet Elsystemansvar A/S have been awarded funding of DKK 34.6 million (US$5 million) for the H2RES project from EUDP’s second 2019 call for applications. The partners will build a 2MW electrolysis plant... Read more →

Norsepower Oy Ltd., together with project partners Maersk Tankers, Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) and Shell International Trading and Shipping Company Ltd., announced successful trial results of two Norsepower Rotor Sails onboard the Maersk Tankers product tanker, Maersk Pelican. The Rotor Sails are large, cylindrical mechanical sails that spin to create... Read more →

Seeking to slash CO2 emissions from its North American manufacturing operations, Honda has entered into long-term virtual power purchase agreements (VPPAs) for renewable wind and solar power that will cover more than 60% of the electricity that Honda uses in North America. These VPPAs will enable Honda to fully offset... Read more →

ITM Power announced funding from the UK Government for the Gigastack feasibility study with Ørsted and Element Energy. The project funding is for the feasibility phase leading, if successful, to the opportunity to bid for further funding for the implementation. Gigastack, funded by the BEIS Hydrogen Supply Competition, will demonstrate... Read more →

Ferry operator Scandlines signed an agreement with Norsepower Oy Ltd, leading clean technology and engineering company pioneering modern wind propulsion technology, to install Norsepower’s Rotor Sail Solution on board the M/V Copenhagen, a hybrid passenger ferry. Illustration of Scandlines hybrid ferry M/V Copenhagen with Rotor Sail. Operating between Rostock in... Read more →

The US. Department of Energy (DOE) selected four projects totaling up to $8 million to develop next-generation wind turbine drivetrain technologies that will facilitate the continued growth of wind turbines for both land-based tall wind and offshore applications. These projects will develop more efficient, smaller, and lighter-weight generators that will... Read more →

Mercedes-Benz Cars has entered into a power purchase agreement with Statkraft, Europe’s largest producer of renewable energy, enabling Mercedes-Benz Cars to source electricity directly from wind farms in Germany, whose subsidies from the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) expire after 2020. Because the agreement with Mercedes-Benz Cars will contribute to the... Read more →

During the Les Assises économie de la Mer maritime conference, Groupe Renault announced the signing of a three-year partnership with Nantes start-up NEOLINE to develop a more sustainable maritime transport service powered by wind, and to contribute to the environmental management of its logistics chain. Nearly 60% of the Group’s... Read more →

All large-scale energy systems have environmental impacts, and the ability to compare the impacts of renewable energy sources is an important step in planning a future without coal or gas power. Extracting energy from the wind causes climatic impacts that are small compared to current projections of 21st century warming,... Read more →

Wind and solar power generation will surge to almost 50% of world generation by 2050 (“50 by 50”), supported by precipitous reductions in cost, and the advent of cheaper and cheaper batteries that will enable electricity to be stored and discharged to meet shifts in demand and supply, according to... Read more →

A methanation plant expansion to the existing power-to-gas (PtG) facility in Falkenhagen, Germany has officially opened as part of the international €28-million (US$33.5-million) STORE&GO research project. Construction on the methanation plant began in July 2017. While the current facility feeds pure hydrogen (“WindGas”) directly into the gas grid, the new... Read more →

BP Wind Energy, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Rolling Thunder I Power Partners LLC, has signed a purchase agreement to install a high-storage battery at its Titan 1 Wind Farm in South Dakota. The project is the first of its kind in BP’s US-operated wind business and a potential step forward... Read more →

New analysis based on big data analysis by Lux Research suggests that innovation interest in renewables is declining, after peaking about four years ago. Without continued innovation momentum, the market research firm noted, long-term success driven by further clean energy technology improvements is thrown into question. The Lux Tech Signal... Read more →

A Japanese partnership, consisting of the Kanagawa Prefectural Government, the municipal governments of the cities of Yokohama and Kawasaki, Iwatani Corporation, Toshiba Corporation, Toyota Motor Corporation, Toyota Industries Corporation, Toyota Turbine and Systems, Inc., and Japan Environment Systems Co., Ltd. announced that all facilities to be used in the FY2015... Read more →

Vattenfall and the BMW Group have signed a contract for the delivery of up to 1,000 lithium-ion batteries this year. The batteries—each with a capacity of 33 kWh—are equipped with a BMW-owned battery management system and are also used by the car manufacturer in the BMW i3. Vattenfall will purchase... Read more →

Scientists at Rice University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Chile are proposing that quantum-controlled motion of nuclei, starting from the nanometer-size ground state of a molecule, can potentially overcome some of the difficulties of thermonuclear fusion by compression of a fuel pellet or in a... Read more →

Norsepower Oy Ltd., a provider of low- maintenance, software-operated, and data-verified auxiliary wind propulsion systems, signed an agreement with Finnish shipping company Viking Line to install its Rotor Sail Solution onboard the M/S Viking Grace, an LNG-fueled cruise ferry. The 57,565 GT M/S Viking Grace currently operates in the archipelago... Read more →

PD Glasseiden, a Germany-based producer of fiberglass; European Carbon Fiber GmbH; and the ForschungsCampus Open Hybrid LabFactory e.V., established under the auspices of the Lower Saxony Research Centre for Vehicle Technology at the TU Braunschweig and Volkswagen AG have formed a joint venture—CarboSax GmbH—to pursue developing, manufacturing and distributing more... Read more →

A Japanese partnership comprising the Kanagawa Prefectural Government; the municipal governments of the cities of Yokohama and Kawasaki; Toyota; Toshiba; and Iwatani announced the forthcoming start of a four-year project to implement and evaluate an end-to-end low-carbon hydrogen supply chain which will use hydrogen produced from renewable energy to power... Read more →

In collaboration with engineering partner IAV, the Zentrum für Sonnenenergie- und Wasserstoff-Forschung Baden-Württemberg (Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg, ZSW); the Reiner Lemoine Institut (RLI); and Wasserelektrolyse Hydrotechnik (HT) are researching cost-effective methods of producing hydrogen with the help of automotive technology. In the ecoPtG project, the researchers... Read more →

Major corporate and public sector partners in Japan are launching an effort to test a full carbon-neutral hydrogen supply chain powered by renewable wind energy. The trials are planned to take place near the cities of Yokohama and Kawasaki in the Keihin coastal region. On the public sector side, the... Read more →

2010 and 2015 LCOE ranges for solar and wind technologies. Source: IEA/NEA. Click to enlarge. The cost of producing electricity from renewable sources such as wind and solar has been falling for several years. A new report, a joint project by the International Energy Agency and the Nuclear Energy Agency,... Read more →

Global investment in renewable power and fuels (excluding large hydro-electric projects) was $270.2 billion in 2014, nearly 17% higher than the previous year, according to the latest edition of an annual report commissioned by the United Nations Environment Program’s (UNEP) Division of Technology, Industry and Economic (DTIE) in cooperation with... Read more →

The cost of generating power from renewable energy sources has reached parity or dropped below the cost of fossil fuels for many technologies in many parts of the world, according to a new report released by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). The report, “Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2014”,... Read more →

Up to 30 electric vehicles at a time can recharge in Fraunhofer IAO’s parking garage. Click to enlarge. A team from Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO, together with Daimler AG and the Institute for Human Factors and Technology Management at the University of Stuttgart, is developing both the charging... Read more →

The E.ON Energy Research Center at RWTH Aachen University, E.ON electric utility company, battery manufacturers Exide and beta-motion and inverter manufacturer SMA Solar Technology AG (SMA) have joined forces to build the first multi-technology, modular large-scale 5MW battery storage system. The unique feature of the M5BAT (Modular Multimegawatt, Multitechnology Medium-Voltage... Read more →

Cell schematic. Discharge mode is shown; the arrows are reversed for electrolytic/charge mode. AQDSH2 refers to the reduced form of AQDS. Huskinson et al. Click to enlarge. Researchers at Harvard have demonstrated a metal-free organic–inorganic aqueous flow battery—a quinone–bromide flow battery (QBFB)—as an example of a class of energy storage... Read more →

Clariant, a global provider of specialty chemicals, has supplied a proprietary CO2-SNG (synthetic natural gas) catalyst for the methanation unit of Audi’s new power-to-gas facility in Werlte, Germany. (Earlier post.) The “e-gas plant” was started up in June this year and is part of Audi’s sustainability initiative. The plant, which... Read more →

A new Energy Department study conducted by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) indicates that by 2025 wind and solar power electricity generation could become cost-competitive without federal subsidies, if new renewable energy development occurs in the most productive locations. The cost of generation includes any needed transmission and integration... Read more →

Transition of flow to turbulence on a wind-turbine airfoil; isosurfaces of vorticity from a Large Eddy Simulation (LES). Credit: GE Global Research. Click to enlarge. GE Global Research, the technology development arm of the General Electric Company, recently completed a research project in partnership with Sandia National Laboratories that could... Read more →

Project Volt Gas Volt is based on a long-term financing plan and the use of existing technologies for the large-scale conversion of surplus renewable electricity to methane, with subsequent reuse. Diagram: Isabelle Plat. Click to enlarge. Corinne Lepage, Member of the European Parliament (and former French Minister of the Environment)... Read more →

Researchers at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg (Germany) report in the journal Angewandte Chemie their development of an enhanced platinum catalyst for the steam reforming of methanol to release hydrogen. A central problem of renewable energy technology lies in the great variation of energy generated (i.e., intermittency). One proposed solution is... Read more →

A plot of ESOI for 7 potential grid-scale energy storage technologies. Credit: Barnhart and Benson, 2013. Click to enlarge. A new study by Charles J. Barnhart and Sally M. Benson from Stanford University and Stanford’s Global Climate and Energy Project (GCEP) has quantified the energetic costs of 7 different grid-scale... Read more →

Reference scenario impact indicator values by eight components and nine stressor sources. Components: WT = wind turbine; Fnd = foundation; EC = electrical connections, including substation; Inst = installation; IOo = input-output, other; Mnt = Maintenance, excluding replacement parts; RP = replacement parts; EOL = end-of-life. Credit: ACS, Arvesen et... Read more →

Honda Transmission Mfg. of America, Inc. announced an agreement with Juhl Wind, Inc. to develop, install, and operate two utility-scale wind turbines (each rated at about 2MW) to generate electricity for the plant’s operations. The plant manufactures automatic transmissions, gears and four-wheel-drive systems, including the next-generation Earth Dreams transmission technology.... Read more →

Among the many extensions specified in the amended version of a House bill (H.R.8) passed by the US Senate on New Year’s Day by a vote of 89 - 8 to avoid the across-the-board increase in taxes currently called for by the “fiscal cliff” are a number for energy tax... Read more →

Components of the e-gas plant. Click to enlarge. Audi is celebrating progress on its e-gas plant under construction in Werlte, Germany with a topping-out ceremony. End products from the plant will be hydrogen and synthetic methane (Audi e-gas), to be used as fuel for vehicles such as the new Audi... Read more →