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Rolls-Royce launches pathway to power net zero economy

Posted on by dishanth
Rolls-Royce launches pathway to power net zero economy
  • Focused on producing the technology breakthroughs society needs to decarbonise three critical areas of the global economy and capture the economic opportunity of the transition to net zero
  • New products compatible with net zero by 2030, whole business compatible by 2050
  • By 2023, all in-production civil aero engines to be proven compatible with 100% sustainable aviation fuels, contributing to UN Race to Zero breakthrough goal for sustainable aviation
  • Science-based target to reduce lifetime emissions of new sold products from Power Systems by 35% by 2030; new generation Series 2000, 4000 engines to be certified for sustainable fuel by 2023
  • Increasing proportion of gross R&D spent on lower carbon and net zero technologies to 75% by 2025 to decarbonise transport, energy and the built environment

 

Accelerating the race to a zero carbon economy

We are today setting out our near-term actions to achieve net zero by 2050 at the latest. Our pathway shows how we will focus our technological capabilities to play a leading role in enabling significant elements of the global economy to get to net zero carbon by 2050, including aviation, shipping, and power generation. This includes the development of new technologies, enabling an accelerated take-up of sustainable fuels and driving step-change improvements in efficiency. One year on from joining the UN Race to Zero campaign, we are announcing plans to make all our new products compatible with net zero by 2030, and all our products in operation compatible by 2050.

These products power some of the most carbon intensive parts of the economy. We are also introducing short-term targets – linked to executive remuneration – to accelerate the take-up of sustainable fuels, which have a key role to play in the decarbonisation of some of our markets, especially long-haul aviation. We are already well advanced with net zero and zero carbon technologies across our Power Systems portfolio and as a result have sufficiently reliable data to be able to define a science-based interim target to reduce by 35% the lifetime emissions of new products sold by the business by 2030.

 

Driving system change to meet Paris Agreement climate goals

There is no single solution to net zero and so we are innovating across multiple areas simultaneously. However, the pace and prioritisation of technological solutions, as well as global consistency and collaboration in policy, will also be key to success. Consequently, we are expanding our collaboration with partners, industry leaders and governments across the three critical systems in which we operate – transport, energy and the built environment – to accelerate progress. These hard to abate sectors are all identified by the UN Race to Zero as requiring technological breakthroughs in order to meet the Paris Agreement climate goals and limit the global temperature rise to 1.5°C.

Warren East, CEO, Rolls-Royce, said: “At Rolls-Royce, we believe in the positive, transforming potential of technology. We pioneer power that is central to the successful functioning of the modern world. To combat the climate crisis, that power must be made compatible with net zero carbon emissions. This is a societal imperative as well as one of the greatest commercial and technological opportunities of our time. Our products and services are used in aviation, shipping and energy generation, where demand for power is increasing as the world’s population grows, becomes increasingly urbanised, more affluent and requires more electricity. These sectors are also among those where achieving net zero carbon is hardest. As a result, our innovative technology has a fundamental role to play in enabling and even accelerating, the overall global transition to a net zero carbon future. We believe that as the world emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic and looks to build back better, global economic growth can be compatible with a net zero carbon future and that Rolls-Royce can help make that happen.”

Nigel Topping, UN High Level Champion for COP26, added: “Winning the race to a zero emission economy by 2050 at the latest requires radical collaboration and technology breakthroughs across energy, transport and the built environment – critical parts of the economy that are also among the hardest to decarbonise. By organising its industrial technology capabilities to deliver the system change society needs, Rolls-Royce is putting itself at the forefront of the defining economic opportunity of our time; one that customers want to buy, investors want to back, and the brightest talent want to apply their skills to.”

Pioneering the innovations that can enable the transition

We have many years of experience in pioneering solutions to some of society’s toughest technological challenges and, increasingly, we have focused that effort on the creation of sustainable power. We already make the world’s most efficient large civil aero-engine in service today, the Trent XWB, and its successor, UltraFan®, will be 25% more efficient than first generation Trent engines, significantly improving the economics of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF). In addition, we have built a microgrid business and designed a small modular reactor (SMR) power plant with the potential to transform how we power cities or industrial processes. We are investing in battery storage technology, demonstrating fuel cells and building a leading position in all-electric and hybrid-electric flight. Next month our Spirit of Innovation all-electric plane will take to the sky as it prepares to break the world all-electric flight speed record. Collectively and individually, these technologies represent the extensive expertise Rolls-Royce has to enable a net zero world.

 

Pivoting our R&D investment to lower and net zero carbon solutions

In line with the commitments we have made under the UN Race to Zero campaign, we are aligning our business model to the Paris Climate Agreement goals and setting out the pathway that will take us to net zero. We are already boosting our research and development (R&D) expenditure to pivot towards lower and net zero carbon technologies, moving from approximately 50% of our gross R&D spend today to at least 75% by 2025.

 

Our decarbonisation strategy

Our strategy has three interconnected pillars:

1. Decarbonising our operations: We will eliminate emissions from our own operations (scope 1 & 2) by 2030*. Some facilities will achieve this target sooner, such as our production site at Bristol, UK, which is set to be the first Rolls-Royce facility to achieve net zero carbon status, in 2022.

2. Decarbonising complex, critical systems by enabling our products to be used in a way that is compatible with net zero and pioneering new breakthrough technologies that can accelerate the global transition to net zero. A wholesale transformation of the systems that make up the backbone of our global economy is required to achieve net zero and we can help accelerate that transition firstly by further advancing the efficiency of our engine portfolio through next generation technologies, to improve the economics of sustainable fuels; and secondly by introducing new low or zero emission products, including fuel cells, microgrids, hybrid-electric and all-electric technologies. To help accelerate the take-up of SAFs, we will make all our civil aero-engines in production compatible with 100% SAF, through testing, by 2023. This means two thirds** of our current fleet of Trent large jet engines and three fifths of our business jet engines will be SAF-ready within three years and aligns with the UN Race to Zero breakthrough goal of 10% of all the fuel used in aviation being SAF by 2030. The current generation of SAFs reduce lifecycle carbon emissions by up 70% but this is assumed to increase to 100% as production pathways for synthetically derived fuels mature. We will work with our customers in the armed forces to achieve the same goal for the Rolls-Royce engines they use and, as the use of SAFs increases, we will ensure that our future combat systems are compatible with net zero carbon. By 2023, we also intend to certify for use with sustainable fuels, the new generation of our mtu Series 2000 and Series 4000 engines. These represent the majority of the reciprocating engines we manufacture and are used across a range of applications from power generation to rail and shipping. Achieving all our 2023 targets now forms part of our executive remuneration policy.

3. Actively advocating for the necessary enabling environment and policy support to achieve this ambition.

Among our technological innovations:

  • In all-electric aviation, we are moving from demonstrators to commercial deals, such as with the UK’s Vertical Aerospace in the urban air mobility market, and with Italian airframer Tecnam and Norwegian airline Wideroe in the all-electric commuter aircraft. We are also currently testing the most powerful hybrid-electric propulsion system in aerospace and continuing to progress with our UltraFan aero engine, which will be 25% more efficient than the first generation Trent engines and improve the economics of SAFs. We are already exploring the use of SAFs in defence applications, including as part of our involvement in the Tempest programme in the UK.
  • We are advancing and selling microgrids, complete with our own battery storage solutions, to help expand the use of renewable energy across remote communities and our energy-intensive digital economy. We are also exploring additional functionality through the introduction of fuel cells to provide clean power for industrial vehicles and processes.
  • We are testing hydrogen fuel cell modules at our Power Systems facility in Germany and plan to have integrated 2MW of hydrogen fuel cells into operational microgrid demonstrators by 2023.
  • Our SMR consortium is set to make a significant contribution to net zero through its innovative approach to power generation, providing a generational change in the cost of nuclear energy. At 470MW, each SMR could help decarbonise a city of a million homes. With UK Government assistance and third party investment, the programme is now entering a new phase leading to design approval and power on the grid at the end of the decade.

Pioneering sustainable, net zero power sits at the heart of our strategy, future innovation and growth agenda. Our decarbonisation strategy will ensure that Rolls-Royce is not only compatible with, but actively enabling, a net zero future.

For an executive summary of our net zero report visit https://www.rolls-royce.com/~/media/Files/R/Rolls-Royce/documents/others/rr-net-zero-exec-summary.pdf, and for the full pathway including the steps we are taking to lead the transition to net zero carbon visit https://www.rolls-royce.com/~/media/Files/R/Rolls-Royce/documents/others/rr-net-zero-full-report.pdf. We are committed to playing our part in the global journey to net zero. Undoubtedly, the very nature of this transition will mean that there may be general and sector specific circumstances which will influence the output from our roadmap. These are set out on page 32 of the full report. We also recognise that we must be prepared and able to adjust our decarbonisation ambitions in the context of the changing landscape.

*Our current scope 1 & 2 target excludes product testing and development. Currently, only a 50% blend with traditional fuels is approved for use in commercial aviation. We are playing an active role in advocating for this to rise to 100%. As an interim measure we are committing to 10% of the fuel we use in testing and development activities being SAF by 2023.

**Based on in-service fleet as of end December 2019; Based on the in-service fleet as of end December 2020, over 80% of our Trent engine fleet would be SAF-ready by 2023, but usage in 2020 was obviously impacted by the pandemic.

https://www.rolls-royce.com/innovation/net-zero.aspx

 

 

Source Rolls Royce

Climatech Corp and Inovues win the inaugural CapitaLand Sustainability X Challenge

Posted on by dishanth
Climatech Corp and Inovues win the inaugural CapitaLand Sustainability X Challenge

Climatech Corp and Inovues are the winners of the inaugural CapitaLand Sustainability X Challenge (CSXC) 2021, a global hunt for sustainability innovations in the built environment.  

Both winners will receive S$50,000 (US$38,000) each to fund, test and implement their innovations at selected CapitaLand properties worldwide, as well as mentorship by a CapitaLand business leader. 

Climatech won the Most Innovative Award for their water treatment process to treat cooling water without the use of chemicals or power, while Inovues won the High Impact Award for their insulating glass retrofit technology.  

Climatech’s solution, known as the ClimaControl Quantum Resonance Water, is a novel solution that allows cooling water to be recycled for other uses in buildings, such as plant irrigation or toilet flushing. Based in Singapore, the company’s solution uses photon vibration frequency technology to treat cooling tower, achieving 60 to over 90 per cent of water savings, and one to over five per cent of energy savings.

From the United States, Inovues’ insulating glass technology reduces energy consumption to heat or cool buildings by up to 40 per cent without compromising on the luminosity indoors. The smart glass technology can be retrofitted on to existing windows, and reduces noise and heat gain inside a building by up to 10 times. Windows are the Achilles’ heel of the built environment, said one of the judges, Rushad Nanavatty, managing director or urban transformation at RMI.

 

The two winners will also have the chance to showcase their innovations to senior global business leaders, investors and policymakers at the annual Ecosperity Week sustainability event organised by Temasek. 

“Research and innovation leading to commercialisation is a space where public and private sectors must collaborate. Research can be long-dated and involves high risk. Governments must support and fund it. Innovation and commercialisation of products of research require entrepreneurial acumen and nimble responses. This is where many enterprises have strengths,” said Minister for Sustainability and the Environment of Singapore, Grace Fu, who was the guest-of-honour at the grand finale.

 

Lee Chee Koon, CapitaLand’s group chief executive officer announces the CapitaLand Innovation Fund at the CapitaLand Sustainability X Challenge grand finale. Image: CapitaLand

 

The themes for the inaugural challenge were low carbon transition, water conservation and resilience, waste management and circular economy, and healthy and safe buildings. 

The winning solutions emerged from a shortlist that included a portable, self-powered energy generator cum chiller, a thermal insulation curtain wall, a smart waste bin which uses artificial intelligence to sort waste, and an indoor air disinfection solution. All six finalists and selected participants will have a chance to pilot their innovations at selected CapitaLand properties worldwide.

At the grand finale, CapitaLand also announced a S$50 million innovation fund to support the test-bedding of sustainability and other high-tech innovations in the built environment. 

Lee Chee Koon, CapitaLand’s group chief executive officer said: “The inaugural CapitaLand Sustainability X Challenge has allowed us to uncover promising innovations that we can potentially implement at our properties across the globe, and help us achieve our ambitious targets set out in our 2030 Sustainability Master Plan.”

 

 

By Sonia Sambhi

Source Eco Business

‘Cool’ roofs, cooler designs as the building industry embraces energy sustainability

Posted on by dishanth
‘Cool’ roofs, cooler designs as the building industry embraces energy sustainability

The southwestern New Mexico town of Columbus, site of a 1916 raid by Pancho Villa, is now home to a border entry center that is powered by the sun and landscaped with recycled concrete “sponges” that harvest rainwater.

An apartment complex in Los Angeles created expressly for formerly homeless men and women has features that maximize natural light and airflow, a roof designed to minimize heat inside the units during summer, and a rooftop garden that attracts migratory birds.

And across the country in Brooklyn, e-commerce giant Etsy established its headquarters in a 200,000-square-foot building that previously housed a printing press for Jehovah’s Witnesses, then renovated and retrofitted so it is powered by renewable energy.

All three sites, spotlighted last year by the American Institute of Architects in its top-10 list of sustainable projects, reflect the expansive reach of “low-energy” design strategies and the building industry’s embrace of sustainability as a de facto imperative. They’re part of a remarkable evolution, one that could prove crucial since the building sector globally accounts for at least 40 percent of the world’s emissions of carbon dioxide — far more than transportation sources.

Formerly homeless people live at the Six, an apartment complex in the MacArthur Park neighborhood of Los Angeles designed for optimal energy efficiency. (Brooks + Scarpa)

 

Some advocates think the U.S. sector can achieve net-zero emissions within 20 years, a decade ahead of President Biden’s net-zero goal for the country. The administration’s initiative includes new codes and efficiency standards for homes, appliances and commercial buildings — and a clean electric grid. Dozens of cities and states are moving forward with their own measures.

“Decarbonization of the sector is inevitable,” according to Edward Mazria, founder of Architecture 2030, a nonprofit organization based in Santa Fe, N.M., that aims to reconfigure the built environment as part of the solution to global warming.

The past several years served as an “urgent call to action,” he thinks, with devastating storms and wildfires on several continents, profoundly diminished Arctic sea ice, and the highest global temperatures in recorded history. “It’s not a matter of if we transition to renewables, but whether it will be fast and well-orchestrated enough to avert irreversible climate chaos.”

In Santa Fe, N.M., architect Edward Mazria leads a nonprofit organization focused on making the built environment part of the solution to global warming. (Ramsay de Give for The Washington Post)

 

Since the nation’s building stock started its rapid expansion more than two centuries ago, the energy all that construction consumed and the greenhouse gases it then emitted have only increased — dramatically so.

But the numbers began changing in 2005 as building efficiency gained traction. Despite the building sector producing an additional 50 billion square feet in the past 15 years — housing, office parks, skyscrapers, hospitals, factories, schools, shopping centers and other commercial projects — its energy consumption actually dropped 5 percent and emissions fell 30 percent, data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration show.

In Mazria’s view, building “green” is not a hard sell, especially given cost-effective design approaches that can produce high-performance buildings with little to no energy consumption or emissions. Strategies include considering a structure’s shape and orientation on a site, adding “cool” roofs that reflect more sunlight and absorb less heat, and more.

“In 50 years, I’ve never heard a client say they want an inefficient building that costs more to operate and damages the environment,” Mazria said.

Sierra Atilano echoes his sentiment in Los Angeles. She is chief real estate and investment officer for Skid Row Housing Trust, which commissioned the apartment complex in the city’s MacArthur Park neighborhood where formerly homeless people, some of them veterans, now live. Passive design approaches such as the building’s exposure to prevailing winds make it 50 percent more energy efficient than conventionally designed counterparts, according to the architectural firm Brooks + Scarpa.

“Adding sustainability is a no-brainer in developing equitable housing,” Atilano said. “Affordable housing should be designed on par with market rate housing; it’s important not just for the residents but for the community at large — and the environment.”

While new construction is the obvious target for low-energy design, the American Institute of Architects also emphasizes the need to adapt and retrofit existing buildings — an especially salient point given how the pandemic has depressed demand for commercial and office space. The curriculums at the country’s leading architecture schools reflect this reality and the opportunities it offers.

“The median age of commercial buildings in the U.S. is 36, with almost a third of commercial buildings over 50 years old,” noted Erica Cochran Hameen, co-director for the Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Architecture. “Knowing most of our students after graduation will work on projects that involve an existing building, it is critical to educate them on advanced retrofit and building upgrade design strategies and technologies.”

The results increasingly are quantified. There are benchmarking policies and performance metrics. The 2021 International Energy Conservation Code set new minimum efficiency standards for myriad construction elements, part of “lifecycle accountability” for a building. Jurisdictions that adopt the code’s zero-carbon approach “have an avenue to ask for annual performance data and measure on-site energy generation and off-site energy procurement,” explained Anica Landreneau, sustainable design director for the global firm HOK.

In fact, cities from Portland, Ore., to Portland, Maine, now require such data, and Landreneau sees that as a positive. “Both benchmarking and performance standards trigger retrofits, which create domestic jobs while reducing carbon emissions, increasing energy security and improving quality of life for building occupants,” she said.

The Los Angeles-based architectural firm Brooks + Scarpa designed the Six complex to minimize summer heat inside its 52 apartments. (Brooks + Scarpa)

 

Yet home builders have a different take on regulatory mandates, instead supporting “voluntary, above-code programs,” Jaclyn Toole of the National Home Builders Association said. “Maintaining housing affordability must be the cornerstone to any efforts to create greener and more efficient homes.”

And fossil-fuel interests continue to oppose proposals to eliminate natural gas equipment in buildings, successfully pushing legislation in at least 12 states to bar any exclusion. “Policies that would force people to replace natural gas appliances with electric ones could be burdensome to consumers and the economy, have profound impacts and costs on the electric sector and be a very costly approach for a relatively small reduction in emissions,” said Jake Rubin, a spokesman for the American Gas Association.

Environmentalists counter Rubin’s argument by emphasizing the magnitude of what energy improvements achieve in cost savings and decreased emissions — billions of metric tons in this country alone.

“Efforts by gas utilities to fight [building] electrification represent one of the biggest threats facing the planet now,” said Rachel Golden of the Sierra Club, citing a major U.N. report on methane. “Every time a new home or building is connected to the gas system … we’re expanding the use of gas.”

A clear shift seems underway, however. In California, advocates are working to get gas out of new construction through the state energy code. More than 40 cities and counties have already passed measures requiring or encouraging that fossil fuel energy be phased out in favor of building electrification, and the Sierra Club counts more than 50 other jurisdictions in the state that are weighing such policies.

Elsewhere are similar signs of transformation. Burlington, Vt., which became the nation’s first city to go all-renewable after opening a hydroelectric facility in 2014, intends to levy a carbon fee on new buildings that connect “to fossil fuel infrastructure.” In New York City, where a recent, top-to-bottom retrofit of the iconic Empire State Building nearly cut its operational carbon emissions in half, officials are considering a gas phaseout for all new construction.

Legislation is pending in Colorado to support building electrification, establish standards for energy performance and limit emissions from gas utilities. Laws to require or encourage gas-free construction are already on the books in Massachusetts and Washington, the state that is considered the vanguard of the movement.

Kjell Anderson, the director of sustainable design at LMN Architects in Seattle, helped craft that city’s new building code. The regulations, which will phase out gas in new commercial buildings, were a direct response to Seattle’s increased greenhouse emissions between 2016 and 2018.

He predicts emissions will drop each year as buildings go all-electric and the local grid adds more renewable energy. The biggest unknown is the balance required between on-site renewables, the grid and energy storage, which he says calls for region-specific approaches.

“Nearly all ‘net-zero’ buildings generate excess energy on many days, while they draw grid power at other times,” Anderson said. “With the rapid expansion of clean-energy development and the significantly reduced cost of renewables, energy flows both ways, so utilities are becoming energy managers instead of just energy generators.”

Like so many of his colleagues and contemporaries, he thinks the transition to a carbon-neutral economy must be expeditious: “The task at hand is scaling the solution — efficiency, electrification and renewable energy — to the scope and urgency of the climate crisis.”

By Ben Ikenson

Source The Washington Post

Singapore and Gulf countries can be partners in fight against climate change

Posted on by dishanth
Singapore and Gulf countries can be partners in fight against climate change

SINGAPORE – Rising sea levels, higher temperatures and threats to water and food security are some of the climate change challenges faced by Singapore and Qatar as well as other countries in the Middle East.

They can thus work together particularly in the areas of climate mitigation, clean energy and green growth, said Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu on Tuesday (May 25).

She was delivering the opening remarks for an online panel discussion jointly organised by the National University of Singapore’s Middle East Institute and the Doha Forum, a global dialogue platform.

Ms Fu pointed to three opportunities for partnership between Singapore and the Gulf countries towards a more sustainable future.

First, they should exchange expertise and best practices. “For instance, Singapore and Qatar have invested in solar energy as part of our energy mix. Singapore is building one of the world’s biggest floating solar farms and Qatar is working on the Al Kharsaah project, which will be one of the world’s largest solar plants,” she said. “At the same time, Qatar’s electric bus project could offer useful lessons as Singapore moves towards greener public transport networks.”

Second, they could work together in transitioning to a low-carbon future. Ms Fu observed that Gulf nations had been actively investing in what she dubbed as “needle-moving” clean energy solutions such as hydrogen and carbon capture, utilisation and sequestration (CCUS) technologies.

 

 

Qatar commissioned a carbon storage plant in 2019 – the largest of its kind in the region – which aims to capture over five million tonnes of CO2 per year from the emirate’s liquefied natural gas industry by 2025.

“In Singapore, clean energy research is a core part of our investment of US$18 billion (S$23.8 billion)  in the next five years to strengthen the research and innovation capabilities of our companies,” said Ms Fu.

A third and prime area for cooperation lies in green growth and resilience, she said while praising Gulf countries for making “great strides” in renewable energy, circular economy, green cities and other aspects.

“On our end, we aim to develop Singapore as a carbon trading and services hub, and a leading centre for green finance to facilitate Asia’s transition,” said Ms Fu. “As a founding member of the One Planet Sovereign Wealth Fund initiative, which builds climate change into financial decision-making, the Qatar Investment Authority would boost green finance as it explores opportunities in Asia.”

She also noted that Singapore and Qatar share similar concerns around food security.

 

“We would be keen to learn more about Qatar’s strategies and share best practices. Singapore’s economic ties and relationship with the Middle East, and particularly the Gulf region, are on the upswing. Green growth and resilience have the potential to be new pillars of cooperation to deepen our ties further.” she Ms Fu.

 

Earlier, Ms Fu pointed out that Singapore has been an active member of international efforts to tackle climate change – by taking part in key negotiations, co-facilitating ministerial discussions, showing strong support for the Paris Agreement, and collaborating with global partners like the United Nations.

The Paris Agreement, reached in 2015, is a historic legally binding treaty which saw nearly 200 countries pledge to fight global warming and greenhouse-gas emissions.

The Ministry for Sustainability and the Environment’s permanent secretary, Mr Albert Chua, said Singapore would be involved in “some of the more delicate diplomatic manoeuvres” at the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in November.

Asked by panel moderator and former diplomat Bilahari Kausikan what he expected from COP26, Mr Chua said there were outstanding issues to be resolved, including on Article 6 under the Paris pact – which revolves around how countries can reduce emissions using global carbon markets.

“In the case of countries like Singapore, where we have no natural resources, the ability to secure carbon credits from elsewhere becomes very important,” he explained.

 

Indonesia’s former special envoy on climate change, Mr Rachmat Witoelar, said he hoped the landmark COP26 summit would lead to funds distributed to states making an effort to tackle climate change.

Fellow panellist and Nikkei senior staff writer Kiyoshi Ando said he expected more ambitious targets from the world’s biggest source of carbon dioxide – China.

“What I fear is that all the countries are raising targets… and in the next couple of years, most will find that these are unrealistic,” he added. “I hope the Paris Agreement is not going to break up.”

 

 

By Justin Ong Political Correspondent

Source The Straits Times

Over $100 million to build Australia’s first large-scale hydrogen plants

Posted on by dishanth
Over $100 million to build Australia’s first large-scale hydrogen plants
On behalf of the Australian Government, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has today announced that it has conditionally approved $103.3 million towards three commercial-scale renewable hydrogen projects, as part of its Renewable Hydrogen Deployment Funding Round.
The three successful projects are:
  • Engie Renewables Australia Pty Ltd (Engie): ARENA will provide up to $42.5 million towards a 10 MW electrolyser project to produce renewable hydrogen in a consortium with Yara Pilbara Fertilisers at the existing ammonia facility in Karratha, Western Australia;
  • ATCO Australia Pty Ltd (ATCO): ARENA will provide up to $28.7 million towards a 10 MW electrolyser for gas blending at ATCO’s Clean Energy Innovation Park in Warradarge, Western Australia;
  • Australian Gas Networks Limited (AGIG): ARENA will provide up to $32.1 million in funding for a 10 MW electrolyser for gas blending at AGIG’s Murray Valley Hydrogen Park in Wodonga, Victoria.

 

To support these projects ARENA has increased the funding envelope, originally $70 million, by $33.3 million. In total, these three projects have a combined project value of $161 million.
At 10 MW, the electrolysers in these hydrogen plants will be among the largest so far built in the world.
The projects will also play a significant role in supporting commercial-scale deployments of renewable hydrogen in Australia and help progress Australia’s pathway to achieving the Australian Government’s goal of ‘H2 under $2’.
Engie will use renewable hydrogen to produce ammonia at the Yara Pilbara Fertilisers site, while ATCO and AGIG’s projects will use renewable energy to produce renewable hydrogen for gas blending into existing natural gas pipelines.
Last year, ARENA launched the funding round to support Australia’s first commercial scale hydrogen projects to fast track the development of renewable hydrogen in Australia.
The funding round called for expressions of interest from large scale hydrogen electrolyser projects across Australia to drive the commercialisation of key component technologies and facilitate cost reductions for producing renewable hydrogen. ARENA received 36 expressions of interest from across Australia, and following an initial assessment, seven projects were shortlisted and invited to submit full applications.
After an extensive assessment process, three projects were selected for funding. Engie, ATCO and AGIG must now satisfy a number of development conditions and achieve financial close before funding is released. ARENA will continue to work with the companies to achieve this.
ARENA CEO Darren Miller said renewable hydrogen presents an opportunity to help reduce emissions globally and locally, transform our energy system, and create a new export industry for Australia.
“We’re excited to have chosen three projects we believe will help kickstart renewable hydrogen production in Australia at a large scale. One of the projects will see clean hydrogen used to make ammonia for export and the other two will blend clean hydrogen into our gas pipelines to help decarbonise our natural gas networks.
“Our hydrogen industry in Australia is in its infancy, so the lessons learned from these three projects – and the entire funding round – will be important in driving our future hydrogen economy.
With more than $100 million in funding, we’re hoping to build some of the biggest hydrogen electrolysers in the world, with the ultimate goal of bringing down the cost of hydrogen produced using renewable energy and growing our skills and capacity to meet future global demand for hydrogen,” he said.
“We have been very impressed with the response to the round and I’d like to thank all of the companies that submitted applications. With the round stimulating interest in the sector, we can see a number of well-progressed feasibility studies and large projects emerging. Australia is well placed to become a major player as the clean hydrogen market develops,” Mr Miller said.
ARENA has been active in the clean hydrogen sector since 2016 and has already committed over $57 million to hydrogen projects including $22.1 million towards 16 R&D projects, as well as feasibility studies into large scale projects and smaller scale demonstrations looking at renewable hydrogen production, power to gas and hydrogen mobility. For more information, visit the ARENA funding page.

 

 

Source Eco Voice

Building a nature-positive economy

Posted on by dishanth
Building a nature-positive economy

The planet’s ecosystems are nearing critical tipping points, with extinction rates 100-1,000 times higher than they were a century ago. Our current economic system has put natural resources under ever-increasing pressure.

As the recent UK Treasury-commissioned Dasgupta Review of the Economics of Biodiversity puts it, our economies “are embedded within Nature … not external to it.” The task now is to embed this recognition in our “contemporary conceptions of economic possibilities.”

Many businesses, recognising the perils facing the planet, are changing the way they operate. But they can’t do it all alone, and the current rules of our financial and economic system must change if we are to build an equitable, nature-positive, net-zero future.

Such changes make economic sense. Firms that take a long-term view and meet the needs of all stakeholders by prioritising environmental and social risks and opportunities over short-term gains and profitability outperform their peers in terms of revenue, earnings, investment, and job growth. Similarly, companies with strong environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies perform better and have higher credit ratings.

According to the World Economic Forum’s 2021 Global Risks Report, four of the top five risks to our economies are environmental  – including climate change and biodiversity loss. Human-driven nature loss, its links to the spread of diseases such as COVID-19, and the estimated $300 billion annual cost of natural disasters caused by ecosystem disruption and climate change highlight the risks of unbridled economic growth. Thinking beyond GDP and short-term profit is therefore essential in order to restore our relationship with the planet and transform our system into a viable one.

The true risks arising from nature loss and climate change often are not accounted for or understood, including by investors. The economic cost of land degradation amounts to more than 10% of annual gross world product, and human-caused declines in ocean health are projected to cost the global economy $428 billion per year by 2050. The flip side is that shifting toward a nature-positive economy could generate $10 trillion of business opportunities and create nearly 400 million jobs.

 

…governments must implement ambitious policies that reflect a vision of the sustainable economy to which we aspire. Such measures could not only unlock new business opportunities but also create a level playing field and stable operating environment.

 

Thriving companies supporting this transition are in a true leadership position. But if a sustainably-oriented firm’s profits dip, reality hits. Investors often chase short-term profits instead of using ESG indicators as a credible proxy  – alongside financial performance  –  to measure a company’s value. This definition of business success must change.

Consider the case of consumer goods multinational Danone. In 2020, Danone became the first listed French company to adopt the model of an entreprise à mission, or purpose-driven company, when 99% of shareholders agreed to embed sustainability into the firm’s governance structure. This year, the company came under increasing pressure from activist shareholders  –  including from those in the 1% who opposed the new model  – owing to what they regard as the firm’s “prolonged period of underperformance.” While Danone’s share price has underperformed those of its rivals, the company is not in the red. Nonetheless, in March it announced the departure of Chairman and CEO Emmanuel Faber, who had championed the firm’s sustainable business model.

It is fair to say that not all shareholders value the same things, and the fact that investors are questioning companies’ ESG efforts can only be positive. But that should not stop advocates of a purpose-driven strategy that considers a wider range of stakeholders and their interests from seeking ways to strengthen the rules and bolster non-financial performance further. As the Dasgupta Review argued, we must “change our measures of economic success to help guide us on a more sustainable path.”

First, we need meaningful and credible ESG data alongside traditional financial reporting in order to counter accusations of greenwashing. Corporate performance indicators must embed the true value of natural, social, and human capital to reveal the full state of health of the planet, people, and profits. To that end, efforts are underway to develop a globally accepted system for corporate disclosure of both financial and sustainability information.

Second, all investors should stop investing in activities that have a highly negative impact on the climate and biodiversity, and they should call for companies in their portfolios to issue reports aligned with the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures and the more recently established Task Force on Nature-Related Financial Disclosures. BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, has asked all firms in its portfolio to do this by the end of 2020, and a group of major investors worth $4.7 trillion  has committed to making their portfolios zero-carbon by 2050. In addition, the US Securities and Exchange Commission recently established a Climate and ESG Task Force charged with monitoring listed companies’ conduct in these areas.

Lastly, and perhaps most important, governments must implement ambitious policies that reflect a vision of the sustainable economy to which we aspire. Such measures could not only unlock new business opportunities but also create a level playing field and stable operating environment. In the run-up to the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15) scheduled to take place in China in October, more than 700 companies are urging governments to adopt policies now to reverse nature loss by 2030. And just recently, the UN adopted a landmark framework to integrate natural capital into economic reporting.

The coming post-pandemic recovery gives the world a chance to embrace such reforms. We must rewire our economic system and reward sustainable, long-term performance that goes beyond financial returns.

Paul Polman, co-founder and chair of IMAGINE & Food and Land Use Coalition. Eva Zabey is executive director of Business for Nature.

Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2021.
www.project-syndicate.org 

 

 

Source Eco Business

Company directors in Singapore urged to take climate change seriously or risk personal liability

Posted on by dishanth
Company directors in Singapore urged to take climate change seriously or risk personal liability

The risks that climate change poses to companies are now undeniable. Company directors are expected to factor these risks in their business activities and decisions, or may be personally responsible, a new legal opinion warns.

 

Singapore corporate directors are required to consider climate change risks as part of their duties to act in the best interests of the company, and failure to do so can result in legal action for their companies and themselves personally. 

As climate change poses both physical and transitional risks to companies, directors should understand the activities of their companies that may impact, or be impacted by climate change and take necessary action to ensure that these issues are addressed. 

These are the main findings of a new legal opinion by a team of independent legal counsel, titled Directors’ Responsibilities and Climate Change under Singapore Law. A legal opinion is an opinion from lawyers issued in letter form expressing legal conclusions on a matter.

“Given the seriousness and public concern over climate change, directors of Singapore companies must be aware that they will incur criminal and civil liabilities if they do not inform themselves on how their companies impact or are impacted by climate change and factor these into their decisions as directors,” said Jeffrey Chan, senior director of TSMP Law Corporation and lead author of the opinion.

Commissioned by the Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative (CCLI), the main aim of the legal opinion is to examine the legal basis for directors and trustees to take account of climate change risks, and societal responses to climate change risks.

 

The background to the new legal opinion is the landmark Hutley opinion written in 2016, which discusses how Australian law requires company directors to consider, disclose and respond to climate change.

The Hutley opinion rose to significance as it shifted the Australian company directors’ understanding of climate change as a financial risk issue rather than just an environmental issue. It was subsequently endorsed by the Australian monetary authority, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority.

Ernest Lim, associate professor of NUS Law and co-author of the opinion explained: “As the impacts of climate change on Singapore become more visible, and legislative and regulatory responses strengthen, this affects the standards of conduct directors must meet to fulfil their duties.”

“Just last year the Monetary Authority of Singapore issued environmental risk management guidelines, setting out their expectations that directors and senior management of financial institutions should maintain oversight of environmental risk management and be assigned specific responsibilities in this regard. The legal opinion draws on these and other developments to find that climate issues are within directors’ responsibilities,” Lim added.

As the governance of a company, directors must ensure that their companies comply with all regulatory prescriptions relating to climate change. At the minimum, they should disclose the risks that climate change poses to the business of their companies, as required by the Singapore Stock Exchange Listing Rules.

Directors of Singapore companies must also be prepared for the possibility that they may be taken to court to compel them to take action to ensure that the business activities of their companies do not contribute to climate change, or if such activities are in progress, to terminate such activities.

 

Transitional business models are an imperative

Apart from legal action, companies that do not have a transitional business model to achieve net zero by 2050 risk stranded assets and erosion of shareholder value, warned Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegara, executive director and chief executive of Temasek International at the launch event of the legal opinion.

“If you don’t start today, you might find that your business model may no longer be relevant in the context of what a greener world may expect from companies,” he said.

Citing the example of the carbon pricing needed to limit global warming aligned with the Paris Agreement, he said that companies that do not factor in the possible increase in carbon tax will be greatly impacted down the road.

Although Singapore announced a carbon tax for this decade of S$5 to S$15 per tonne of greenhouse gas emissions, the government has said that they are going to reassess the carbon pricing.

“To achieve a 2 degree-world or even a 1.5-degree world, you need to have carbon pricing of between US$40-80 as of now, and then US$50-100 by 2030, assuming that you can half carbon emissions by then,” Pillay said.

“So if you’re not changing your business model to cater to a potential carbon pricing of that magnitude, you are going to see an erosion of value of your company. That could have serious implications across the different stakeholders that you’re engaged with,” he said.

In addition, nine out of 10 of the asset managers in the world have decided to put in place environmental, social and governance (ESG) frameworks to measure the performance of each company.

“Climate change risks are going to factor into the asset managers’ decisions about whether to invest in a company or not. If you’re not thinking about it, you might find that capital markets will punish you down the road,” he said.

“It’s very difficult for boards to consider all the risks that they face. But if you can get through the Covid-19 situation, you still have climate risk as the biggest existential problem with your business model. So directors have to come up with proper transition plans,” he warned.

 

Source Eco Business 

Australian scientists achieve a breakthrough with renewably powered carbon capture

Posted on by dishanth
Australian scientists achieve a breakthrough with renewably powered carbon capture

Australian scientists have achieved a new breakthrough in carbon capture and storage. Their novel electrochemical process can store carbon dioxide in water with the power of solar or wind, while also producing by-products such as green hydrogen and calcium carbonate – perhaps the key to decarbonizing the cement industry.

Researchers from the Queensland University of Technology have made a remarkable breakthrough with the development of an electrochemical process in which carbon dioxide is captured from the air and stored in water as a non-toxic calcium carbonate (chalk) in a renewably powered process that could also produce green hydrogen and decarbonize the cement industry. 

PhD researcher Olawale Oloye and Professor Anthony O’Mullane from the QUT Centre for Clean Energy Technologies and Practices developed the process of capturing and converting carbon dioxide through a mineralization approach that seems to produce a host of serendipitous by-products. 

 

According to O’Mullane, the “process involves the capture of CO2 by its reaction with an alkaline solution produced on demand, to form solid carbonate products which can be used, for example, as construction materials, thereby keeping carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. This can be done using a simple calcium source in water.”

It is also important to note that the QUT researchers used seawater instead of potable water, as potable water is too precious a resource for large-scale carbon capture, especially in Australia.

“We found we could use seawater once it had been treated to remove sulphates. To do this we first precipitated calcium sulphate or gypsum, another building material, and then carried out the same process to successfully turn CO2 into calcium carbonate, thus providing proof of concept of a circular carbon economy,” O’Mullane said. “Next, the hydrogen evolution reaction during electrolysis ensured that the electrode was continually renewed to keep the electrochemical reaction going while also generating another valuable product, green hydrogen. This means if this electrolysis process is powered by renewable electricity, we are producing green hydrogen alongside the calcium carbonate (CaCO3).” 

The process captures and stores carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, while also generating a green fuel source capable of decarbonizing pesky industrial sectors such as heavy transport, manufacturing, and the entire energy sector of export partners like Japan. 

O’Mullane said the use of renewable energy to capture CO2 and create calcium carbonate may be needed in the cement industry, which is one of the tougher industries to decarbonize.

“We envision this technology would benefit emission-intensive industries such as the cement industry whose CO2 footprint is 7-10% of anthropogenic CO2 emissions,” said O’Mullane. “By coupling the mineralization process to produce CaCO3 from the emitted CO2 during the clinking step we could create a closed loop system and reduce a significant percentage of the CO2 involved in cement production.”

The scientists described their findings in “Electrochemical Capture and Storage of CO2 as Calcium Carbonate,” which was recently published in ChemSusChem.

 

 

By Blake Matich

Source PV Magazine

Cloud technology could be the most disruptive digital tool for empowering ASEAN’s vulnerable communities

Posted on by dishanth
Cloud technology could be the most disruptive digital tool for empowering ASEAN’s vulnerable communities

Cloud technology in Asia Pacific is projected to grow dramatically in the next few years, and plays a crucial role in modernising and empowering communities across the region. But it is not without challenges to ensure its benefits are broadly felt.

Cloud technology plays a crucial role in modernising and empowering communities across Southeast Asia, from boosting financial inclusion to streamlining access to formal markets for smallholder farmers, according to a report by Eco-Business Research launched on Friday (19 March). But multiple stakeholders must collaborate to ensure that there is true democratisation of cloud technology across the region.  

Cloud technology – the delivery of on-demand computing services through a network of remote servers – is projected to grow by 117 per cent in Asia Pacific between 2019 and 2024, according to GlobalData with more businesses allotting bigger budgets towards it.

Cloud needs minimal infrastructure and investment while it has the ability for companies to operate at scale quickly making it particularly appealing for emerging economies. 

Nevertheless, the development and adoption of cloud technology vary considerably across the five focus countries studied in the Eco-Buisness report.

Singapore is a leader in cloud adoption and growth potential, which is underpinned by its robust infrastructure and enabling policies. It is ranked top in the Eco-Business Cloud Opportunity Matrix. Its ‘Smart City, Smart Nation’ initiative places heavy focus on cloud technology to enable a more efficient provision of services and to streamline government systems. 

Parking, tax and government platforms allowing you to register births and businesses are powered by cloud technology. “We now have the ability to use data to manage transport systems like never before,” Jamie Leather, chief of Transport Sector Group, Asian Development Bank said in the report.

 

Source: Eco Business

 

Thailand and Malaysia are ranked next in the matrix, with conducive regulatory environments and relatively high digital penetration at around 80 per cent of the populations in both countries.

Indonesia, the most populous country in Southeast Asia, and the Philippines still have some way to go, the report noted, with both countries lacking the bedrock digital infrastructure needed to propel cloud technology. 

Nevertheless, Indonesia is one to watch as it is one of the fastest growing markets for cloud computing, with a thriving digital start-up industry boasting companies such as multi-service platform and digital payment group, Gojek and e-commerce company, Tokopedia.   

Growing pains are to be expected as digital infrastructure, awareness and enabling policies develop alongside the uptake of cloud technology.

“Everyone is still on this journey, no-one has a solution for best practice,” said Calum Handforth during a panel discussion launching the paper, and who advises on smart cities and digitalisation for the United Nations Development Programme. 

 

Breaches in data privacy are a headache for both public and private sector entities and could undermine the adoption of cloud technology, despite most providers having robust security systems in place, the report said. Singapore’s digital success story is marred by serious data breaches including one in 2018 when hackers accessed 1.5 million medical records, including those of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. 

“Governments are upskilling their ability to understand the discussions around privacy and security,” May Ann Lim, executive director of Asia Cloud Computing Association, said in the report.  

Cloud technology is in a strong position to be a “force for good” the report said, enabling collaborative cross-border efforts to cohesively deal with cybercrime. However, borders must stay open to allow cloudtech to maximise on trade and economic opportunities. The report suggests the creation of a “common set of principles governing cross-border data flows” will boost economic competitiveness collectively as a region.

The report said that the digital divide is a major impediment to cloud technology. Some in Southeast Asia are being left behind in the race to digitise with stuttering power supply and unstable internet provision in developing markets including the Philippines and Indonesia. 

Even in markets with high internet provision, “policymakers and digital service providers need to address the disparity between different segments of society,” the report charged. Meanwhile, improving computer literacy is instrumental in ensuring cloud technology is inclusive of all.  

The report showcases several examples of best-practice in the region. Indonesia has rising potential in using cloud technology to help support and modernise agribusiness. “The farm-to-customer model has also helped the industry address the ongoing problem of multiple middlemen who typically take a 10 to 15 per cent margin each,” according to the report.  

 

There is potential for smallholders to tap into the e-commerce market using cloud-powered apps as the country’s growing middle class opts for online shopping over the traditional open-air ‘wet’ market, Purnama Adil Marata, an expert in agribusiness in Indonesia told the panel. Meanwhile, cloud-powered innovations can “make modern farming more inclusive for the smallholder farmer,” Marata added.  

Cloud has also played a part in facilitating access to finance for smallholder farmers in Southeast Asia, home to one of the world’s largest unbanked populations. By leapfrogging bricks-and-mortar banking, Indonesia’s farmers, one of the poorest groups in the region that would be ordinarily regarded as high-risk borrowers by traditional financers, can tap into micro-loans as well as agricultural cooperatives where farmers can pool their resources.

“These cloud-enabled lending platforms have also provided farmers with legitimate and safer alternatives to predatory loan sharks,” said the report.

More collaboration is needed in the region to maximise cloud potential. “For this to work, it requires more than just technology…you need to combine it with leadership,” Jane Treadwell from Amazon Web Services said during the panel discussion, whose backlog of experience also includes the digital transformation of governments for the World Bank.

Greater collaboration is needed between government, the private sector, academia and customers to ensure democratisation of the cloud, and that the benefits of this technology can help the most vulnerable people in the region. “Without partnerships, collaborations, we have nothing,” Akanksha Bilani, regional alliance head at Intel told panellists.

 

 

By Gillian Parker

Source Eco Business