Nov 18, 2022
The Friday Express 18 November 2022
The week’s energy highlights
Highlights:
- Solar PV production increased by 45% in 2022;
- World’s first wind-to-hydrogen plant is approved;
- Volvo delivers the world’s first trucks built with fossil-free steel;
- Company announces North America’s first all-electric Lithium mine;
- European countries achieve lower natural gas consumption well below the 15% target.
1) Estimates for Solar PV production in 2022 forecast a 45% year-on-year growth compared to 2021.
Still, it needs to meet demand growth estimated to surpass 2022’s production by 50% to 100%. Available Polysilicon in the market constrained production.
China is the overwhelming producer, with 90% or more production of Polysilicon, wafers, and c-Si cells. Also, 85% of c-Si modules.
The biggest export market was Europe; close to 67 GW of modules shipped in 2022, a surprising number resulting from the fallout of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Still, China kept a staggering 100 GW of this year’s production.
3) In a fiercely contested competition, the Dutch government awarded German energy company RWE to build the world’s first PowertoX plant. The plant will use a 760 MW-plus offshore wind farm to power 600MW of onshore electrolyzers for green hydrogen production (3).
RWE’s subsidiary Oranje Wind Power 2, beat 47 other applicants to build the facility. The construction will have no governmental subsidies.
RWE’s project aims to meet the energy demand with the flexible profile of wind generation.
As such, the project also includes 225 MW of electric boilers (to supply district heating and industry), batteries, and 5 MW offshore floating solar panels provided by the company Solar Duck.
4) Volvo trucks announces delivery of the world’s first trucks made with fossil-free steel.
Volvo sourced the steel from Swedish steel manufacturer SSAB, which used green electricity with hydrogen for production.
However, only the truck’s frame rails currently use fossil-free steel due to availability issues. As more fossil-free steel is available, more truck parts will incorporate it. The trucks using fossil-free steel are electric.
The first customers are Amazon, Unilever, DFDS, and transport company, Simon Loos.
5) Company Snow Lake Lithium announces North America’s first all-electric Lithium mine.
The production aims to concentrate 6% Li spodumene, producing 160,00 tons a year. The plant feeds off 98% hydropower resulting in lower carbon emissions.
The facility distances 400 miles from Winnepeg, where LG will open a plant to produce battery-grade lithium, which the company aims to cater.
5) European countries achieve lower natural gas consumption well below the 15% target, negating Russia’s energy blackmail. These numbers result from an auspicious milder winter and cutbacks in industry and home consumption.
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Speaking of lithium, you might also like to read Electric Vehicles are running out of lithium: https://medium.com/@miguel-pacheco/are-electric-cars-running-out-of-lithium-72e1fe85470a
Also, how the lithium crunch may explain the new investment in hydrogen vehicles, including passenger cars: https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/why-are-hydrogen-cars-still-a-thing-1c8461b137
