Power sector dominates lithium battery demand, G7 commitments and 24/7 solar
In this issue:
Power sector dominates lithium-ion demand
The IEA has just published a special report on the current state of and outlook for the battery market. The 150+ page report includes the latest data and technological developments and provides insight on markets and likely future trends and risks. It reveals the power sector doubled its deployment of batteries in 2023 and, despite the growth of EV sales, accounted for 90% of demand for lithium-ion batteries, which has become the dominant technology. The report is available free from the IEA.
EV sales hit 20%
Also just out from the IEA is the Global EV Outlook report. Predicting sales of EVs will hit 20% of the global market in 2024, at around 17 million units, the report reaffirms China’s lead in manufacturing and sales. 60% of all EVs sold in 2023 went into the Chinese market. The report predicts EVs will command 45% of the Chinese market in 2024, 25% of the European market and 11% of that in the US.
Half full or half empty? G7 commitments
Earlier this week the G7 committed to several key objectives arising out of COP28. These included a commitment to double energy efficiency by 2030, triple renewables by 2030, reduce fossil fuel methane emissions by 75% by 2030 and eliminate unabated coal-fired generation by 2035. All good measures but wriggle room around some of the objectives, such as elimination of only unabated coal emissions has seen some lobby groups accuse the commitments of being too little too late.
Red Sea avoidance costs millions
The problems in the Red Sea are not just costing freight companies millions of dollars. Rerouting to avoid the area has added an extra 13.6 million tonnes of CO2 emissions over the last four months according to INVERTO, the equivalent of around 9 million cars. The increase is attributed not only to the extra distance but also increased speeds in an attempt to minimise delivery delays.
24/7 solar
A dual functionality solar solution is now on offer from MIT spin-off 247solar. The solution is founded on concentrated solar and thermal storage rather than photovoltaic electricity generation. Concentrated solar is not new but an innovative turbine to convert stored, heated air into electricity without using steam is a step forward. An array of sun-tracking mirrors is used to focus rays onto a central tower where air is heated to 1,000C. The hot air can be used to generate electricity (through the turbine) or used as industrial grade heat. If used for electricity, the units will continue to generate electricity overnight removing the time of day limitations associated with PV.
Innovative hydro update
In an update to a story we first ran a couple of years ago, RheEnergise is to build its first full-scale demonstrator for its innovative hydro storage technology just outside Plymouth, UK. The technology uses a specially developed fluid that is 2.5 times more dense than water and, therefore, produces 2.5 times the energy for the same drop. Put another way, the same energy can be generated with a drop only 40% of water-based hydro, opening up the use of hydro storage in much smaller hills close to renewable generation plants and with much smaller build costs. For example, the hill on which the wind turbine stands could potentially also provide storage to ease intermittency and reduce connectivity costs to remote storage. The demonstrator unit will have a peak production of 500kW.
Electricity from CO2
Scientists at Queensland University have developed a new form of electricity generator which uses CO2 as its fuel. The new nanogenerator is made of two components, a polyamine gel to absorb CO₂ and a skeleton of boron nitrate, only a few atoms thick, that generates positive and negative ions of different sizes. The different sized ions move at different speeds generating a diffusion current which can be amplified into electricity. An excellent example of turning trash into treasure.
