Solid state freezing, US$1 hydrogen and efficiency standards saving thousands
In this issue:
Geothermal investment surges
Observing investment trends is an excellent portent for seeing where useful technologies will emerge, not only because investors usually do their due diligence but also because there is an element of self-fulfilment, technologies are more likely to succeed if they have strong financial backing. At the moment, there’s surging interest in geothermal as evidenced by a new report from the IEA. Enhanced and closed loop geothermal systems will widen hugely the scope of geothermal viability. The report indicates investment increased 80% in 2025 hitting US$2.2 billion (NZ$3.7bn), and is up a factor of 1,000 since 2018. Around half the investment is supporting district heating projects. The IEA estimates geothermal will satisfy around 15% of global demand growth by 2050.
Efficiency standards save households thousands
A new US study on the impact of efficiency standards on appliances has concluded households have saved an average US$6,000 (NZ$10,000) over the last ten years because standards have been in place. It goes on to suggest businesses have saved a total of $330 billion (NZ$550 bn) and total energy consumption would have been 14% higher if the standards had not been in place.
The race for US$1 hydrogen
A couple of weeks ago we reported a new technology that claimed to generate hydrogen at US$1.54 (NZ$2.60) a kilo. Even cheaper hydrogen is being promised by US company, Vema Hydrogen. Vema aims to achieve the breakthrough by producing engineered, mineral hydrogen. The process involves emulating and accelerating the process that creates natural hydrogen. Vema has now started its world-first operation at a test well near Quebec.
Sand battery 10x more efficient
That’s the claim of Finnish startup TheStorage, which has just commissioned its first industrial-scale sand battery at a brewery in Nokia. Electrifying industrial process heat is a global challenge and TheStorage’s solution is claimed to offer ten times the heat transfer efficiency of conventional models with 70% cost savings and 90% emissions savings. The solution is scalable, offering capacities from 20 to 500 MWh.
Sub-zero solid state freezing achieved
We’ve covered solid state refrigeration in the past but can now report a team of scientists from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology has broken the zero degrees threshold allowing freezing. The prototype unit reached -12C. At this stage, the device is outperformed by conventional units on energy efficiency. The team is working on that and on pushing the lower-temperature limit down yet further.
Did you know ….
China installed more new generation capacity in 2025 than the total capacity of the Indian market and double the total capacity of the German market? In the last four years, it has installed more capacity than the total capacity of the American market.
