Agreements support Canadian SMR development and deployment

14 October 2021

Separate Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) supporting the future development and deployment of advanced small modular reactors (SMRs) in Canada will see Cameco and Terrestrial Energy investigate opportunities related to Terrestrial's Integrated Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR), while ARC Clean Energy Canada and Cross River Infrastructure Partners LLC will work together to develop sustainable industrial projects using ARC's SMR technology. Meanwhile, Canada's nuclear regulator has granted a 10-year licence renewal for an Ontario Power Generation (OPG) site earmarked for possible SMR deployment.

Terrestrial Energy's illustration of the IMSR400 in the configuration proposed for the Darlington site (Image: Terrestrial Energy)

The non-binding and non-exclusive MoU between Saskatoon, Saskatchewan-based Cameco and Terrestrial Energy of Oakville, Ontario, will see those companies examine potential partnership opportunities to deploy IMSR plants in North America and worldwide, and to evaluate possible opportunities for the supply of uranium, fuel and other services. As part of this, the companies said they are investigating the potential of Cameco's uranium conversion facility at Port Hope in southern Ontario for IMSR fuel salt supply.

The MoU follows previous agreements for Cameco to supply uranium products for Terrestrial's ongoing fuel testing programmes.

"Cameco plans to be a key fuel supplier for the emerging small modular reactor and advanced reactor market," the company's President and CEO Tim Gitzel said.

Simon Irish, CEO of Terrestrial Energy, said: "Cameco is a Canadian and global leader in uranium supply and other fuel services, and we welcome this opportunity to investigate with them opportunities around the deployment of IMSR power plants and to supply nuclear fuel to our plants in Canada and worldwide."

Sustainable projects

ARC Clean Energy Canada's  strategic MoU with Cross River Infrastructure Partners of Connecticut, USA, will see the two companies work together to develop sustainable industrial projects globally that employ ARC Canada's advanced SMR technology, with a focus on developing world-scale energy hubs to produce clean, base-load power and clean fuels.

Sustainable infrastructure developer Cross River will be responsible for project origination and financing for projects requiring carbon-free power and/or heat using ARC’s proprietary advanced technology, the companies said. The partnership will focus on developing "world-scale energy hubs" to produce clean, base-load power and clean fuels powered by ARC's sodium-cooled fast reactor technology. The ARC-100 100 MWe reactor is being developed in New Brunswick with the support of the provincial government and NB Power, with a unit expected to be operational at NB Power's Point Lepreau site before the end of the current decade.

As well as providing 24/7 low-cost carbon-free power, ARC's advanced technology will also provide high-quality process heat as a co-product that can lead to globally leading production costs for high-demand industrial uses, Cross River CEO Andrew Wilder said. "We believe that the hydrogen economy is firmly upon us and sectors such as transportation will require immense levels of low-cost hydrogen, and hydrogen carriers such as ammonia to effectively decarbonise," he added.

"With the development of new sustainable investment strategies, in combination with government policies, such as Canada’s Clean Fuel Standard, the financial sector is poised to support grid-scale carbon-free power and industrial heat sources that will have a meaningful impact on reversing climate change," ARC Canada President and CEO Bill Labbe said. "Combining ARC's simplicity of design with Cross River’s integrated project delivery model is fundamental to ensuring the project can be financed and delivered."

Licence renewed

OPG last year announced it was resuming planning activities for additional nuclear power generation via an SMR at its Darlington New Nuclear site, which is the only site in Canada currently licensed for new nuclear with a completed and accepted environmental assessment. Yesterday, the company said the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has announced its decision to renew the existing Site Preparation Licence for the project.

The 10-year licence renewal means OPG can carry out work including excavation and grading, installation of services and utilities for future buildings, and construction of service buildings, in preparation for construction of a potential future SMR at the Ontario site.

Terrestrial's IMSR is one of three SMR designs under consideration for deployment at Darlington. The others are GE Hitachi's BWRX-300 water-cooled SMR, and X-energy's Xe-100 high-temperature gas-cooled reactor.

Researched and written by World Nuclear News

Kenney's calendar suggests light vacation workload while Alberta's fourth wave grew



Timm Bruch
CTV News Calgary 

Video Journalist
Updated Oct. 14, 2021 

CALGARY -

A calendar obtained through Alberta's Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act suggests Premier Jason Kenney only had two COVID-19 briefings while on vacation in August.

That's despite Kenney insisting on multiple occasions that he was "in daily contact" with staff and senior officials during his holiday.

The calendar shows "personal" time scheduled from Aug. 12 to Aug. 30.

Two meetings, both labeled "Weekly COVID Update," were scheduled on Aug. 18 and Aug. 25.

Apart from those updates, the calendar remains relatively blank for 19 days.

The premier previously claimed he was away for a couple of weeks.

"I, every single day, was on my phone in connection with the government, my office and getting regular briefings on COVID and everything else," Kenney said upon his September return.

"There is nothing on the record that shows Jason Kenney was willing to interrupt his best summer ever to address a very real and pressing crisis," NDP MLA David Shepard told CTV News. "If he was taking any substantial action, it would be showing there in that calendar. It shows that this premier was more concerned about potentially his own vacation than he was about taking responsible action to protect the health of Albertans."

FOURTH WAVE HIT

While Kenney was absent from the public eye, COVID-19 cases and hospital admissions began to trend upwards.

The province tallied nearly 14,000 new cases in that time, and ICU admissions rose into the triple digits.

"It was amazingly bad optics," political scientist Keith Brownsey said. "Weekly meetings aren't enough. That doesn't give you the sense of the distress and the anger that was festering in Alberta with his absence. He left us and I think that has a lasting impact on his political career."

CTV News reached out to the Premier's Office for comment on his vacation schedule.

"The Premier maintains a weekly COVID update with a wide range of officials from his office, Alberta Health, and Alberta Health Services and he continued with those meetings while he was away," acting press secretary Harrison Fleming wrote. "He also maintained daily contact with his staff and other officials throughout. Impromptu (sp) discussions would not be reflected in the formal calendar."

But one former high-ranking Alberta government staffer is still skeptical.

Alison Redford's former chief of staff Stephen Carter told CTV News that "if it's not in the schedule, it's simple: it doesn't happen."

"There's absolutely zero way you can actually plan these meetings without putting them into the premier's schedule," Carter continued. "A briefing is not something that can be pulled together ad hoc."

The calendar was very thorough.

Every five minute drive, personal meal -- even casual walks -- were listed.

All Edmonton mayoral front-runners promise to publish donor lists before election

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Mike Nickel, Amarjeet Sohi only front-runners to publish donors' names so far

Madeleine Cummings · CBC News · Posted: Oct 14, 2021 

Municipal candidates are required to file campaign disclosure statements by March 1, 2022, but some are choosing to disclose donors before the Oct. 18 election. (CBC)

Edmonton mayoral candidates are not required to disclose their donors before election day, but all of this election's front-runners have now committed to doing so.

As of Wednesday evening, Mike Nickel and Amarjeet Sohi had published donor lists online.

Campaigners for Kim Krushell, Michael Oshry and Cheryll Watson confirmed to CBC News that they will disclose donors before Monday, when Edmonton voters go to the polls.

Nickel had previously told the Edmonton Journal that several of his donors had been "targeted" and that he would not be "giving more ammunition to these folks to target my supporters."

He published his list on Wednesday night. 

Krushell has committed to releasing her donor list in the next few days and Oshry will be releasing his this weekend.

Watson will be following Don Iveson's precedent of releasing the information the day before the election. 

• LISTEN
  Mayoral candidates Mike Nickel, Amarjeet Sohi join Edmonton AM

• Outgoing mayors Naheed Nenshi and Don Iveson reflect on their relationship with Alberta's UCP government

Diana Steele has also published her donor list online. Brian (Breezy) Gregg, Malik Chukwudi and Vanessa Denman self-financed their campaigns.

Augustine Marah said he will be disclosing his short list of donors after the election. Rick Comrie, who, like Chukwudi, is now endorsing Nickel for mayor, also said he does not plan to disclose donors before the election.

The names of some people who contributed to Comrie's crowdfunding campaign are visible online.

Promised transparency

Angela Duncan, interim president of the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association, said she was happy to see candidates disclosing but disappointed that only one of the Edmonton mayoral front-runners had published his donors list as of Wednesday morning.

Multiple candidates who have not yet disclosed their donors have campaigned on running a more transparent and accountable city government.

"I would really encourage them to put their money where their mouth is and disclose their donors," Duncan said. 

"Financial disclosure a couple of hours beforehand does not allow voters to make informed decisions."

Leah Ward, a political strategist and director of campaigns at Metric Strategies, said that while some motivated voters may comb through donor lists before going to the polls, the disclosures are most useful for candidates' political opponents.

"I would suggest that those who choose to release their donor lists so late in the game are doing it to achieve the appearance of transparency and not in the true spirit of that," said Ward, who has not worked for any of the Edmonton mayoral campaigns.

Who is donating?

Sohi's list, which was published on Oct. 8 and lists donations as of Oct. 6, reveals more than 1,000 donors who gave $50 or more, including former Edmonton mayor Stephen Mandel and former Edmonton MP Anne McLellan. Sohi's website says a final list will be released by the end of the day on Oct. 17.

Nickel's website says he has raised more than $414,000 from nearly 1,000 people. Some of his donors include former Edmonton MPs Kerry Diotte and Peter Goldring and two members of the Ghermezian family. 

Real estate developers and business owners from other industries appear on both lists, with some donating to both campaigns.

Incumbent city councillor Andrew Knack is among Steele's 35 donors.

Some local council candidates and candidates for municipal races in other cities have also embraced proactive disclosure.

The AUMA's voluntary pledge asks municipal candidates to commit to sharing their campaign donors before the election. (AUMA)

For the first time this year, the AUMA encouraged candidates to sign a voluntary pledge that included a promise to disclose campaign contributions and spending before the election. Candidates have been sharing their pledges on social media.

"I think it really has had an impact," Duncan said. The AUMA is not tracking how many candidates have signed pledges, nor whether candidates honour them.

Under the previous NDP government, municipalities were given the option to require pre-election disclosure, but last year, the UCP government removed that ability by making changes to the province's elections act.

'Edmontonians need to know': Sohi only mayoral frontrunner to share donors list so far




Sean Amato
CTV News Edmonton
Updated Oct. 13, 2021 

EDMONTON -

Several days after mayoral hopeful Amarjeet Sohi publicly released his donors list, the other frontrunning candidates still had not shared theirs.

CTV News Edmonton reached out to Mike Nickel, Kim Krushell, Micheal Oshry and Cheryll Watson and they all promised to release their lists before election day.

Nickel said he’d release his list on Wednesday - but it wasn’t received before 5 p.m.

“We’ll release it. No one has really asked us to release our donor list, but we’re happy to share it,” he said at his campaign office.

“Maybe you would like a complete donors list? How about that? As opposed to one in transition? So maybe a donors list at the end is better than one at the beginning?” He asked CTV News Edmonton.

“The results are what matter at the end, so let’s get you your list.”

A spokesperson for Nickel said the information would be available sometime Wednesday night or maybe Thursday.

Sohi’s list was released on Oct. 8 and he promised to update it before election day.

“We have made that public because we want to be transparent to Edmontonians. I’m so proud to have the support of close to 1,300 Edmontonians who have donated to my campaign,” he said.

Sohi’s team didn’t pinpoint an exact number, rather listed a range of each donation. His total so far is somewhere between $400,000 and $1 million.

Outgoing mayor Don Iveson raised $618,000 in 2013 and $396,000 in 2017, according to statements he released.

SOHI'S $400K A 'SEVERE HINDRANCE' TO OPPOSITION: MENSAH

“I think it's a severe hindrance to the other candidates trying to compete with (Sohi),” local political scientist Chaldeans Mensah said of the former federal minister’s 2021 campaign cash.

Mensah applauded candidates disclosing early, calling it smart politics.

“You’d be in the good books of the public that you’re not going to be beholden to any specific interests,” he said.

Sohi stopped short of criticising his opponents for not disclosing as early as him, but said it’s important for voters to have time to review all of the lists.

“I hope that other candidates will do the same well before the election, because Edmontonians need to know where the money is coming to support each of the candidates,” he said.

Krushell agreed with Sohi and said hers will be available before the Oct.18 vote.

“We’ll definitely be releasing it. It’s part of my transparency and accountability and we have no problem in releasing it, so It'll be this week,” she said.

Candidates are required to release a final list of contributions and expenditures to Edmonton Elections before March 1, 2022.

Diana Steele, Brian “Breezy” Gregg, Augustine Marah and Vanessa Denman are also running for mayor. Rick Comrie and Abdul Malik Chukwudi have both dropped out of the race.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Dan Grummett.

Edmonton non-profit shuts down after being forced to leave surplus government building

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Mennonite Centre for Newcomers opens drop-in donation centre to help fill the gap

Michelle Bellefontaine · CBC News · Posted: Oct 14, 2021 

Edmonton Emergency Relief Services has operated out of this site in downtown Edmonton for 34 years. (John Shypitka/CBC News )

An Edmonton non-profit organization that helped refugees and disaster victims for 34 years is shutting down after the Alberta government ended its no-cost lease at its downtown location.

The board of directors for the Edmonton Emergency Relief Services Society (EERSS) tried to find a new home but  were unable to find anything affordable. 

"Because we couldn't find a building in time, the board made a decision that we would dissolve the organization," said treasurer Shane Harnish. 

EERSS based its operations in a surplus government building known as Warehouse #3 at 10255 104th St.

The province leased the building to the society under a no-cost, month-to-month agreement. It also provided maintenance and upkeep for free at a cost of about $90,000 a year. 

The situation changed last spring when the building's boiler broke down. Alberta Infrastructure decided that the cost to repair or replace the equipment was too high.

• Edmonton non-profit faces closure after province ends no-cost lease
• Provincial policy will raise rents of rural adult learning centres by tens of thousands of dollars

The Alberta government is interested in getting private companies to develop some of its surplus properties in Edmonton, including the old Glenora site of the Royal Alberta Museum and Warehouse #3. 

EERSS was told in mid-August that the government was ending the lease. The organization left the premises by the end of September. 

EERSS tried raising money for a new home via online crowdfunding sites. Harnish said they looked at the old Salvation Army building but the cost was just too high. 

Hadyn Place, press secretary for Infrastructure Minister Prasad Panda, said in an email to CBC News that it doesn't make financial sense to spend tens of thousands of dollars annually to operate a building that needs millions of dollars in repairs. 

"We have worked closely with EERSS over the past six years to ensure they were aware that their lease could end anytime given the costs associated with the building. They have had ample time to explore other option," Place wrote.

"It is unfortunate they have chosen to close operations. Their contributions to the community over the years have been much appreciated."

Filling the gap

EERSS provided emergency supplies like donated clothing and household goods to people affected by fire or disaster. The non-profit also worked with the Edmonton Mennonite Centre for Newcomers (EMCN) to help set up households for immigrants and refugees.

EMCN executive director Meghan Klein said EERSS offered a unique service to the community. 

"There's now a big gap in our community," she said. "They were about the only shop in town that did this work."

The Mennonite Centre is now trying to fill that need on its own. On Tuesday, the organization opened a temporary drop-in centre to accept a limited range of donations — kitchen items, toiletries, diapers and toys — to help newcomers to the city. 

"Right now, EMCN does not have the capacity to replace the services that EERSS was offering in the community," Klein said. 

"But we are looking for ways in which we can fill that gap because it's much needed in the community. Newcomers, often, and refugees, in particular, come with very little. Usually nothing."

Policy change

Earlier this year, Alberta Infrastructure enacted a new policy aimed at standardizing rents paid by non-profits and businesses that lease space in government buildings. 

Non-profits in some rural Alberta towns are facing rental increases of tens of thousands of dollars each year. 

The government says the new policy levels the playing field to ensure the same classes of organizations are paying the same range of rent. 

Old-growth logging protests highlight a change in this BC NDP government

By Keith Baldrey Global News
Posted October 14, 2021

RCMP arrest an anti-logging protester on Vancouver Island. Global News


The issue that most clearly shows a fundamental difference between the current version of an NDP government and the 1990s version of an NDP government comes to the front of the legislature every Wednesday afternoon.


A small knot of people gathers to protest the logging of old-growth timber, particularly in the nearby Fairy Creek area.

When the legislature resumed sitting last week, a larger crowd of about 125 people protesting the same logging blocked all but one of the entrances to the legislature itself.

It was essentially a non-event as MLAs, staff and visitors came and went through the main door throughout the day. The NDP cabinet met that day, the legislature conducted its business as usual and the protesters shrunk in number throughout the afternoon and by 6:30 p.m. it was all over and everyone went home.

This is all in stark contrast to the environmentalists protesting logging practices under the NDP government of the 1990s.


Global News Hour at 6 BC: Fairy Creek injunction extension quashed by judge claimed as a victory by protestors  Sep 29, 2021


READ MORE: Injunction against Fairy Creek old-growth protesters reimposed on interim basis

The so-called “war of the woods” in Clayoquot Sound on Vancouver Island saw mass arrests, thousands of people protesting regularly at the legislature (they actually broke through security during the reading of a Throne Speech, stormed into the legislature upper rotunda, broke a guard’s hip and smashed the plate glass window on the front door of the chamber).

Back then, the NDP government found itself hitting the panic button over and over again as the protests continued. Members of the caucus were upset about all the arrests and the party was worried it was losing many of its traditional supporters.

The NDP government back then was constantly on the defensive when it came to fighting with the environmental movement.

This is simply not happening today.

The current NDP government has offered a collective shrug to the Fairy Creek protesters. A giant “meh.”

Even though more than 1,000 people have been arrested (that is more than the number of arrests at Clayoquot Sound) for defying an injunction against the protests in the forests it has had little impact on the NDP government.

2:07Protesters claim underhanded tactics by police and forest company at Fairy Creek logging blockade  Sep 16, 2021



READ MORE: B.C. logging injunction at Fairy Creek extension denied by judge

Other than agreeing to defer the logging of some old-growth timber, the government has had little response to the ongoing protest, other than Premier John Horgan regularly telling protesters to leave the area and respect the local First Nations’ territory.

And that brings us to the key difference between the 1990s and the present day.

The Horgan government has formally enshrined into law the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UINDRIP), which greatly enhances First Nations’ rights.

Fairy Creek is the traditional territory of the Pacheedaht First Nations, and it strongly supports local logging operations as they provide vitally important economic benefits for its members.

Six times the Pacheedaht have asked the protesters to leave, including on National Truth and Reconciliation Day. Each request has been refused.

Unlike its 1990s predecessor, the NDP government has put First Nations’ rights at the top of its priority list, well above any well-funded environmental protest campaign.

As a result, unless the Pacheedaht change their position (highly unlikely) the NDP government will remain steadfast in its support for the current position, no matter how many of those Wednesday afternoon gatherings occur.

Keith Baldrey is the chief political reporter for Global BC.

  

 

Finland Wants EU To Give Nuclear Power "Sustainable" Status

By ZeroHedge - Oct 14, 2021

It looks as though Finland is starting to come back around to the idea of nuclear power - and that they plan on taking their advocacy for very-low emission energy to the European Union. The country will now lobby the EU for a "sustainable" label on nuclear power. 

The EU's decision on whether or not nuclear is "sustainable" has yet to be made. Despite the fact that plants are emission-free, "nuclear is currently considered only a low-carbon energy source due to emissions caused by mining and transport," Euractive wrote this week.

Finland's fifth nuclear plant is nearing completion after years of delays, the report notes. Nuclear remains an important energy source for the country, which has a target of being carbon neutral by 2035. Nuclear currently accounts for 30% of the country's power. 

Finland's government lobbying nuclear as a clean source of energy "marks a near U-Turn" in the green party, Euractive writes. The party has been traditionally "fiercely anti-nuclear" and has resigned from previous governments over the issue, the report says. 

Now, its views have become "more pragmatic". 

Recall, yesterday, we published on uranium, which we have been recommending since December 2020. 

We pointed out that the Sprott Physical Uranium Trust has emerged as a powerful buyer of physical uranium, which in a market as illiquid as uranium, would serve as a powerful catalyst to move prices of both the underlying commodity and various producers sharply higher.

We also noted how hedge funds were starting to pour into uranium. 

The difference this time from other uranium pops, we wrote, is that finally, the institutions are waking up to what could be a historic surge, especially if the fake ESG lobby starts dumping the bloated FAAMG names and seeks refuge in such "soon to be green" sectors as uranium. Incidentally, the entire Uranium sector is a tiny fraction of Apple's market cap.

And while Finland is just a tiny brick in the wall in terms of additional adoption, they represent the obvious direction for the energy lobby to eventually focus their efforts on. 

By Zerohedge.com

Asia's richest man to build gigafactory to mass-produce Stiesdal’s new low-cost hydrogen electrolyser

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani, managing director of India's biggest company, Reliance Industries.

Photo: Getty

Mukesh Ambani, one of the world's richest men, makes swift move to snap up wind power pioneer's latest green technology breakthrough

In the summer of 2020, wind turbine pioneer Henrik Stiesdal was experimenting in his basement to see if he could make a low-cost hydrogen electrolyser, accidentally spilling a strong alkaline solution onto his hands and taking off some skin.

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“I kind of lost a few fingerprints, so I had some issues with [accessing] my mobile phone,” the Dane tells Recharge.

This week, he signed a deal with the Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries to mass-produce Stiesdal’s ultra-low-cost electrolyser at a new gigafactory in Gujarat state.


Clean energy pioneer Stiesdal starts up 'stepping stone' CO2-negative green fuel plantRead more


Stiesdal 'hot rocks' energy storage flagship to power up on Danish island of LollandRead more


Stiesdal's low-cost TetraSpar floating wind demonstrator installed off NorwayRead more

“The intent of our company [Stiesdal A/S] is that we are seeking impact in the fight against climate change,” said Stiesdal, whose wind turbine designs in the late 1970s helped kickstart the modern wind industry. “And what more impact could you wish for than working with the biggest industrial company in the biggest democracy in the world. That’s kind of a dream come true for us.

“We hope we can support our partner Reliance, and India in general, in a faster green transition than would otherwise have been.”

In a statement issued after the signing of the technology licensing agreement, Reliance managing director Mukesh Ambani — who is said to be Asia's richest man, with a net worth of $100bn — stated: “In partnership with Stiesdal, we will strive to achieve our stated goal of offering hydrogen energy under $1 per kg in one decade — the 1-1-1 target for green hydrogen.


Reliance announced in June that it would invest $10bn in new energy, seeing renewable H2 as “a unique energy vector that can enable deep decarbonisation of many sectors, such as transportation, industry and power”.

The agreement with Reliance comes just two months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a new national hydrogen mission, promising “to make India a global hub for green hydrogen production and export”.

And it comes only a year after Stiesdal subsidiary Stiesdal PtX Technologies completed its first 8kW alkaline electrolyser prototype. The second prototype, a 150kW machine, has only just been commissioned, with a 3MW model — the HydroGen Electrolyser — now in development, with a view to serial production in 2023.

So why has one of the world’s richest men rushed to license and mass-produce a product that has barely made it past the design phase? And what is so special about the new machine?

“We are really doing something that is based on relatively conventional technologies,” Stiesdal tells Recharge. “And on the hardcore electrode surface technology, we are most likely not doing it better than everybody else.”


Asia's richest man unveils $10bn 'giga-plan' to turn India's Reliance into clean energy majorRead more


Modi pledges massive green hydrogen 'quantum leap' to Indian energy independenceRead more

However, Stiesdal’s alkaline electrolyser will cost a fraction of the current price of other electrolysers on the market — at about €200 ($231) per kW, he says. This is in a market with typical costs in the range of €500-1,000/kW.

“From the outset, the project was carried out with industrialization as the main target. As so often before, it was about asking what is the lowest cost way you can do this, you can do that, you can do your control system, you can do your cooling and so on. And we have been very, very focused on that from day one — what is the cheapest way in the world we can do this?”

It also helps that the electrolyser has “a few inventive tricks in the set-up of the electrodes… which I cannot disclose until the patents [are approved]”.

Stiesdal explains that he came up with the idea for a cheap electrolyser after realising that his company’s aim of producing carbon-negative aviation fuel from biomass would require the addition of low-cost green hydrogen.

“People said [green hydrogen] is very expensive and it will be a long time before it is competitive. So I looked into it and I asked my usual silly childlike question: why is that? And then I got two messages: renewable energy is expensive and electrolysers are expensive, and that makes an expensive product.

“And I thought, ‘that’s not true, because renewable energy has become very cheap’. And then you can say, ‘okay, but at least electrolysers are expensive’. And then I asked my own stupid questions again: why?

“If we have a belief that electrolysers will become really cheap in 2050, why doesn’t it get really cheap in 2025? If we have a clue how to get there, why don’t we just do it now?”

He and his team came to the conclusion that the main reason that electrolysers were expensive was due to a certain lack of industrialisation.


Indian giant Reliance joins Bill Gates to back 'liquid metal' battery for large-scale green power storageRead more


'Use green hydrogen' rule for oil and fertiliser plants as India eyes world-leading marketRead more

“Myself and many of our leadership team come out of the wind industry. And from having been in the wind industry, we have a pretty good impression of what really matters on cost reductions. Because we have seen that what brought the cost [of wind turbines] down was not the brilliant ideas or leading-edge research, what brought the cost down was industrialisation. It was mass production, standardisation, that is what made the difference.”

Stiesdal says he and his team looked at existing electrolyser technology — alkaline, polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) and soild oxide electrolyser cell (SOEC) — and decided: “We think we can do this cheaper.”

“And what we did was select one of the technologies, which is the good old alkaline electrolyser. It has a big benefit in that it doesn’t need any rare metals, like iridium for PEM, it does not run at many hundreds of degrees, like SOEC. We thought, ‘let’s do the one that we studied in school, the one that they did in Norway at scale in the 1920s'. And then the whole trick has been to refine the set-up, so that it’s done from the start with industrialization in mind.”

Stiesdal A/S teamed up with experts at the Technical University of Denmark to fine-tune the core technology of the new electrolyser. “So in a way, we were kind of cheating a bit, in that we did not aim to develop all the knowledge ourselves from the start. We just turned to the best expertise we could find.”

In very simple terms, Stiesdal PtX Technologies has designed an electrolyser in which every component is cheap, using off-the-shelf equipment wherever possible.

The ever-modest Stiesdal — who managed the construction of the world’s first offshore wind farm in 1991 and was later chief technology officer at Siemens Wind Power — tells Recharge that because the capex of the new electrolyser is so low, green hydrogen can become cost-competitive with highly polluting grey H2 today when powered by solar energy in regions with high irradiation.


Nel to slash cost of electrolysers by 75%, with green hydrogen at same price as fossil H2 by 2025Read more


Green hydrogen: ITM Power’s new gigafactory will cut costs of electrolysers by almost 40%Read more

It also means that green hydrogen can become affordable when only using excess renewable power that would otherwise be curtailed. This has not been possible until now because the high capex of electrolysers has meant that they have to be in operation for many, many hours per year to bring the levelised cost of hydrogen down to a reasonable level.

And if transmission costs were waived ­— on the grounds that curtailed power would not pay a transmission fee anyway — the hydrogen produced could well be cheaper than grey, even today.

“I have to say that I didn’t grasp this effect of a low-cost electrolyser until I started making these financial models,” Stiesdal admits.

He says that he hopes that the company’s efforts will inspire other electrolyser manufacturers to focus hard on the industrialisation of their products.

“As soon as one company brings in a lower-cost product, the others will follow. We are sure that five years down the line, the cost of green hydrogen will have dropped dramatically, and there will be many suppliers in a benign competition, challenging us, with us challenging them.

“We are not seeking a special position on the market, we like competition. The more companies that can deliver technologies pushing the cost of the green transition down, the better for all of us and for our children.

Privately-owned Stiesdal A/S operates four subsidiaries, each focusing on their own green technology.

Steisdal PtX Technologies has developed the HydroGen electrolyser; Stiesdal Offshore Technologies has developed a low-cost modular floating wind turbine foundation called Tetra, which is now being tested off Norway; Stiesdal Storage Technologies is working on a long-duration thermal energy storage system that stores electricity as heat in crushed rocks, with a demonstration project in Denmark due to begin next year; and Stiesdal Fuel Technologies is developing the SkyClean carbon-negative aviation fuel.(Copyright)

BLUE HYDROGEN

U.S. energy department picks Shell-led consortium for hydrogen storage project

By Ruhi Soni

Oct 13 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) awarded a contract to a consortium of companies led by oil major Royal Dutch Shell PLC RDSa.AS to demonstrate that a large-scale liquid hydrogen storage tank is feasible at import and export terminals.

Hydrogen has taken off in recent years as the future green fuel of choice, with governments and businesses betting big that the universe's most abundant element can help fight climate change.

Energy infrastructure construction company McDermott International Ltd MCDIF.PK, a part of the consortium, said that the $12 million project also aims to show that a large-scale liquid hydrogen tank is economic at terminals.

Shell and McDermott will provide $3 million each, while the DOE's Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office will contribute $6 million.

NASA's Kennedy Space Center, hydrogen infrastructure firm GenH2, and the University of Houston are also partners in the project.

The consortium will collaborate to develop a concept design for the large-scale liquid hydrogen storage tank, and the group will also engineer and construct a scaled-down demonstration tank that will be tested to validate the feasibility of the design, McDermott said.

(Reporting by Ruhi Soni in Bengaluru; editing by Uttaresh.V)

 

Report to Congress on Changes in the Arctic

October 14, 2021 9:31 AM

The following is the Oct. 12, 2021, Congressional Research Service report, Changes in the Arctic: Background and Issues for Congress.

From the report

The diminishment of Arctic sea ice has led to increased human activities in the Arctic, and has heightened interest in, and concerns about, the region’s future. The United States, by virtue of Alaska, is an Arctic country and has substantial interests in the region. The seven other Arctic states are Canada, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark (by virtue of Greenland), and Russia.

The Arctic Research and Policy Act (ARPA) of 1984 (Title I of P.L. 98-373 of July 31, 1984) “provide[s] for a comprehensive national policy dealing with national research needs and objectives in the Arctic.” The National Science Foundation (NSF) is the lead federal agency for implementing Arctic research policy. The Arctic Council, created in 1996, is the leading international forum for addressing issues relating to the Arctic. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) sets forth a comprehensive regime of law and order in the world’s oceans, including the Arctic Ocean. The United States is not a party to UNCLOS.

Record low extents of Arctic sea ice over the past decade have focused scientific and policy attention on links to global climate change and projected ice-free seasons in the Arctic within decades. These changes have potential consequences for weather in the United States, access to mineral and biological resources in the Arctic, the economies and cultures of peoples in the region, and national security.

The geopolitical environment for the Arctic has been substantially affected by the renewal of great power competition. Although there continues to be significant international cooperation on Arctic issues, the Arctic is increasingly viewed as an arena for geopolitical competition among the United States, Russia, and China.

The Department of Defense (DOD) and the Coast Guard are devoting increased attention to the Arctic in their planning and operations. Whether DOD and the Coast Guard are devoting sufficient resources to the Arctic and taking sufficient actions for defending U.S. interests in the region has emerged as a topic of congressional oversight. The Coast Guard has two operational polar icebreakers and has received funding for the procurement of two of at least three planned new polar icebreakers.

The diminishment of Arctic ice could lead in coming years to increased commercial shipping on two trans-Arctic sea routes—the Northern Sea Route close to Russia, and the Northwest Passage close to Alaska and through the Canadian archipelago—though the rate of increase in the use of these routes might not be as great as sometimes anticipated in press accounts. International guidelines for ships operating in Arctic waters have been recently updated.

Changes to the Arctic brought about by warming temperatures will likely allow more exploration for oil, gas, and minerals. Warming that causes permafrost to melt could pose challenges to onshore exploration activities. Increased oil and gas exploration and tourism (cruise ships) in the Arctic increase the risk of pollution in the region. Cleaning up oil spills in ice-covered waters will be more difficult than in other areas, primarily because effective strategies for cleaning up oil spills in ice-covered waters have yet to be developed.

Large commercial fisheries exist in the Arctic. The United States is working with other countries regarding the management of Arctic fish stocks. Changes in the Arctic could affect threatened and endangered species, and could result in migration of fish stocks to new waters. Under the Endangered Species Act, the polar bear was listed as threatened on May 15, 2008. Arctic climate change is also expected to affect the economies, health, and cultures of Arctic indigenous peoples.

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