The Latest Developments in the Green Energy Transition

Updates on the energy transition are coming out every minute of every day. Here are some of the big news items from the last few weeks.

Green With Envy

From JPT

In April, Forbes released its list of billionaires whose fortunes stem from clean energy. The oil and gas industry may not be raking in the dough yet, but these individuals are.

• Elon Musk

• Robin Zeng

• Huang Shilin

• Li Zhenguo

• Pei Zhenhua

Roughly two-thirds of the 34 total clean energy billionaires hail from China (including Hong Kong) and around half of the clean energy billionaires have fortunes from solar products.

Skill Transition

The recently released UK Offshore Energy Workforce Transferability Review found that more than 90% of workers in the oil and gas sector have "medium to high skills transferability," to work in other parts of the offshore energy sector.

The report found that a majority of the UK offshore workforce could be involved in delivering low-carbon energy by 2030—offshore wind and carbon capture could account for almost two thirds of jobs in the sector. And the workforce could increase to at least 200,000, up from 160,000.

Electrifying News

There have been lots of announcements around electric vehicles (EVs) from major auto manufacturers. 

• VW plans to end sales of vehicles with combustion engines in Europe by 2035

• Ford says it will go all-electric in Europe by 2030

• Volvo is only going to sell electric vehicles by 2030

• Honda is phasing out all of its gasoline-powered vehicles in North America by 2040

• GM will stop producing vehicles that run on gasoline or diesel fuel by 2035

The EU is also boosting infrastructure to support the transition to electric vehicles, requiring member states to guarantee at least one high-performance charging station at intervals of no more than 60 kilometres along the most important European motorways by the end of 2025.

EU Roadmap

The EU released its climate roadmap that brings forth massive changes to help meet its 2030 goal of reducing emissions by 55% from 1990 levels. Proposals include:

• Tighter emission limits for cars, which are expected to effectively end new petrol and diesel vehicle sales by 2035

• A tax on aviation fuel, and a 10-year tax holiday for low-carbon alternatives

• A so-called carbon border tariff, which would require manufacturers from outside the EU to pay more for importing materials like steel and concrete

• More ambitious targets for expanding renewable energy around the bloc

• A requirement for countries to more quickly renovate buildings that are not deemed energy efficient

Colorful Hydrogen

Both blue and green hydrogen projects are picking up around the world. 

Cerulean Winds signed an agreement with px Group, the UK’s leading operator of large scale industrial facilities, as part of its plans for an integrated 200-turbine floating wind and hydrogen development in the North Sea.

In the Dutch North Sea, UK independent Neptune Energy will host the world’s first offshore green hydrogen project on an operational oil or gas platform to validate the integration of offshore wind, gas, and hydrogen.

Saipem launched SUISO, a technological solution that combines floating wind, floating solar, and marine energy to power the production of green hydrogen on existing offshore platforms.

Air Products and Baker Hughes are collaborating to develop next generation hydrogen compression to lower the cost of production and accelerate the adoption of hydrogen as a zero-carbon fuel.  

SSE Thermal and Equinor are developing plans for a world-leading hydrogen storage facility in Yorkshire. The site comprises nine huge underground salt caverns. To store hydrogen, those caverns could be converted or caverns could be purpose-built.

All this news is not a snooze.