Blaze broke out at Croydon building Friday morning, with firefighters highlighting risks from lithium batteries
An e-bike workshop has been destroyed in an early morning fire in Sydney’s inner west, causing road closures along the suburb’s shopping strip.
Residents were woken just before 5am on Friday after the fire broke out at the building on Elizabeth Street in Croydon.
Continue reading...Northvolt says new lithium-free sodium-ion battery is cheaper, more sustainable and doesn’t rely on scarce raw materials
Europe’s energy and electric vehicle industries could reduce their dependency on scarce raw materials from China after the launch of a “breakthrough” sodium-ion battery, according to its Swedish developer.
Northvolt, Europe’s only large homegrown electric battery maker, has said it has made a lower cost, more sustainable battery designed to store electricity which does not use lithium, nickel, graphite and cobalt.
Continue reading...Research says mining boom to support renewable energy risks ‘significant social and environmental damage’
In the high-stakes quest to break China’s grip over minerals crucial to clean energy technology, Australia risks over-mining while ignoring alternatives such as improved battery recycling, according to a new report.
The release of the Jubilee Australia research, which questions mineral demand assumptions and warns against causing unnecessary environmental harm, comes as the federal government prepares a strategy to address China’s dominance of minerals seen as critical to a nation.
Continue reading...Leaders of Drax, Siemens and others call for green growth to be a priority and ‘regional disparities’ to be closed
Business leaders in the north of England have written to the prime minister, chancellor and energy secretary asking for help to reach net zero.
Big names including Drax, Siemens, Peel, Manchester airport, the CBI and all 11 local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) in the north signed a letter urging the government to prioritise green growth in the north.
Continue reading...Recharge, which is also planning a factory in Victoria, revives goal to build £3.8bn ‘gigafactory’ in north England
An emerging Australian company yet to construct a major project will be responsible for delivering on UK hopes to electrify its automotive industry after outbidding rivals to take over collapsed battery maker Britishvolt.
In a whirlwind fortnight, Recharge Industries put together an aggressive package that also revives plans to build a £3.8bn (A$6.7bn) “gigafactory” in the north of England to supply the next generation of UK-built electric vehicles, free from Chinese materials.
Continue reading...Olaf Scholz says country has enough energy to get through winter after Russia cut gas supplies
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has rejected calls for his government to commit to a longer-term extension of the life of the country’s nuclear power plants and insisted that Europe’s largest economy would have enough energy to get through the winter.
Scholz shut down criticism from the opposition conservative alliance and at least one leading economist, who have described his coalition’s decision to keep two remaining reactors in emergency reserve rather than letting them produce electricity, as “madness” while the government refuses to reverse its long-term plan to close down the last remaining plants.
Continue reading...EVs are seen as key in transition to low-carbon economy, but as their human and environmental costs become clearer, can new tech help?
While the journey to a low-carbon economy is well under way, the best route to get there remains up for debate. But, amid the slew of “pathways” and “roadmaps”, one broad consensus exists: “clean” technology will play a vital role.
Nowhere is this truer than for transport. To cut vehicle emissions, an alternative to the combustion engine is required.
Continue reading...Research could pave way for cheap supercapacitor storage of renewable energy
The humble house brick has been turned into a battery that can store electricity, raising the possibility that buildings could one day become literal powerhouses.
The new technology exploits the porous nature of fired red bricks by filling the pores with tiny nanofibres of a conducting plastic that can store charge. The first bricks store enough electricity to power small lights. But if their capacity can be increased, they may become a low-cost alternative to the lithium-ion batteries currently used.
Continue reading...Startup firm Britishvolt, serving energy storage and electric cars, plans 30GWh battery plant at Bro Tathan
A startup company with plans to build Britain’s first gigafactory to make batteries for electric cars has chosen a site in south Wales for the plant after discussions with the Welsh government.
Britishvolt, which in May launched an ambitious effort to create a £1.2bn factory, has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Welsh government ahead of signing a lease for a former Royal Air Force base at Bro Tathan business park, south Wales.
Continue reading...Slowdown in large-scale clean energy projects started before coronavirus crisis due to lack of state support
Europe’s energy storage boom stalled last year due to a slowdown in large-scale schemes designed to store clean electricity from major renewable energy projects, according to the European Association for Storage of Energy (Ease).
A new study by consultants Delta-EE for Ease found that the European market grew by a total of 1 gigawatt-hours in 2019, a significant slowdown compared with 2018, when the energy storage market exceeded expectations to grow by 1.47GWh.
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