Tag: Renewable

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Renewable hydrogen can journey by means of present pipelines, CEO says

Renewable hydrogen can travel through existing pipelines, CEO says

The CEO of Italian infrastructure giant Snam outlined a vision for the future of hydrogen on Friday, saying the “beauty” of it is that it can be easily stored and transported.

Speaking to CNBC’s Squawk Box Europe, Marco Alverà spoke about how current systems would be used to facilitate the delivery of hydrogen from renewable sources as well as biofuels.

“If you turn up your heating in Italy now, the gas will flow in pipelines from Russia to Siberia,” he said.

“Tomorrow we will have hydrogen produced in North Africa, in the North Sea, with solar and wind resources,” said Alverà. “And this hydrogen can travel through the existing pipeline.”

Alvera said Snam tested various mixing percentages – including up to 100% hydrogen – in existing pipes and it worked.

“So this is an energy transition that uses the infrastructure we have,” he said. “And the very good news is that this new renewable energy will cost less than the existing fossil fuel, namely [a] real breakthrough. “

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Described by the International Energy Agency as a “versatile energy carrier”, hydrogen has a wide range of possible uses and can be used in sectors such as industry and transport.

It can be made in a number of ways. One method involves the use of electrolysis, where an electrical current breaks water into oxygen and hydrogen.

When the electricity used comes from a renewable source such as wind or sun, some call it green or renewable hydrogen.

Currently, the vast majority of hydrogen production is fossil fuel based and green hydrogen is expensive to produce.

Future challenges

In an interview with CNBC on Friday, Francesco Starace, CEO of Enel, said that “there is no competition for capital between hydrogen and renewables”.

“Hydrogen is a niche today, and it’s a niche that needs to evolve into a commercial standard and … a large, competitively-priced industry,” Starace said, signaling that such a shift would likely take 10 years.

“So it’s a big expense in research and development, it’s a big expense in prototypes, a big expense in pilot plants, but nothing compared to what’s going on today on the very large and competitive battlefield of renewable energies.”

While the potential role of hydrogen in the future is excited, there are still challenges.

A World Energy Council briefing earlier this week said low-carbon hydrogen “is not cost-competitive with other energy sources in most applications and in most locations.”

It is unlikely that the situation will change unless there is “significant support to bridge the price gap”.

The analysis, which was carried out in collaboration with PwC and the US Electric Power Research Institute, raised the question of where the funding for such support should come from, but also pointed to the increasing awareness of the industry and the associated positive effects.

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Business

Denmark needs to construct a renewable power island within the North Sea

Denmark wants to build a renewable energy island in the North Sea

The facility will be located in waters off the coast of Jutland.

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Denmark will move ahead with its plans to build a huge man-made island in the North Sea that will act as a major renewable energy hub and cost billions of dollars to develop.

The Danish Energy Agency, which is part of the government’s Ministry of Climate, Energy and Utilities, said Thursday the project would be part of a public-private partnership, with the Danish state holding a majority stake.

The scope of the project, which will be located in waters 80 kilometers off the coast of Jutland, the large peninsula with mainland Denmark, is considerable.

In the first phase, with an output of 3 gigawatts (GW), around 200 offshore wind turbines are supplied with electricity to the hub, which is then distributed to the surrounding countries via the grid.

In the future, the hub’s capacity could be expanded to 10 GW. According to the Danish authorities, this would be enough to supply 10 million households in Europe with electricity. Depending on its final capacity, the island will cover an area between 120,000 and 460,000 square meters.

The estimated cost of building the artificial island, 10 GW capacity and the necessary transmission network is 210 billion Danish kroner (33.97 billion US dollars).

“The energy hub in the North Sea will be the largest construction project in Danish history,” said Danish climate minister Dan Jørgensen in a statement.

“It will go a long way towards realizing the enormous potential for European offshore wind and I look forward to our future collaboration with other European countries,” he added.

The project is now moving forward and the Danish climate department will start discussions with potential investors from the private sector. At the political level, the terms of the tender are negotiated, new legislation is passed and environmental impact assessments are carried out.

In addition to the artificial island, a second energy hub of 2 GW is planned for the Baltic Sea island of Bornholm.

Denmark is a pioneer when it comes to offshore wind projects. The world’s first offshore wind farm in waters near the Danish island of Lolland was commissioned in 1991 by Orsted – the company formerly known as DONG Energy. Other Danish companies like the turbine manufacturer Vestas are important players in wind energy.

Looking ahead, the European Union, of which Denmark is a part, wants its offshore wind capacity to reach 60 GW by 2030 and 300 GW by the middle of the century.

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Business

How Sustainable Is the Rally in Renewable Vitality Shares?

How Sustainable Is the Rally in Renewable Energy Stocks?

“Battery prices have fallen 90 percent in the past five to eight years,” said Ms. Bowman. “Solar power coupled with battery storage is the cost-effective solution for California in moving to a cleaner grid,” she added.

Hydrogen fuel cells, which generate electricity by combining hydrogen and oxygen, have emerged as a possible short-term solution for use in trucks and shipping, says Bloom. However, such applications require costly expansion of the hydrogen gas station network, said Steve Capanna, director of US climate policy and analysis at the Environmental Defense Fund. Right now, he said, there aren’t many such stations besides “a handful in California”.

Buying stocks from renewable energy stocks now requires a certain level of confidence because they are so expensive, in part because of the low interest rates developed by the Federal Reserve that have helped propel the entire stock market higher. Fed support could be the main reason the market weathered all of the dire coronavirus economic news to continue its seemingly endless rise in valuations.

Paul Coster, a JPMorgan analyst, said the high prices in the renewable energy space are based on solid performance. “It’s not like the dot-com era,” he said. “They are real actors with real technology.” He added, “We live in this wonderful moment when virtue and selfishness coincide.”

Perhaps, thought Mr. Coster, there are still good reasons to own some of these stocks. He cited FuelCell Energy, which has negative cash flow and regularly reports quarterly profit losses. Mr Coster said investors might want to project for several years.

By 2025, it is “feasible” that FuelCell Energy would achieve earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization of $ 60 million, which warrants a rich, high-growth stock valuation. Even so, the company’s shares more than doubled in the last month, and on Jan. 14, Mr. Coster warned that the stock was already “richly valued” at current prices.