Reußenköge: Further H2 production from GP Joule + + + Essen: RWE demands subsidies for hydrogen + + + USA: Nikola recalls Class 8 battery trucks + + + Sweden: H2 Green Steel buys iron ore pellets from Vale and Rio Tinto + + + Korea: Researchers make progress in splitting water using solar energy to produce H2 + + + Berlin: Barbara Fischer becomes sole managing director at FNB Gas + + + NEW: Shortened – energy transition compact + + +DISCOUNT promotion: yours COMMERCIAL on the PtX portal
A selection of PtX topics summarized at the end of the week
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Fuel cell bus from the eFarm hydrogen project. © JP Joules
GP Joule GmbH and eFarming GmbH & Co. KG will begin construction of a new hydrogen production facility in Langenhorn, North Frisia, on August 24th. The hydrogen joint project eFarm was initiated by GP Joule in 2017. 20 regional shareholders are involved, including community wind and solar parks as well as municipal utilities. As part of the project, a local hydrogen infrastructure was created, ranging from generation through electrolysis to distribution and fleet use in fuel cell vehicles. The project includes electrolysis plants, two hydrogen filling stations, fuel cell buses and cars.
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Sopna Sury is Chief Operating Officer Hydrogen of RWE Generation SE and a member of the Executive Board. © RWE Generation SE
The Essen-based energy company RWE AG only wants to invest in green hydrogen if the federal government subsidizes it. The board member responsible for the hydrogen business explained this to the “Süddeutsche Zeitung“. Sopna Sury therefore considers “projects to produce climate-friendly hydrogen to be justifiable only if the state contributes money”. Otherwise the technology will not become established in Germany. The costs of wind power and photovoltaics only fell to a competitive level after a decade of funding. Roger Miesen, Managing Director of RWE Generation SE, made similar comments at the beginning of August in connection with plans to build hydrogen-capable power plants at their own former power plant locations by 2030 Gas power plants to build. Miesen had called on politicians to enable “economic operation of the power plants through appropriate framework conditions”. In Lingen RWE is currently building a 14 megawatt pilot plant to produce green hydrogen. The state of Lower Saxony is contributing eight million euros. Other hydrogen projects are also being planned or implemented.
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The recall of “Nikola Tre” (BEV) trucks was one of the first serious decisions made by CEO Stephen Girsky, who took over his position just a few days ago after his predecessor Michael Lohscheller resigned. © Nikola Corp.
The US car manufacturer Nikola Corp. is recalling 209 Class 8 Tre battery electric (BEV) trucks due to suspected battery pack issues. The sale of new BEV trucks has been temporarily stopped. The measures do not affect the fuel cell truck currently in production, as the battery pack of this vehicle is designed differently. On June 23, 2023, there was a truck fire at the company's headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona. Another “thermal incident” occurred on August 10th in a parked truck at another company plant. According to the investigations, a component from a supplier in the battery pack was probably the cause. Customer vehicles could remain in operation and the problem should be fixed “in the coming weeks”. The two cases accounted for less than 0,07 percent of the more than 3.100 battery packs installed at Nikola to date. However, for safety reasons, it is recommended to always set the main battery disconnect switch (MBD) to the “ON” position to enable real-time monitoring of the vehicle and operation of the security systems. The vehicles should also be parked outdoors to enable remote software updates and a better connection to Nikola's vehicle monitoring system. Although the company emphasizes that the recall is “voluntary,” external investigations also apparently gave rise to this.
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Several sponge iron pellets are pressed into a briquette and melted as “Hot Briquetted Iron” (HBI) in an electric arc furnace. © Hybrit
The Swedish company H2 Green Steel AB has signed two multi-year contracts to purchase low-carbon iron ore pellets for its steelworks in northern Sweden. The pellets are each produced using the direct reduction process (DRI). On the one hand, the Brazilian mining company becomes the world's largest supplier of DRI pellets Vale SA ship the material from Tubarão in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina to the port of Luleå in Sweden and deliver it to the future steelworks in Boden. H2 Steel has another agreement with the world's leading metals and mining company Rio Tinto met. Delivery is made by the Iron Ore Company of Canada. In addition, the companies have signed an agreement for Rio Tinto to purchase and market a portion of the excess hot briquetted iron (HBI) produced by H2 Green Steel during the ramp-up of its steel mill. DR pellets are the raw material for the production of high-quality HBI, which in turn is used for the production of low-emission steel in electric arc furnaces. H2 Green Steel's first green steel production plant is expected to be operational in 2025. One of the world's largest electrolysis plants for the production of green hydrogen will be located at the Boden site in northern Sweden. The hydrogen is used to reduce iron ore into green sponge iron.
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The novel photoanodes suppress the undesirable internal and external losses associated with photoelectrochemical water splitting. © Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology
Researchers from Korea and the USA have developed a highly efficient photoanode based on organometallic halide perovskites (OHP). This means that the team at the South Korean Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, led by Professor Sanghan Lee, is one step closer to photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting using solar energy to produce hydrogen. The novel photoanodes suppressed undesirable internal and external losses associated with photoelectrochemical water splitting, "resulting in an unprecedented 12,79 percent efficiency in converting photons into electricity," according to the scientists. The technology for environmentally friendly hydrogen production using solar energy without external voltage could be available within the next ten years. The research results were published under the title “Suppression of Undesired Losses in Organometal Halide Perovskite-Based Photoanodes for Efficient Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting” in the journal Advanced Energy Materials published.
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Barbara Fischer will be the sole managing director of FNB Gas eV in the future. She is responsible for hydrogen and natural gas issues as well as network development planning. Inga Posch, previously one of two managing directors, has resigned from this position after ten years of work. FNB Gas, based in Berlin, is the association of national German transmission system operators.
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Shortened – energy transition compact.
Reporter: The Federal Network Agency has... Tender for PV systems 124 bids with a volume of 1.673 MW were awarded. The auction was significantly oversubscribed. A total of 516 bids with a volume of 4.653 MW were submitted. The largest awarded volume is at locations in Bavaria (741 MW), followed by Lower Saxony (169 MW) and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (147 MW). *****PV: The Philippine Acen Corp. has the construction of one floating photovoltaic system announced with an output of one gigawatt. A timetable was not given. *****Offshore wind: RWE AG has received this from the Federal Network Agency Award for the North Sea Cluster B receive. The group wants to develop, build and operate two wind farms there with a total output of 900 megawatts. Last year, RWE secured the rights for two North Sea wind farms with a total output of 660 megawatts. *****PV: The US module manufacturer First Solar Inc. is building one at the Acadiana Regional Airport in Iberia Parish, US state of Louisiana 3,5 gigawatt factory for thin-film modules. The company estimates investments at $1,1 billion. *****offshore wind: Renewable energy consultancy OWC has partnered with Portuguese marine and floating technologies specialist Wavec. Portugal is planning an auction of this year ten gigawatts of offshore wind power output, in which the consortium will presumably participate. ****PV: Singapore-based Maxeon Solar Technologies, Ltd. wants one in the US state of New Mexico 3 gigawatt solar cell factory build. An expansion to 4,5 gigawatts is possible. The total investment is over a billion dollars. *****Financing: Blackstone Inc. has one $7,1 billion fund to finance solar companies, e-mobility and technologies to reduce carbon emissions. According to the “Bloomberg” agency, the target for the “Green Private Credit Fund III” was a sum of six billion dollars. *****Wwater power: The Chinese state-owned State Grid Corp. has started building one in Qinghai Province in northwest China 2,8 gigawatt pumped storage power plant began. The facility has two reservoirs, the lower one uses the Laxiwa Reservoir on the Yellow River, according to an article in the South China Morning Post.
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Photos
iStock / © Danil Melekhin
