June 2023 – Page 5 – The Global Carbon Fund

Global additions of renewable power capacity will increase by a third this year, says the International Energy Agency (IEA).

In the IEA’s 2023 Renewable Energy Market Update report, the agency said new global renewable capacity will jump by 107 gigawatts (GW) to over 440 GW. This is the largest increase ever reported.

Yet, the manufacturing capacity for all solar PV productions will further rise to more than double to 1,000 GW by 2024, with China taking the lead.

Leaders of the New Global Energy Economy

The need to decarbonize the global economy calls for a new energy system that does away with fossil fuels.

Per IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol, solar and wind power dominate the rapid growth of this new global energy economy. She further noted that:

“This year, the world is set to add a record-breaking amount of renewables to electricity systems – more than the total power capacity of Germany and Spain combined.”

Three major things drive strong demand for solar PV and wind power: growing policy concerns, higher fossil fuel prices and energy security issues.

In 2024, global renewable electricity capacity is estimated to rise to 4,500 GW. That’s about the same as the combined power output of China and the U.S.

Solar PVs will account for 2/3 of the increase in renewable energy (RE) capacity this year and they will keep growing in 2024. The chart shows the IEA’s estimates for 2023 and 2024.

Net RE Capacity Additions by Technology, 2017-2024

This growth is due to continued expansion of large-scale solar PV applications along with smaller distributed systems. The smaller distributed PVs such as rooftop PVs account for half of this year’s total solar PV deployment. Higher electricity costs are pushing the growth of the smaller solar PV applications, the report noted.

Meanwhile, onshore wind capacity additions are also on track to rise by 70% this year to 107 GW, another record high, after 2 years of decline as seen in the chart above. The major reason for this rebound is the completion of projects previously delayed due to COVID-19 pandemic and supply chain issues.

RE: At the Heart of Europe’s Energy Plan

In Europe, renewables are at the heart of the bloc’s response to the energy crisis caused by the Russia-Ukraine war. Policy actions in many EU nations will bring a 40% uptick in the region’s new renewable capacity forecasts.

The newly installed renewables in 2021-2023 will bring a whopping energy savings to EU consumers of about 100 billion Euros.

European Union Capacity Additions in 2023-2024

Also, the bloc has made more policy and regulatory changes to ease RE permitting in the last 18 months than over the whole past decade.

New policy actions will also help drive substantial RE increases in India and the US over the next 2 years.

The Undisputed Leader in RE Deployment

The IEA further said that China will remain as the undisputed leader in global RE deployment. Its new renewable capacity will grow this year and the next.

In 2022, the 3rd-largest polluter took the share of about 50% of all new renewable power capacity globally. In 2024, China’s share will hit a record 55% of global RE capacity deployment.

Meanwhile, there’s also a growing supply diversification in other parts of the world, particularly the US, Europe, and India.

Meeting Net Zero Emissions Scenario

Based on the upward trends, the report claims that the world will have enough solar PVs in 2030 to meet the annual demand projected in the IEA’s Net Zero Emissions by 2050 Scenario.

In contrast, wind manufacturing capacity will expand more slowly and may struggle to keep up with demand growth through 2030.

However, despite those record-breaking increases, renewable energy auctions were under-subscribed also by a record 16% last year. ⅙ of RE auction volume was unallocated due to policy uncertainties and volatile prices as shown below.

Governments have to address this challenge to achieve stronger growth of the sector. More investment in upgrading grids to accommodate higher volumes of RE in power systems is also necessary. In the authors’ words, that means:

“Policies need to adapt to changing market conditions, and we need to upgrade and expand power grids to ensure we can take full advantage of solar and wind’s huge potential.”

More growth in 2024 largely relies on how governments’ policy support will turn out, particularly on permitting and auction design. Several countries will see their annual share of solar PV and wind power reach over 40% by 2024, which calls for effective grid management.

The post Global Renewable Energy to Break Records in 2023, IEA Says appeared first on Carbon Credits.

Ocean carbon removal startup Equatic launches breakthrough low-cost, gigaton-scale climate technology and signs a pre-purchase deal with Boeing.

L.A.-based Equatic is an UCLA Samueli School of Engineering’s Institute for Carbon Management spinoff company. It’s the first to apply a revolutionary electrolytic approach that combines ocean carbon removal and carbon-negative hydrogen production.

Alongside its tech launch, Equatic also revealed that it signed a CO2 removal (CDR) pre-purchase agreement with aerospace giant Boeing. Boeing will buy 62,000 tonnes of carbon removal and 2,100 tonnes of carbon-negative hydrogen from Equatic.

Equatic’s 2-in-1 Climate Solution

According to Lorenzo Corsini, Equatic’s Principal Advisor, the world is dealing with two utmost climate challenges: the permanent removal of gigatons of CO2 and the shift away from fossil fuels. This is where Equatic’s climate solution comes in to address both problems in one process.

Corsini describes it saying that:

“Equatic’s first-of-its-kind technology solves both. It combines basic principles of chemistry with the natural capabilities of the world’s best carbon removal tool, the ocean, to create the most promising solution for scalable decarbonization — cost-effectively and at a globally-relevant scale.”

The oceans are the world’s largest carbon sink; 30% of the planet’s daily carbon emissions are drawn down by the ocean.

Equatic’s revolutionary technology speeds up this natural cycle to remove and permanently store CO2.

At the heart of Equatic’s novel ocean carbon removal tech is a single-process but multi-product solution that allows decarbonization at the speed, scale, and cost required to tackle the climate crisis.

In the words of the startup’s CEO, insert John, “the costs are low enough to allow unprecedented scaling and adoption globally.”

Equatic aims to achieve 100,000 tonnes of ocean carbon removal yearly by 2026 and millions of removals for less than $100 per tonne by 2028.

Equatic Way of Removing Carbon and Producing Credits

Equatic’s CO2 removal plant uses four items to remove and store CO2 while producing carbon-negative hydrogen at the same time. These include air, seawater, rock, and renewable electricity.

Seawater enters the plant.
The ocean-based removal tech uses electrolysis, a process wherein electric current passes through seawater. Water splits into hydrogen and oxygen gas, with alkalinity promoting carbon removal.
The air then passes through the processed seawater, leading to direct air capture.
Co-produced hydrogen gas for sale as a clean fuel source.
In the last step, Equatic neutralizes the treated seawater using alkaline rock while ensuring that its natural chemistry remains intact.
Seawater discharges back into the ocean.

These processes trap CO2 in solid minerals and as substances that naturally dissolve in the oceans. Thus, the captured CO2 is stored permanently for over 100,000 years.

This unique ocean-based carbon removal process is the key to achieving scalable, durable, and high-quality carbon removal. It also allows for industry-leading Monitoring, Verification, and Reporting.

Since the process doesn’t rely on the open ocean but within the boundaries of an industrial plant, Equatic can measure removal with extreme certainty. This enables the startup to sell in-demand, high-quality, and permanent carbon removal credits.

Plus, there’s the added bonus of generating carbon-negative hydrogen fuel. Carbon-negative hydrogen is from processes that reduce CO2 emissions.

Added Bonus: Producing Carbon-Negative Hydrogen

The hydrogen by-product can be used to power Equatic’s process itself. It can also be sold as a carbon-negative or clean energy fuel to decarbonize other processes or sectors. This particularly includes the production of Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAFs) for the aviation industry.

Sheila Remes, Boeing’s Vice President of Environmental Sustainability remarked on this, pointing out that:

“Reaching aviation’s sustainability goals will require a multi-faceted approach and Boeing sees immense value in Equatic’s technology.”

Equatic spun out from UCLA with $30M+ in initial funding including grants and equity investments from various organizations. These include the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, the National Science Foundation, The Nicholas Endowment, Singapore’s Temasek Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, among many others.

The company is currently running two ocean CO2 removal pilots in Los Angeles and Singapore. All of the carbon removed from these pilots has been pre-sold to Boeing and to the payment solution provider, Stripe. Stripe’ Frontier fund aims to invest $1 billion to help carbon removal startups scale up and lower the cost of sucking CO2 from the air.

Combining ocean carbon removal and hydrogen production within the same process significantly lowers both their costs. This allows Equatic not to depend on fossil fuels, thereby avoiding a fossil fuel-related footprint.

The post Equatic Reveals First-of-a-Kind Ocean CO2 Removal Tech, Inks Deal with Boeing appeared first on Carbon Credits.