Energy Security
Energy Terminal Weekly Newsletter
March 14th 2023 | Issue #43 | Subscribe here
Happy Tuesday!
Welcome back to ET weekly, Energy Terminal's weekly newsletter where we cover trends, opportunities, events and updates across the energy industry.
In this issue:
👀 Insights from CERA week
💥 Critical Raw Materials
🏔️ The Willow Project
📈 The stats on EVs vs. ICOs
⚛️ How to Decarbonize the Chemical Industry
🚨 Top 3 Energy Jobs 🚨
1) Antora Energy, Communications and Policy Intern
Antora Energy, backed by Breakthrough Energy and Lowercarbon Capital, turns sunshine and wind into a reliable, on-demand source of zero-carbon heat and power to enable deep decarbonization of industry and the electric grid. The communications and policy intern will support marketing, social media, thought leadership, and policy research.
2) National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Wind Energy Researcher and Policy Analyst
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is the nation’s primary laboratory for research, development, and deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies. The graduate intern will work closely with an interdisciplinary team of experienced NREL researchers and support a variety of customers including the US Department of Energy Wind Energy Technologies Office and the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office.
3) Envision Energy, Wind Turbine Power Performance Intern
Envision Energy is a manufacturer of wind turbines and associated renewable energy systems. The wind turbine power performance intern will work with the engineering team to improve turbine performance and analyze site-specific conditions.
🌟 Startup Spotlight
REVOLUTION Turbine Technologies (RTT) has developed a micro-Expansion Turbine System (mETS) that generates green power for digital oilfield and pipeline initiatives in remote locations. It does this through the recovery of excess natural gas pressure. By reusing this waste energy they are able to greatly reduce emissions.
🔋 CERA Week
Hope and Michael attended CERA week over the past week and got to meet some amazing energy leaders, as well as learn a ton about what's to come in the future of energy. Stay tuned as more updates from CERA week come!
📚 Reading List (3/13- 3/20)
70 Billion of Investments for EV value chain?! ! Check out this week’s handpicked reading list to learn more about these groundbreaking energy topics 🔥
🎙️Podcasts:
Catalyst, More 2023 trends: EVs, onshoring, and the three ages of decarbonization’
From 2017 to 2022, global sales of internal combustion engine cars declined by nearly a third, and EV sales are on the rise
Companies have announced plans to bring manufacturing facilities to the U.S. or nearby countries. In the EV value chain alone, announcements amounting to $70 billion worth of investment were made in 2022
The three ages of decarbonization: first came renewable energy, then the energy transition, and starting in 2019, the net-zero age
Global Dispatches, What kind of energy should fuel household cooking appliances around the world?
The fuel used in cookstoves impacts both human health and the environment
Transitioning cookstoves from burning biomass to utilizing liquified petroleum gas or electricity would benefit the climate and decrease deaths/illnesses related to “dirty burning fuels”
There is an almost counter-intuitive positive impact that fossil fuels can have supporting an energy transition around cooking in the developing world
Watt It Takes, Via Separations CEO and Co-Founder Shreya Dave
Via’s goal is to reduce cost and resources of producing raw materials
75% of cost of producing chemical is separation step, this step is separating desirable materials from unwanted waste product
Via changes the way separations are done, they filter out waste product using less energy and with reduced emissions
Chemical separations make up 12% of the US's annual energy consumption, decarbonizing this sector will have a huge impact
Their first commercial system is set to deploy later this year
Via is hoping to be able to remotely monitor and predict the performance of their systems after deployment, because they can leverage the control rooms these facilities already have
📰️ Articles:
BBC, Willow Project: US Government approves Alaska oil and gas development
Joe Biden recently approved the Willow Project, a major oil and gas drilling project in Alaska that faces heavy scrutiny from environmental activists across the US
The project could produce up to 180,000 barrels of oil per day, meaning that it will produce up to 278 million metric tonnes of CO2 over its 30 year lifespan, which is the same as adding 2 million cars to the road each year
Supporters of the project argue that it will create local investment and thousands of jobs, in addition to improving energy security, while opponents argue that the negative impacts on climate and wildlife outweigh any potential positives
Climate Tech VC, Overheard at CERAWeek
Outside of what you’ve heard from our team about CERAWeek, here’s a piece from Climate Tech VC about some of the top topics and conversations at CERAWeek 2023
A big focus was on outcome rather than specific technologies: not picking any technology favorites
Hydrogen and CCUS were hot topics, especially given the overlap with existing expertise and infrastructure of major energy companies
Interest for and collaboration on low-carbon solutions is at an all-time high from startups to supermajors
The Wall Street Journal, Critical-Mining Diplomacy Needs to Focus on Supply Not Demand
On March 10th, US President Joe Biden and EU Commission President Ursula von der Lyden met to discuss China’s control over the supply chain of critical minerals
They decided that a way to combat this is through coordinating demand through buyers’ clubs
The EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act, that will be passed this week to improve green-energy security, also focuses on this
However, a better approach to ensuring green-energy security, and making sure countries get the minerals they need, would be making it easier to get more mines on line
The EU bill does plan to speed up permitting processes, but it does not include subsidies to accelerate mining projects as the IRA has
The most important thing though, to ensure green-energy security, would be to have strong diplomatic relations with the largest mineral producer nations
⏰ Missed Episode 24?
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