Financing For 135 Hybrid Trainsets Agreed
The title of this post, is the same as this article on Railway Gazette International.
This is the introductory paragraph.
The European Investment Bank agreed a €450m financing package on July 23 which will support Trenitalia’s plans to order 135 electric-diesel-battery hybrid regional multiple-units at total cost of €960m.
The trains are from Hitachi’s Caravaggio family and will be built in their Italian plant at Pistoia. Their operation is described in this sentence.
They will use conventional overhead electrification where available, with ‘cutting-edge’ engines for operation onto non-electrified routes as well as batteries to eliminate emissions for the ‘last mile’ and in urban areas.
That sounds extremely sophisticated to me.
Is The Powertrain Technology Transferrable To The UK?
I have republished this post with a link to the original article, as it occurs to me, that Avanti West Coast, East Midlands Railway, Great Western Railway. LNER and other train operating companies could be in need of a train with a sophisticated Diesel/Electric/Battery Hybrid powertrain.
So will Hitachi be using a powertrain like this in the UK?
Eversholt Rail And Alstom Invest A Further £1 Million In Breeze Hydrogen Train Programme
The title of this post, is the same as that of this press release from Alstom.
The major point made is that the train will be called a Class 600 train.
61GW Renewables And Storage Pipeline Could Bring In £125bn To Economy
I did think about calling this post something like.
- Do You Like Large Numbers?
- My Calculator Just Blew Up!
- I Don’t Believe It!
- No Wonder Rishi Sunak Has A Smile On His Face!
But I’ll use my normal introduction for this type of post!
The title of this post, is the same as that on this article of Current News.
This is the introductory paragraph.
The UK currently has a pipeline of 61GW of renewables and storage that if developed could bring in £125 billion to the UK economy.
The article also says that this pipeline could provide 200,000 jobs.
So where will this massive 61 GW of electricity come from?
- Off-shore Wind – 31.7 GW
- On-shore Wind – 11.9 GW
- Solar PV – 8.6 GW
- Storage – 8.5 GW
Where is the Nuclear Option?
iThe article also says that 18 GW of these projects are Shovel-Ready.
The figures come from UK trade association; Regen, whose Chief |Executive is the appropriately named; Merlin Hyman.
The page on the Regen web site, which is entitled Unlock Renewables For A Green Recovery, is the original document on which the Current News article is based.
Regen want three things from the Government, in return for creating all this renewable electricity capacity.
- Publish an Energy White Paper putting the UK on course for a flexible power system based on renewables and storage.
Commit to annual Contracts for Difference auctions to give investors confidence.
End the anti onshore wind policies in the English planning regime.
Some will not like the third condition.
I must go now, as I must go down the Chinese-owned Lucky Electronics Shop on Dalston Kingsland High Street to get a calculator with more digits to replace the one that blew up!
Financing Secured To ‘Enable Rapid Development’ Of Norway’s First Lithium Battery Cell Gigafactory
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Energy Storage News.
The article says that the gigafactory’s biggest competitor will be in Sweden.
With companies in the UK, like Hyperdrive Innovation, Gore Street Energy Fund and others developing massive demand for batteries, perhaps we should build our own gigafactory?
This article on Energy Storage News is entitled More Money For Lithium Exploration In Cornwall.
This is the introductory paragraph.
Cornish Lithium has successfully raised over £826,000 from shareholders to continue exploration for lithium in Cornwall, in both geothermal waters and in hard rock, and will build on the successful drilling programmes that concluded earlier this year.
I wrote about Cornish Lithium in How To Go Mining In A Museum.
Could an unusual tale becoming to a successful conclusion?
Conclusion
I think we can trust the Cornish, Norwegians and Swedes to ensure, we have enough lithium-ion batteries.
Natron Energy, Developer Of Sodium-Ion Batteries, Raises $35M As Investment In Storage Surges
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on pv Magazine.
This is the introductory paragraph.
The startup is building a battery using Prussian blue analogue electrodes and a sodium-ion electrolyte. Investors include ABB Technology Ventures, NanoDimension Capital, Volta Energy Technologies, Chevron, Khosla Ventures, and Prelude Ventures.
But what are Prussian Blue analogue electrodes?
Looking up Prussian Blue, it is more than just an colour used by artists, with some interesting chemistry.
Natron Energy have this mission statement on their web site.
Natron Energy (formerly Alveo Energy) is an energy storage company that is developing a new high power, long cycle life, low-cost battery technology for industrial applications. Natron’s batteries offer higher power density, faster recharge, and longer cycle life than incumbent technologies. They can be economically produced from commodity materials on existing cell manufacturing lines. Natron is backed by leading venture capital investors and has received support from ARPA-E.
Digging further, the company appears to be a spin-off from Stanford University.
Conclusion
It does appear, that if you have a feasible idea in energy storage, that you can get backing from names that people have heard of.
Japan A ‘Very Interesting Market’ For Gore Street As It Becomes An ‘Enabler’ Of JXTG’s Transition
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the Solar Power Portal.
This is the introductory paragraph.
London Stock Exchange-listed energy storage fund Gore Street has outlined how it sees Japan as a “very interesting market” following its investment from JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy Corporation.
I like Gore Street’s philosophy and its execution.
I am not an investor and probably never will be, but they seem to be based on sound principles and do their modelling well. I’ve built enough large financial models to know a good one from its results.
Gore Street is normally investing in lithium-ion batteries.
- These batteries now have a predictable reliability profile and I suspect cash-flow from owning a battery is fairly predictable.
- The control and monitoring software will get better as time goes by and these batteries will probably update themselves automatically.
- They probably aren’t that affected by COVID-19, as lockdown still needs energy to be balanced and these batteries are probably performing as normal.
- The heat of the last few weeks probably caused more grief than COVID-19.
- If a site visit is necessary, they can probably be done with one man in a van with a key to the security system. So maintenance is probably easy to do, whilst maintaining social distance.
I also liked this paragraph from the article.
, Gore Street Capital CEO, Alex O’Cinneide, said that the fact that the deregulation of the Japanese market over the next few years makes it of interest to the company, alongside it having the same characteristics of the UK in terms of the decommissioning of coal, nuclear and gas and increasing levels of renewables.
Could Gore Street Energy Fund, be a safe investment for today’s difficult times?
How Leeds Bradford Airport Can Be Catalyst For Green Aviation
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the Yorkshire Post.
The article was written by a geography student from Yorkshire, who is studying at Cambridge University.
He makes some interesting points.
- Leeds Airport is not a good customer experience.
- Manchester Airport will take passengers away from Leeds.
- Leeds is the biggest financial centre in the UK outside London.
- Leeds Airport should be improved to the highest environmental standards.
- Aviation biofuels should be provided.
- Short haul flights should be replaced by a train journey if possible.
- By 2030, a lot of short haul flights will be replaced by electric aircraft.
I agree with a lot of what he says.
There will still be a need to fly and we must make it as environmentally-friendly as possible.
If we don’t find ways of making flying carbon-neutral, we’ll hurt the economy.
Proposed Merger Will Make Zinc Battery Developer Eos Energy A Public Company
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on pv magazine.
This is the introductory paragraph.
EOS has executed a letter of intent for a merger with a SPAC — which would result in EOS becoming a publicly listed company. Investors seem fascinated by energy storage this year, the long-duration variety in particular.
The two companies are described like this.
EOS Energy Storage
EOS Energy Storage is a private zinc battery developer with the chance to go public via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company.
The company has a comprehensive web site.
Riley Principal Merger Corp II
B. Riley Principal Merger Corp II (BMRG), a special purpose acquisition company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and Eos have executed a letter of intent for a merger which would result in Eos becoming a publicly listed company.
The article, then states that energy storage is the big thing with investors this year.
The article makes some interesting points and anybody thinking about investing in these technology stocks should read it.
Conclusion
With this activity around EOS, it could be they are a company to watch, but we’ve had share bubbles before.
Who Needs Offices? Zopa Doesn’t!
opa’s update to all their investors yesterday.
It had a sub-heading of At Zopa!
Finally, a quick update on where we’re at as a company. All of our staff are still working remotely. Our diligent preplanning for a situation in which we could lose access to our offices has meant we’ve been able to continue to serve our customers throughout the pandemic, while also implementing new solutions to adapt to this unprecedented situation. Like other businesses, we’ve been planning for what a return to our offices looks like. But as we’ve been able to keep serving your needs while operating from home, we are in no rush. Being in this position allows us to stay focused on supporting your needs during this challenging moment.
How many companies after we are through the COVID-19 pandemic will decide to downsize their office requirements considerably?
Zopa Seems To Have Deconstipated
In early March, I wrote Is The COVID-19 Having An Affect On Lending At Zopa?, where I said this.
I lend money on Zopa and at the moment no-one seems to be borrowing any money.
I put some of my pension in my lending pot into the peer-to-peer lender each month and it’s still there sitting safely in the queue for a borrower.
Perhaps everybody is being cautious because of the COVID-19 alert.
At the time of writing this new post, everything seems to be back to normal. Or at least money, that I put in my lending account yesterday, has now been allocated to borrowers and is awaiting the final checks.
Eight years ago, I wrote Stability in Financial Systems, where I put forward my belief that Zopa is a stable system, that adjusts itself to the conditions it encounters.
Has the peer-to-peer lender just demonstrated, that my thoughts are correct, by sailing untroubled through the COVID-19 crisis, with just a small adjustment on the tiller here and there, just as it survived the Banking Crisis of 2008?
The Anonymous Widower 