Energy transition highlights: Our editors and analysts bring you the biggest stories from the industry this week, from renewables to storage to carbon prices.
At China’s most important political meeting of the year its leaders reiterated the role of energy transition and clean energy technologies in driving long-term economic growth, at a time when trade and manufacturing activity is faltering.
The political messaging around energy transition at the “Two Sessions” gathering held in Beijing last week overshadowed other conventional issues such as national security, economic stimulus, social welfare, provincial real estate crisis and sectoral reforms.
China set a relatively modest GDP growth target of “around 5%” for 2024, slower than 5.2% for 2023, signaling slower growth for traditional energy and commodities markets. But leaders singled out new manufacturing industries including electric vehicles, battery manufacturing and solar photovoltaic products, and called for expanding EV charging infrastructure, power transmission for renewable penetration, new fuels and energy storage technologies.
There was a clear signal of regulatory push and investment in these industries that are now strategic to China’s economic and national security.
Solar PV: China added 216 GW of solar photovoltaic generation capacity in 2023, accounting for 58% of total global additions, official data showed. In 2024, the growth in solar PV generation capacity is expected to be on par with last year’s level, following the government’s call for accelerated energy transition.
FACTBOX: China shifts focus from conventional commodities amid energy transition push
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INTERVIEW: Renewable power additions driving volatility in western US gas markets
Renewable energy additions are driving gas price volatility and demand for gas storage in western US, Scott Smith, president of Spire Midstream, told S&P Global Commodity Insights in an interview March 4.
New satellite launched to expose large polluters of methane
A satellite designed to track and measure methane emissions from leaking oil and gas production sites, in a bid to identify large emitters of methane and help bolster efforts to fight climate change, was successfully launched March 4. MethaneSAT will circle the earth 15 times a day, measuring changes in methane concentrations as small as 3 parts per billion.
US SEC scales back final climate disclosure rule, and litigation begins
The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday (March 6) approved a final climate risk disclosure rule without the requirement that public companies report greenhouse gas emissions generated by customers and supply chains, a win for US ag interests who worried that Scope 3 emissions reporting requirements would unduly burden farmers and ranchers.
Everfuel delays 300-MW HySynergy 2 Danish green hydrogen FID to 2025
Green hydrogen company Everfuel has pushed back a planned final investment decision on its planned 300-MW HySynergy phase 2 project in Denmark to 2025, following a delay to the startup of the first 20-MW phase plant to later in 2024.
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