WOBO thanks edie for their updates and support for sustainability.

Amazon grants €1.5m for carbon-sequestering seaweed farm located on offshore windfarm

Amazon is granting €1.5m to create a first-of-its-kind seaweed farm as well as supporting scientific research into the carbon reduction qualities of these types of projects.

The North Sea Farm 1 will be located on a wind farm off the coast of the Netherlands. It has been designed to test and improve methods of seaweed farming, while researching the potential of seaweed to sequester carbon.

The grant will support the creation of a 10-hectare seaweed farm, which is expected to produce at least 6,000kg of fresh seaweed in its first year. As it is located in the empty space between turbines, the project is able to expand seaweed growth in the North Sea.

Amazon claims that if seaweed farming were to expand and occupy all the space between turbines on windfarms, approximately one million hectares could be cultivated by 2040. This, in turn, could reduce millions of tonnes of CO2 annually.

UK’s offshore wind pipeline close to 100GW mark, RenewableUK confirms

The influential trade body has this week posted a 14GW year-on-year increase in the UK’s offshore wind pipeline, bringing the total to 99.8GW.

Some 13.7GW of projects are fully operational and a further 13.6GW are either under construction or extremely likely to commence construction in the near future. A further 1.075GW of projects are in partial operations.

This does mean that the majority of the pipeline is accounted for by projects in the early stages of planning and development.

The UK Government is notably aiming for the nation to host 50GW of offshore wind by 2030. It increased the target from 40GW through the British Energy Security Strategy last April, confirming plans for offshore wind and nuclear to do most of the lifting in the energy transition.

EU leaders back green subsidy drive but leave details to Brussels

“We want to address the global competitiveness of the European Union in the short term and also in the medium term,” said European Council President Charles Michel.

“Today we give additional impetus based on the pillars [of the green industrial plan],” he added, calling on the Commission to further its work on unlocking national subsidies and existing EU funds.

The conclusions from the meeting mention the initiatives laid out by the European Commission in its new industrial policy and hand the baton back to Brussels to hash out the details.

This includes calling on the EU executive to work, under the Green Deal Industrial Plan, on simplifying state aid, unlocking existing EU funding and simplifying the regulatory environment for industries crucial to the EU’s decarbonisation goals.

UK Government to lead on certification scheme for low-carbon hydrogen

The newly launched Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has today (9 February) unveiled plans to consult on the creation of a globally recognised standard for low-carbon hydrogen.

Currently, the is no certifiable way for producers of hydrogen to validate claims on whether it is low-carbon or not. The new standard, which will be launched by the UK Government, would use the methodology set out in the UK’s Low Carbon Hydrogen Standard as the basis of the certification.

The Standard sets out in detail the methodology for calculating the emissions associated with hydrogen production and the steps producers are expected to take to prove that the hydrogen they produce is compliant.

The government will launch a consultation seeking industry feedback. It aims to have the certification scheme in place by 2025.

Hydrogen and electric aircraft projects backed with fresh £113m of funding

The Department for Transport (DfT) and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) have today (7 February) announced the funding for the projects as part of their collaborative work to decarbonise the aviation sector.

Aviation accounts for around 3% of annual global emissions and, pandemic aside, its absolute emissions and share of annual global emissions have continued to increase over the past two decades. The UK Government has pledged that all airport operations and domestic flights should be net-zero in operation by 2040 and that all international flights should be net-zero by 2050.

For flights, the priority for the near to medium term for the Government is to improve efficiency and to scale the use of alternative fuels, often called Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAFs). But, in the longer term, the Government sees emerging technologies including hydrogen-powered aircraft and electric aircraft playing a role.

Scaling these emerging technologies is the reason for the provision of the new funding, which is being made through the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI). The funding announced today includes a blend of Government funding and private funding, totalling £113m.

Government ringfences £77m to launch zero-emissions shipping vessels by 2025

The £77m funding has been made available through the Zero Emission Vessels and Infrastructure (ZEVI) competition. The competition will be overseen by Innovate UK and funding will specifically target “well-developed” solutions that can be scaled.

Successful projects will be chosen to work with major UK ports and operators to launch a zero-emission vessel by 2025 at the latest. The Government is targeting technologies such as battery electric vessels, shoreside electrical power, low-carbon fuels like hydrogen or ammonia and wind-assisted ferries.

Transport Secretary Mark Harper said: “When it comes to tackling climate change, we are taking action on all transport modes, which is why we’re making sure our world-leading maritime sector has a greener future.

“This multi-million-pound investment will help the latest tech ideas become reality and ensure UK waters will play host to green cargo ships, ferries and cruises in the next few years. Our funding will support a cleaner freight system, a more environmentally friendly tourism industry, and a net-zero maritime sector.”