Author: Arnes Biogradlija

California added over 4.5 GW of battery storage in 2024, according to the California Energy Commission, with a growing portion of that capacity sited not in remote substations but in urban centers. One of the latest—and most debated—additions is Arevon Energy’s $300 million Peregrine Energy Storage Project, which quietly went live in late July 2025 in San Diego’s Barrio Logan. At 200 MW/800 MWh, it’s among the largest urban energy storage facilities in the U.S., built around Tesla’s Megapack platform and tied directly into California’s Independent System Operator (CAISO) grid. Designed to absorb solar oversupply during the day and dispatch…

German steel production capacity faces a fundamental competitiveness crisis as energy costs reach €9.35 per kilogram for green hydrogen—nearly four times higher than conventional production methods—forcing major producers to abandon decarbonization plans despite €5 billion in government support allocated between 2022-2024. Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s call for a “robust” steel strategy emerges as ArcelorMittal’s decision to drop green steel conversion at two German plants exposes the widening gap between climate ambitions and economic realities in Europe’s largest steel-producing economy. The German steel sector’s predicament reflects broader European challenges where Chinese overcapacity, elevated energy costs, and US trade barriers converge to undermine…

China produces 42 million metric tons of contained nitrogen annually, representing approximately 30% of global ammonia production, yet the award of Front-End Engineering Design and EPC contracts to China Chemical Engineering Seven (CC7) for Namibia’s 2.4 million tonne green ammonia facility signals a strategic shift toward renewable production technologies. The $10 billion Hyphen project, roughly equivalent to Namibia’s entire GDP, will utilize 3GW of renewable capacity to produce what developers claim will be the world’s largest green ammonia facility, though the economic fundamentals underlying this ambitious scale remain largely untested. The scale of the proposed facility dwarfs existing green ammonia…

Oman targets 1.4 million tonnes of green hydrogen production capacity by 2030, yet the Sultanate’s strategy increasingly relies on manufacturing partnerships with Chinese technology providers rather than indigenous innovation, as evidenced by United Engineering Services’ memorandum with Sungrow Hydrogen for domestic electrolyser assembly. The partnership emerges as Sungrow becomes market leader among Chinese hydrogen electrolyser manufacturers while Oman allocates 50,000 square kilometres of land across eight signed projects targeting 35 gigawatts capacity, raising questions about technology transfer effectiveness and long-term industrial competitiveness. The manufacturing agreement represents Oman’s attempt to capture value-added activities within its hydrogen ecosystem, yet the arrangement primarily…

Green hydrogen production costs in the United States range between $3.74 – $11.70 per kilogram, compared to grey hydrogen’s $1.11 to $2.35 per kilogram, highlighting the economic challenge facing the industry despite securing a reprieve through the 45V tax credit extension to January 2028. The delay provides breathing room for a sector where Wood Mackenzie estimates 75% of announced projects—representing 2.3 million tonnes of capacity—would miss the original deadline, but industry analysts question whether the extended timeline addresses fundamental competitiveness issues that have plagued the technology for decades. The extension represents a policy compromise that recognizes green hydrogen’s nascent development…

India’s energy storage sector achieved a pivotal milestone in July 2024, with states tendering 8.1 GWh of capacity—the highest monthly volume on record—while discovering a benchmark tariff of ₹3.13 per unit for solar-plus-storage projects with four-hour duration. This represents an 18% reduction from the previous record low of ₹3.32 per unit, signaling rapid cost compression in a market that has launched tenders for 171GWh of energy storage capacity since 2018, including more than 55GWh in the first half of 2025 alone. The acceleration reflects strategic alignment between state-level procurement and federal policy frameworks, particularly the expanded Viability Gap Funding (VGF)…

South Korea’s hydrogen car market is in trouble. After years of government subsidies and bold promises, sales of fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) like Hyundai’s Nexo have plummeted—dropping 54% in 2023 compared to the previous year. Now, Hyundai is trying to revive demand with a new financial incentive program, but will it be enough to overcome hydrogen’s biggest hurdles? The Deal: Hyundai’s “Nexo Easy Start Program” Hyundai’s latest move, launched in August 2025, is designed to make buying a hydrogen car less daunting. The program has two key parts: Sounds good, right? But there’s a catch: When the contract ends, you must return the car…

A stark gap is emerging between European green hydrogen ambitions and tangible progress. New analysis from Westwood Global Energy projects that a mere 12 gigawatts (GW) of the European Union’s targeted 40 GW of electrolyser capacity will likely be operational by 2030. This represents just one-fifth of the planned projects materializing this decade, fundamentally undermining a cornerstone of the bloc’s decarbonisation strategy. “As things stand, I don’t expect the EU 2030 target to be met,” states Jun Sasamura, Hydrogen Manager at Westwood, capturing a growing industry consensus. The initial euphoria positioning green hydrogen as a panacea for hard-to-abate sectors like…

China’s battery giant CATL has now deployed 400 battery swap stations for passenger electric vehicles (EVs), reinforcing its aggressive push into a segment long debated for its economic and technical viability. The company aims to expand that figure to 1,000 stations by year-end, indicating a sharp acceleration in infrastructure rollout at a time when alternative charging models are under increasing scrutiny. CATL’s pivot toward battery swapping comes as the company continues to post strong financials. Its second-quarter net income rose to 16.6 billion yuan (€2 billion), marking a 34% increase year-over-year. These gains, however, are not solely from its established…

As global interest accelerates in large-scale geological hydrogen storage to buffer renewable energy fluctuations and decarbonize industrial sectors, new data reveals that the mineral composition of underground reservoirs may play a more critical role than previously assumed. A comprehensive density functional theory (DFT) study has mapped hydrogen interactions across a spectrum of subsurface minerals, revealing that the chemistry of rocks could significantly impact hydrogen retention, retrieval efficiency, and even reservoir safety. The study, which modeled hydrogen adsorption behavior on a curated list of minerals commonly found in potential storage formations, identified three distinct types of H₂-mineral interactions. These include weak…