Author: Arnes Biogradlija

Australia’s latest Capacity Investment Scheme tenders targeting 2.4GWh of energy storage and 1.6GW of renewable generation in Western Australia represent 10% of the federal government’s 40GW by 2030 target, yet expose fundamental grid management challenges unique to the state’s isolated electricity system. The AU$4 billion private investment projection assumes successful deployment across Western Australia’s South-West Interconnected System, which operates independently from the National Electricity Market serving eastern states. The tender structure reveals operational constraints that distinguish Western Australia’s grid from interconnected systems. Unlike the NEM’s broader geographic diversity and interconnection capacity, the SWIS faces acute challenges managing high rooftop solar…

La Française de l’Énergie’s €15 million drilling campaign in Lorraine targets 2.1 billion cubic meters of certified coal bed methane reserves, positioning the project as a test case for domestic unconventional gas production in a region historically dependent on energy imports. The 12-month operation beginning autumn 2025 combines conventional coal gas extraction with exploratory drilling for natural hydrogen deposits discovered in 2023. The timing reflects broader European energy security concerns, as France imports the majority of its natural gas from diverse suppliers, including the United States, Russia, Qatar, Algeria, and Norway. The project’s claimed carbon footprint advantage—reportedly 10 times lower…

Novelis’ two-week hydrogen fuel switching demonstration at its Latchford aluminium plant achieved technical objectives while revealing critical infrastructure constraints that challenge broader industrial decarbonization timelines. The trial, supported by the UK Department for Energy Security & Net Zero’s Industrial Fuel Switching Competition, converted a natural gas furnace to operate on hydrogen, yet commercial viability remains contingent on external infrastructure developments not expected until 2031. The aluminum recycling facility’s successful adaptation of existing infrastructure represents a measured technical validation rather than an immediate commercial breakthrough. While Novelis claims the demonstration maintained safety, quality, and performance standards, the company’s projected 45,000 tonnes…

📈 The winners will be those who understand the economics, not just the geology 🌍 For just 99 USD (74 GBP), access the only comprehensive, case-based masterclass on how to turn natural hydrogen discoveries into commercial ventures that can decarbonize industry. Led by Dr. Arnout Everts, a broad-skilled geoscientist with 35 years of experience guiding subsurface development projects across their life cycle, this two-day online masterclass cuts through the noise and delivers actionable insights grounded in real exploration and development scenarios. What you’ll learn: You’ll also receive a case study overview, industry-relevant tools, and insights no public report has revealed…

By late August 2025, fossil fuel and mining companies had already filed 22 investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) claims at the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). This figure surpasses the 21 claims lodged in 2024, with these sectors now representing nearly half—47 percent—of ICSID’s total caseload. The acceleration highlights how corporations are increasingly leveraging arbitration mechanisms to contest climate-related policies that threaten asset values, particularly fossil fuel phase-out laws. This surge comes as international courts, including the International Court of Justice, affirm states’ legal obligations to mitigate climate change. Yet ISDS tribunals, operating under bilateral and…

In 2022, Germany shut down its last nuclear reactors, marking the end of a decades-long policy shift that cost an estimated €500 billion while increasing emissions and electricity costs. Across the border, France—historically reliant on nuclear for more than 70% of its electricity—struggles with aging infrastructure but still enjoys one of Europe’s lowest-carbon grids. For Bruno Comby, founder of Environmentalists for Nuclear Energy, these diverging trajectories illustrate a paradox: the green movement’s rejection of its most scalable low-carbon tool. WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE Comby argues that nuclear power’s poor public image is less about technical realities than about political…

The collapse of a flagship green hydrogen project in Gladstone has triggered a A$66 million legal battle between the Queensland government and Fortescue Metals Group, exposing the high-stakes risks of public subsidies for nascent green technologies. This litigation, spearheaded by the state’s newly elected coalition government, seeks to recoup the entire sum granted to Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue just two years prior, underscoring a mounting tension between ambitious decarbonization goals and fiduciary responsibility. In a parliamentary address, Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie confirmed the state had issued a notice to comply and a default notice to Fortescue, demanding full reimbursement of the…

China’s Clean Energy Transition: A Complex Calculus Between Growth, Security, and Decarbonization Chinese carbon emissions have shown a rare contraction in fuel combustion during early 2024, according to official data and academic analyses—a sign of the tangible impact of China’s rapid deployment of clean technologies. Kevin Tu, Director of Agora Energy China, highlights that emissions growth slowed to just 0.7% year-over-year, compared with near double-digit increases in previous decades, signaling that China may be entering a plateau phase in its emissions trajectory. WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW The driving forces behind this shift extend beyond regulatory frameworks. Tu underscores the comparative…

The UK’s battery energy storage sector (BESS) completed just 1.5GW of capacity in 2024, a 28% decline from 2023 installations, even as the market surpassed 7GWh of operational grid-scale capacity and announced a series of high-profile project awards. This contraction coincides with a 12% fall in the capacity of newly submitted planning applications, signaling potential market maturation challenges despite continued institutional investment and technological advancement. Project scale improvements partially offset volume declines, with average project size increasing from 52MWh to 62MWh year-over-year, indicating developer preference for larger, more economically viable installations. The recent announcement wave, including Balance Power’s 49.5MW Radwell…

12,000 cycles at 20C-rate with 99.2% capacity retention—the performance metric redefining durability for grid-scale batteries. The global push toward renewable energy integration faces a critical bottleneck: intermittency management. As grids worldwide strain under the variability of solar and wind, vanadium ion batteries (VIBs) emerge with electrochemical properties tailored to solve grid-scale storage paradoxes. Unlike lithium-ion counterparts, VIBs leverage aqueous vanadium electrolytes and carbon electrodes to achieve unprecedented cycling stability and endothermic charging—a revelation for safety-critical infrastructure. The Grid Storage Trilemma: Efficiency, Durability, Safety Grid operators confront a harsh reality: today’s dominant storage technologies force tradeoffs no decarbonizing grid can afford. Lithium-ion…