Nice!

BULL! Puslespillbitene faller på plass, den ene etter den andre.

https://www.commerce.gov/news/press-releases/2022/05/us-secretary-commerce-gina-raimondo-hosts-roundtable-president-biden

To deepen our collaboration, the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy (MOTIE) and the U.S. Department of Commerce have signed a memorandum of understanding to establish the U.S. – Korea Supply Chain and Commercial Dialogue between the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy.

Kanskje ikke så viktig for oss, men gøy å se at Hanwha er innovative og finner på kule ting. I en ellers småtraust bransje.

Protecting bees with solar energy

05/20/2022 14:45 | Print view

Today, 20 May, has been designated World Bee Day by the United Nations. To mark this day, Hanwha Group is unveiling the Solar Beehive, a low-carbon photovoltaic beehive.

https://www.pveurope.eu/installation/solar-beehive-protecting-bees-solar-energy

Business roundtable focuses on cooperation and investment

During a business roundtable held Saturday, Korean and U.S. companies agreed to increase investment and strengthen cooperation to stabilize the supply of key goods.

Amid the changing global economic environment, cooperation and joint efforts between governments and companies is urgently needed," Lee said. "Mutual cooperation between Korea's manufacturing capability and U.S. technology is especially needed."

Lee Jae-yong, Samsung Electronics vice chairman, Chey Tae-won, SK Group chairman, Koo Kwang-mo, LG Group chairman, Euisun Chung , Hyundai Motor Group chairman, Shin Dong-bin, Lotte Group chairman, Kim Dong-kwan, Hanwha Solutions CEO, Choi Soo-yeon, Naver CEO, Cristiano Amon, Qualcomm CEO, and Gary Dickerson, Applied Materials president attended the roundtable.

https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2022/05/21/business/economy/korean-companies-korean-minister-including-semiconductor/20220521115809790.html
Mai 21 2022

Jeg så (og leste) åpningsinnlegget til Manchin, og her viser han virkelig hvor han står, som en betalt lobbyist for fossilindustrien i USA. Han angriper sin egen administrasjon, og anklager dem for å torpedere ny oljeutvinning ved å legge alt for mange hindringer i veien for oljeselskapene. Selv har han brukt nesten et år på å trenere BBB-pakken, som ville gitt grønn energi en frisk start, i tillegg til flere sosiale gjennombrudd. Dersom det vil seg så vel at demokratene får 51 senatorer etter høstens valg, håper jeg de sender ham på hue og ræva ut av partiet, men sjansen er vel stor for at han lukter lunta og skifter over til republikanerne før de rekker det..

@Sen_JoeMachin: WATCH: We can't continue to be a global superpower if we have to depend on unfriendly & hostile nations to produce our energy. That's why I’m convening a hearing today at 10AM in my @EnergyDems Committee to discuss the President's proposed @Interior budget & policy priorities.
https://twitter.com/sen_joemanchin/status/1527282725383573508?s=21&t=LyWtgQH8tWBR_169HhvXpg

Håper dette også kommer snart på plass på toppen av alt det gode som har dunket opp i det siste 😊

Granholm 'bullish' on Congress passing clean energy tax credits
The clean energy tax credits were included in Democrats' broad budget reconciliation package that collapsed in the Senate last year.

«They absolutely need to pass and I am feeling actually pretty bullish about it at this very moment," Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said of the tax credits.»

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said Wednesday she is “bullish” that Congress will ultimately pass some form of clean energy tax credits — particularly as Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin conducts bipartisan meetings with senators on an energy bill.

The bipartisan infrastructure law that passed last year “is sort of the spine of the president’s clean energy and energy future agenda, but the tax credits are the lungs of it,” Granholm told POLITICO’s Sustainability Summit. “They absolutely need to pass and I am feeling actually pretty bullish about it at this very moment.”

The clean energy tax credits were part of Democrats’ broad budget reconciliation package that collapsed in the Senate last year because of opposition from Manchin. Those credits included extensions of long-held incentives for renewable sources such as wind and solar, but would also subsidize new technologies including nuclear and clean hydrogen.
Manchin has said he supports tax credits for clean energy, but has voiced opposition to expanding credits for electric vehicles.

Granholm indicated Wednesday that updating the nation’s mining regulations to help increase U.S. production of critical minerals — a top priority for West Virginia’s Manchin — could help convince him to support incentives for electric vehicles.

“We’ve got to be responsible in terms of how quickly we can permit and how much we’ve got to move on doing extraction in the United States,” she said. “If we address those things, I think he understands the importance of bringing down the price of electric vehicles because they’re so much cheaper to drive [and] they’re so much cheaper to maintain and to own over the course of the lifetime of the vehicle.”

The Energy Department recently announced a $3 billion funding opportunity under the bipartisan infrastructure law for U.S. companies to invest in processing the mined materials to make batteries for electric vehicles.

“That piece of things, if we’re able to get that in the ground, helps to resolve the issue that he’s been rightfully concerned about,” she said of Manchin.

Manchin has broadly championed working with Republicans to craft energy and climate legislation that would benefit both renewable sources and fossil fuels. He has led four meetings of a bipartisan group on the topic in recent weeks, though so far those meetings have not yielded any breakthroughs.

Granholm pointed to existing Republican support for technologies like clean hydrogen, advanced nuclear and carbon capture that could be included in any legislation.

“I just think there are some pieces that can go along with renewable energy tax credits,” she said, adding that many Republican-led states are already expanding renewable power.

Democrats are also considering a smaller version of last year’s Build Back Better bill that would likely include clean energy incentives and could pass with only party-line support. Manchin is expected to meet with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer later on Wednesday to discuss that effort.

Democratic lawmakers are also debating price-gouging legislation that would give the Federal Trade Commission greater authority to probe oil companies’ actions to determine whether they are contributing to high gas prices.

Granholm said Wednesday that she supported that legislation, but she also blamed the oil price increases on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Let’s just be clear about the reasons for these prices being elevated — it is because Russia was a great exporter of oil on the global market and when countries like the United States and others rightfully said that we are not going to be funding Vladimir Putin’s war and we’re not going to accept any of those barrels,” Granholm said.

The Biden administration has ordered the release of 1 million barrels a day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help ease price spikes that have lifted gasoline prices to record levels and has called on the domestic oil and gas industry to increase production.

But Granholm conceded Wednesday that the SPR release alone will not be enough.

“Ultimately, what we need to do — the strategy that will work best — is to reduce demand by moving to electrification,” she said. “And that’s why the holistic strategy that the president has put forward, which is to try to do as much as we can with the biggest tool we have — which is the Strategic Petroleum Reserve — to increase supply now as other supply is coming online and at the same time accelerate this move to electric transportation, which also obviously addresses the climate crisis.”

And rather than put Biden’s climate goals in danger, Granholm said, people should see the high prices for fossil fuels as the best reason to speed the shift to renewable sources.
The immediate issue with the volatility in prices, as well as the notion that we are held hostage as a globe — the globe is held hostage to what Vladimir Putin’s doing or what OPEC is doing at any time — that this acceleration is critical,” she said, adding that when gas prices average $4.57 per gallon it further makes the case for the acceleration to clean energy.

“Most people see this moment as the reason to accelerate to clean, homegrown American energy, and that’s what we’re pushing,” she said.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/18/granholm-congress-clean-energy-tax-credits-00033369

Europe’s PV industry demands planning reform, manufacturing incentives and greater ambition in solar strategy
https://www.pv-tech.org/europes-pv-industry-demands-planning-reform-manufacturing-incentives-and-greater-ambition-in-solar-strategy/
MAY 17, 2022
(Alternativt: https://pastebin.com/t0KW8yFu)
"
..
Incentivising manufacturing
One of the major constraining factors for solar deployment in the coming years could, of course, be the supply of modules. Manufacturing capacity expansions in China, especially at the polysilicon level, are failing to keep up with exploding demand and while other leading markets such as the US and India have either implemented or proposed incentives to stimulate domestic manufacturing, the EC has yet to do the same.

This is a stumbling block that the Commission could and should rectify within its Solar Strategy, said Justin Lee, president at cell and module manufacturer Qcells. Speaking at a press event on the fringes of Intersolar Europe 2022, Lee said that the existing plans for domestic manufacturing in Europe are “just not ambitious enough” to stimulate the kind of manufacturing renaissance on the continent.

SPE intends for there to be at least 20GW of domestic solar manufacturing capacity in Europe by 2025, but with deployment intended to be many times that figure, that would still equate to an unequivocal reliance on imports from Asia.

The issue here, Lee said, crosses both incentives and manufacturing output. To start, there has yet to be much consideration for manufacturing capacity away from the cell and module, with materials such as metallurgical grade silicon, glass and encapsulants such as EVA all in short supply in Europe. Without a fully integrated supply chain, where European module makers can procure made-in-Europe glass, EVA, steel frames and so on, competitive advantage will still reside elsewhere.

Secondly, Lee stressed that regulators must get real on the incentives required for manufacturers to establish major capacity within Europe’s borders, drawing parallels with proposals within US Senator Jon Ossoff’s Solar Energy Manufacturing for America Act which intends to provide a tax credit for each unit of polysilicon, ingot, wafer, cell and module made in America. Without a similar incentive in Europe, manufacturing will struggle, Lee said.

Not every manufacturer and stakeholder shares this view. Dr Peter Fath of Turkey-based manufacturer Kalyon, which operates Europe’s largest existing PV manufacturing centre near Ankara, presented at Intersolar’s industry conference as to how a hypothetical 5GW integrated factory in Europe could be built with a total investment of around €550 million and, crucially, produce solar ingots, wafers, cells and modules at a total cost of around US$0.227/Wp – within a competitive distance of average production costs in China of US$0.215/Wp. The key to arriving at those figures is, as Fath presented, vertical integration – therefore any strategy the EC demonstrates must address manufacturing away from the cell and module if it has any chance of succeeding.

There are other levers the EC could pull to shift demand to European-made products, including a continent-wide application of carbon footprint requirements that have been successfully applied in France. Frank Niendorf, general manager for Europe at JinkoSolar, told PV Tech such a plan could be a “win-win” for the industry, given its potential to incentivise Asian manufacturers to pay more attention to that figure while offering a more level playing field.

Niendorf’s broader hope for the strategy, however, is that it does not introduce any kind of import tariff – Europe’s minimum import price still living long in the memory of those subjected to it – that could block imports into Europe.

“We cannot work without Asian supply. That’s impossible. It will take years to build up local European production and to quickly ramp up 50GW of local production is probably unrealistic,” Niendorf said.

Time is, evidently, of the essence and the Commission faces a delicate balancing task of delivering on the expectations from a broad spectrum of stakeholders. What is abundantly clear, however, is that the status quo is insufficient for Europe to realise its PV potential, and far greater ambition is required.
..
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Ha ha .., blir ny fabrikk i Moses Lake …. Rec sitter i smørøyet og de nye eierene tenker stort … dette blir stort !!

U.S. President Joe Biden visit to South Korea.

"Hanwha Solutions announced last week that it will invest 200 billion won to produce high-performance solar power modules in the United States. It did not specify a location. Another 180 billion won will be invested in ramping up production capacity for photovoltaic modules and cells in Korea."

https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2022/05/17/business/tech/Korea-US-Yoon-Sukyeol/20220517190318788.html

Nettopp , nå må usa ta seg sammen og begynne å arbeide med å bygge opp industrien :
—————-

Elon Musk says the US needs to stop infighting and step up its game if it wants to compete with China


https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-says-us-needs-stop-infighting-compete-with-china-2022-5

Enig med deg her. Og jeg tror nok de har nok kundegrunnlag for å kjøre ML greit i 2023-2024. Avtaler og alt er bare ikke finpusset og signert.

SilaN kan bli en veldig spennende kunde på sikt, gitt volumene de tar høyde for at denne fabrikken skal bygges ut til. Prøvde å se litt på tallene, og jeg kommer frem til at SilaN vil kreve godt over 100% av ML sin kapasitet om de ekspanderer til 150GW kapasitet. Store ting. Med det store behovet det er, og vil være for batterier, så kan jeg ikke se annet enn at SilaN vil utvide fabrikken i godt tempo fra oppstart.

Hvis Mercedes skal klare å ha Sila-batteriet som tilvalg ved lansering av EQG, må batteriet være klart i god tid før bilen går ut til kunder i 2025.

Jeg tror det avhenger av når Rec sikrer nok kundegrunnlag. SilaN sin oppstart i 2024 om 2 år er ikke nok, gitt det vi vet.

Så fort ting er avklart med Hanwha og G14 løsner det kanskje?

Sikkert 100 nyanser og andre scenarioer. Helt klart, SilaN må sikre seg, men tror det ikke haster enda, det kan like så godt komme børsmelding i morgen eller om 5 mnd slik jeg ser det.

Sila må vel rimelig raskt sikre forsyningskjeden for å være sikre på å oppfylle avtalen med MB, og da er silangass leveransen kritisk (hvis de da ikke vil kjøpe fra Kina, og det skjer jo ikke). Vi vet alle hvem som da er mer eller mindre eneste mulige leverandør, og den bor rett over gata.
Det betyr vel at vi bør kunne forvente melding om avtale med Sila i nærmeste fremtid?

Vi har visst lenge at Mercedes / Daimler har investert penger i Sila. Men det er vanlig for bilprodusenter å spre investeringene over flere batteriaktører. I Mercedes' tilfelle er det bl.a. også gjort investeringer i solid state-utvikler Factorial.

At Mercedes nå har gjort skriftlig avtale med Sila om å faktisk bruke teknologien, og det i en nært forestående bilmodell (EQG), er selvsagt av stor interesse.

Har vi ikke visst lenge at Mercedes kom til å bli en kunde av Sila?
Trodde det var mer eller mindre etablert at Sila måtte etablere fabrikken i år for å kunne levere anoder til bilmodellene som Mercedes skal produsere i 2025

Nå er det på Forbes også https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2022/05/17/silas-high-efficiency-battery-anode-to-power-electric-mercedes-benz-suv/

Stemmer, G Class er dyr og ingen storselger. Men det er fornuftig å starte i high-end-sjiktet.

Med Daimler som investor lå det vel i kortene, men fint at de nå starter offisielt. G class selger ikke mye, men likevel. Som CEO i Elabs pleier å skrive: #justthebeginning

Steike, da blir det mer påfyll med det jeg har tilgjengelig - som dessverre ikke er så mye - ved åpning. Dette er virkelig penger på gata!

Det er vel bare å glede seg. Det er nok ikke bare Mercedes som skal ha denne teknologien fra Sila. Spennende saker.

Gratulerer med dagen! 🇳🇴😃🍾

Jeg havde aldrig troet Hanwha/Qcells , Sila/Mercedes og Group14/Porsche skulle kæmpe om ML nuværende og fremtidig kapacitet - men dette er realiteten nu (:

Fedt. Endnu federe er at læse opslagene fra de som stadig benægter at vi befinder os i blue sky scenarie (golden sky)

Selskabets største ejer skal bogstaveligt talt til roundtable møde med USA og Sydkoreas præsidenter vedrørende reducering af russisk og kinesisk afhængighed, samt fremtidig energi samarbejde.

🥂

Nå holder i hvert fall ikke lenger argumentet om at det ikke finnes kunder ;)

Vi bliver rige :)

Tak batteriminister grabein!

https://group-media.mercedes-benz.com/marsMediaSite/en/instance/ko/Mercedes-Benz-and-Sila-achieve-breakthrough-with-high-silicon-automotive-battery.xhtml?oid=53292784

Mercedes-Benz and Sila achieve breakthrough with high silicon automotive battery

Mercedes-Benz to incorporate Sila's silicon anode chemistry for the first time in batteries for the electric G-Class

https://www.automotiveworld.com/news-releases/mercedes-benz-and-sila-achieve-breakthrough-with-high-silicon-automotive-battery/

😁😂💰💰💰

Såvidt jeg har forstått (og jeg tror det er riktig): En batterifabrikk kan være hvor den vil, gjerne i Georgia. Anodefabrikken, derimot, hvis silan brukes som innsatsfaktor, MÅ være i nærheten av silanfabrikken. Små mengder silan kan fint transporteres, for eksempel til småelektronikk og skjermpaneler. Men til bilbatterier av stor skala blir det for upraktisk.

Ferdige anoder kan derimot ganske enkelt transporteres hvor man ønsker. Det er derfor tenkelig at Amprius kan ha batterifabrikken i Georgia, mens anodene sendes fra en fabrikk i, let's say, Moses Lake.

Om Amprius-anodene derimot fremstilles helt uten silan, som vi vet bl.a. Enevate sine anoder gjør, så er de ikke bundet til Moses Lake.

Det spiller for så vidt ikke så veldig stor rolle, om den neste kunden heter ditt eller datt. :-)

Med tanke på dette så har Rec en WHite paper der de har studert forkjellige blandings metoder for vanlig simens og granulat der de fant ut at det å mikse granulat med simens var mest effektivt. Så det jeg tenker her er at Hanwah med den nylige poly kontrakten med annet selskap har planer om å bruke den mere effektive metoden til å bruke wafers

Her er kilden https://www.recsilicon.com/RECSilicon/media/RECSilicon/products/whitepapers/Granular_white-20paper_web_ENG-1.pdf?ext=.pdf%7C

REC silicon är bäst i världen och har världens största flotta med transport för avancerad gas. En del av affärsmodellen och added value

https://www.recsilicon.com/RECSilicon/media/RECSilicon/products/datasheets/Silane-20Container-20datasheet_ENG_web-1.pdf?ext=.pdf%7C

Silicon kan da forflyttes

"The company uses silicon instead of graphite for anodes." Hvorfor plasserer de seg da i Georgia?

https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2022/05/16/battery-plant-amprius-georgia-jobs.html

Amprius vurderer Georgia

Bull.

Hanwha har dybe lommer😁 Tak for deling, Bob!

Sila N nevnes spesifikt her.

https://columbiabasinherald.com/news/2022/may/13/grant-pud-chief-testifies-house/

“A big reason companies like Sila (Nanotechnologies) are locating in Washington is because of hydropower,” said Rep. Cathy McMorris Rogers, R-Spokane.

U.S, E.U will seek to head off subsidy race over chip production, official says
https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-eu-will-seek-head-off-subsidy-race-over-chip-production-official-says-2022-05-16/
MAY 15, 2022
“..
"You'll see us announce... a transatlantic approach to semiconductor investments aimed at ensuring security of supply," a senior administration official told reporters in a call Friday previewing the meeting.

Both Washington and Brussels want to encourage chip investment, and to "do so in a coordinated fashion and don't simply encourage a subsidy race," the official added.

A persistent industry-wide shortage of chips has disrupted production in the automotive and electronics industries, forcing some firms to scale back production. But U.S. legislation that would grant chipmakers $52 billion in funding to expand output has been stuck in Congress.

The official said an early warning system to pinpoint and address semiconductor supply chain disruptions would also be announced as part of the meeting, which will be headlined by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Commerce Department Secretary Gina Raimondo, and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai.

EU trade chief Valdis Dombrovskis and EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager will also participate, the official said.
..”

The US is beefing up its battery materials supply chain
https://cen.acs.org/energy/energy-storage/US-beefing-battery-materials-supply/100/i17?utm_source=Energy&utm_medium=Energy&utm_campaign=CENRSS
MAY 12, 2022
“..
Likewise, Group14 Technologies and Sila Nanotechnologies recently announced plans to expand production of silicon-based anode materials, which they claim will outperform current graphite materials.
Group14 opened a 2,500 m2 anode materials factory near Seattle last year and has now raised $400 million to build a second US factory. Sila says it has purchased a 55,000 m2 factory in Moses Lake, Washington, where it will make silicon anode materials.

The Sila facility is across the street from REC Silicon, a company that provides polysilicon and silicon gas for solar and electronics applications. REC worked with Group14 to build a pilot plant before the firm built the Seattle factory.
REC mothballed its Moses Lake operation in 2019, after tariffs made it difficult to sell silicon products in China. The company now says it may restart production to support the adoption of silicon-based anode materials.

REC is not the only company turning toward batteries as the industry heats up. Andrew Wang, a PhD candidate at the University of Oxford studying lithium-ion batteries who writes for the industry newsletter Intercalation Station, says companies that previously worked on lower-value commodities are now interested in producing battery materials.

“Petrochemical companies that were making graphite electrodes for steel production, now they can make high-value carbon anodes for lithium-ion batteries,” Wang says. Phillips 66’s plan to do that with the Australian anode maker Novonix is one example, he says.
..”

Det får vi gjøre! Uansett, fremtiden ser lys ut nå. Spørsmålet er hvor lenge man må vente på noe konkret fra REC.