British Lithium Limited has secured a grant for their ‘game-changing’ technology

Following years of research, British Lithium Limited has secured a €560k grant, which will help with their goal to support the production of 350,000 electric vehicles in the UK per year.
British Lithium Limited (BLL) has secured €560k for their ‘game-changing’ lithium extraction technology. Founded in 2016, BLL is the first company to explore unconventional hard-rock lithium in the UK. Not only this, but they are also the first to discover a significant lithium resource in the UK and the first to conduct innovative metallurgical research and development.

Their “project is game-changing and could revolutionise supply of lithium required for large-scale manufacture of li-ion batteries in the UK, aligning directly with key Grand Challenge Missions under the 2019 UK Industrial Strategy”.

With the goal to build an integrated lithium mine and beneficiation plant, the company hope to support the production of 350,000 electric vehicles (EVs) per year. This would give the UK a strategic advantage over Europe.

“We have undertaken many years of metallurgical research to develop a unique process for extracting lithium from micaceous granite – something never done commercially before,” said BLL’s chairman Roderick Smith. “We have our own laboratory in Roche, and our aim is to build a quarry and refinery in Cornwall that will produce 20,000 tonnes per year of lithium carbonate.”

Following years of research, reconnaissance and metallurgical test work, BLL carried out its first drilling programme in 2019. In the second phase of their research, further trenching took place. This was followed by an intensive 24-hour diamond-core drilling programme in December. The company’s on-site team of six is now preparing for the third phase of exploration.

Lithium is a highly reactive and relatively light metal, making it ideal to be used in batteries, especially batteries to power EVs. With a massive decrease in petrol and diesel car sales in 2020, sales of zero-emission cars have increased by nearly 160%. This increase means there is a higher demand for batteries to power these zero-emission cars.

Highly sought after funding for a highly successful company
BLL’s €560k funding comes as a match grant funding from the UK Government’s ‘Innovate UK Smart Grant’. It will be used to progress BLL’s research and development into hard rock lithium extraction in the southern UK region of Cornwall.

The ‘Innovate UK Smart Grant is an opportunity for UK registered organisations to apply for a share of up to £25 million from Innovate UK to deliver disruptive R&D innovations that can significantly impact the UK economy.

British Lithium Limited’s managing director has said about the company:

The amount of lithium we are planning to produce annually will be a major step forward in attracting more battery manufacturers and maintaining our car industry. If batteries are not made in the UK, car makers are likely to continue investing in EV production in Europe, because that’s where the gigafactories are.

Yet Europe isn’t actually producing any battery-grade lithium so achieving that in Cornwall would give the UK as a whole, a huge competitive advantage.”

With an application success rate of around 6%, the ‘Innovate UK Smart Grant’ is highly sought after. Winning it is testament to the strength of BLL and will have a huge impact on Cornwall.

Steve Double, MP for St Austell and Newquay, said concerning BLL’s success,

This announcement is excellent news for the local and national economy as it brings BLL another step closer to building a quarry and processing plant that will create hundreds of high-quality jobs and provide the UK with a significant sustainable resource. As a proud Cornishman, I’m very excited by the prospect of Cornwall leading the way in the production of hard rock lithium and look forward to further developments over the months and years to come.”

The Green Schools Project: Vanessa Nakate is on a mission to power schools in Uganda with solar energy

Environmentalist, Vanessa Nakate and Climate Finance Expert, Tim Reutemann, are on a mission to transition schools in Uganda to solar energy through the Green Schools Project
The Green Schools Project is a renewable energy initiative, which aims to transition schools in Uganda to solar energy and install eco-friendly stoves in these schools.

The project was started by Environmentalist, Vanessa Nakate, in Uganda, Africa in 2019 and Tim Reutemann supports the funding efforts of the Project.

In Uganda, we need a transition to renewable energy. Also, educating students and the community helps create a learning platform for sustainability,” Nakate said.

Schools in Uganda use wood fuelled stoves to prepare meals for students throughout the day.

The eco friendly stoves will reduce the amount of firewood used from five truckloads to two truckloads, per term, aiding in forestation initiatives and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Powering schools with solar energy will bring a sustainable energy source to schools that is less harmful to people and planet than fossil fuels.

The Green Schools project is a Climate Mitigation Project in Uganda under the Paris Agreement.

Moving funding online
Initially, the Ugandan government was unable to secure funding for this project from Western donors as “there was a failure to agree on the mechanisms of the project and a lack of coordination between Western governments and African governments,” Reutemann said.

Funding efforts for the Project were moved online and Reutemann ensures the money raised reaches the project as online fundraising platforms discriminate against fundraising initiatives in Africa.

Reutemann said: “Online fundraising eliminates the slow, traditional, process of applying for funding, which is entirely a paper-based process that could take 3-7 years.

Online fundraising provides a bottom-up approach and very dramatically changes who has access to climate finance and speeds up the process because the climate crisis isn’t slowing down.”

Online fundraising efforts have enabled The Green Schools Project to install solar panels and eco friendly stoves in 4 schools, to date.

A sustainable future
The Project aims to install the solar power technology and eco-friendly stoves in all 24,000 schools in Uganda.

If the sustainability initiative is successful in schools, solar panels and eco-friendly stoves can be installed in homes throughout Uganda.

It costs $2,000 – $3,000 to install solar panels and eco-friendly stoves in each school in Uganda.

Reutemann got involved in The Green Schools Project out of his sense of urgency that the climate crisis needs to find solutions as it is a global threat.

Reutemann used some inheritance money from his parents as initial seed money for the Project.

“It [The Green Schools Project] gives me hope as it is a new way to target climate change from the ground.”

The Green Schools Project is personal to Reutemann, it is not in association or affiliation with his climate finance work in the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), Switzerland.

For more information and updates on The Green Schools Project follow Vanessa Nakate on Twitter.

Donations to The Green Schools Project can be made here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/green-schools-with-vash?utm_s

PACE: Committing World Leading CEOs to Carbon Net Zero

PACE (Public Listed Companies towards Clean Emissions), a unique NGO focussed on attaining net-zero is bringing together public listed companies from across the world to accelerate the reduction of carbon emissions.
With support from global business, government policy makers, international financial institutions, investors and the cleantech community, this new NGO is the only organisation to champion and support PLCs in their transition to Carbon Net Zero.

As business leaders, PACE acknowledges that public listed companies are facing unique challenges compared to private, smaller or non-listed companies. The nature of this means it is unrealistic to expect any organisation to represent the interests and challenges of every company regardless of size; however, this is where PACE steps in.

Setting the PACE
We have been working with COP26, UN agencies, The World Bank, governments across the world, funds and international partners to provide leaders of Public Listed Companies with the strategies, tools and resources to achieve Carbon Net Zero on a timescale of their choosing.”

Founder, Ross Kingsland
“Most of the 43,000 publicly-listed global companies are largely unengaged from the global conversation for a variety of reasons.”

Through PACE we are focused on economic growth, cost savings, minimising risk and increasing shareholder value through our global partnership and supplier networks while accelerating industry to net zero.”

“We see the carbon challenge as an opportunity”
“Creating markets and shaping innovation policy is crucial to bringing about the technologies needed to close the emissions gap. Common success factors include specialist organizations, such as PACE, coordinating activities across the innovation chain, patient and strategic finance that leverages other actors, and international collaboration has the potential to unlock additional innovation capacity through leveraging greater pools of money and talent and providing an avenue for international best-practice-sharing,” said Mariana Mazzucato UCL – Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose.

After recognising the significant underrepresentation public listed companies experience internationally at the hands of government policy, it became clear that PLC had left them flatfooted and reactive to significant changes that had been affecting their performance.

The PACE of change
Noting the recent example of the exhaust standards within the car industry and the direct impact non-conformance had with share price, brand reputation, sales and global quarterly losses, the UK is passing into law that from 2035 (or sooner) there will be no new petrol, diesel or hybrid cars sold as the country transitions to all electric.

In order to accelerate the pace of change and support other governments meet their country carbon targets, PACE is stimulating the industry through peer to peer workshops for policy makers.

Those PLCs joining PACE will set a date that they will be carbon net zero by, they will then submit a baseline of their current impact and note their key milestones to achieve their target. From then, each PLC will annually submit an update which informs whether they are on track or if they have fallen behind.

Yet, what makes PACE unique, is if the latter has occurred, they will step-in to support PLCs course-correct utilising their global network of partners, suppliers, investors and policy makers.

As noted by Alok Sharma President of COP26, PACE is facilitating the unity necessary to meet global climate targets:

“It is outstanding to see PACE bring together major actors to leverage and increase financial commitments and strategies to existing channels and improve the way that money is spent. These plans will be integral to achieve the targets set out in the Paris Agreement and maintain global momentum on tackling climate change.”v

The new Impossible Sausage

Following on from the success of the “Impossible Burger”, Impossible Foods has a brand new food item: the Impossible Sausage.
Based in California’s Silicon Valley, Impossible Foods makes delicious, nutritious meat and dairy products from plants — with a much smaller environmental footprint than meat from animals.

The flagship product, Impossible Burger, was named top plant-based burger by the New York Times and received the Food and Beverage (FABI) Award from the National Restaurant Association.

The privately held food tech startup was founded in 2011 by Patrick O. Brown and investors include Bill Gates, Google Ventures and Horizons Ventures.

Plant-based outperforms animal analogues
Impossible Foods is experiencing unprecedented demand for Impossible™ Sausage Made From Plants, the company’s first all-new product, since the 2016 debut of Impossible Burger.

The leading food tech startup launched Impossible™ Sausage in January. Within six months, the savoury patties have become available at more than 20,000 locations throughout the United States.

“We launched Impossible Burger in 2016, when consumers were just starting to get a taste for Impossible products and few realised that plant-based meat could outperform animal analogues in taste, nutrition and convenience,”

said Brown
Best of the Wurst
Winner of the 2020 Food and Beverage Award, Impossible Sausage is a pre-seasoned, pre-cooked savoury patty. A versatile item for drive-through, pickup or dine-in service, Impossible Sausage outperforms conventional sausage from pigs for nutrition and sustainability.

Compared to the leading brand of pork sausage, Impossible Sausage has:

the same amount of protein
60% more iron
45% fewer calories
60% less total fat
50% less saturated fat
0 mg cholesterol.
Impossible Sausage has none of the negative effects of the animal analogue, and it has no antibiotics or slaughterhouse contaminants.

Eating pigs: why bother?
All the buildings, roads and paved surfaces in the world occupy less than 2% of Earth’s land surface, while more than 45% of the land surface of Earth is currently in use as land for grazing or growing feed crops for livestock.

Raising animals for food makes up the vast majority of the land footprint of humanity.

Populations of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians have, on average, declined in size by 60 percent in just over 40 years.

Animal agriculture is a primary driver of the accelerating collapse in diverse wildlife populations and ecosystems on land and in oceans, rivers and lakes.

According to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation, the world is home to about 1.44billion pigs; with an average weight of about 112 kg, total farmed pig biomass totals 175 billion kg. That’s nearly twice as much as the total biomass of all wild terrestrial vertebrates.

In order to satisfy humanity’s voracious demand for pork — from Polish kielbasa to breakfast links — 47 pigs are killed on average every second of every day, based on FAO data.

Do the right thing: eat plants
Using pigs as a protein production technology comes with a high environmental cost – on both a global and local scale.

Industrial pork production releases excessive amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus into the environment, and the high doses of copper and zinc fed to pigs to promote growth accumulate in the soil.

Faeces and waste often spread to surrounding neighbourhoods, polluting air and water with toxic waste particles.

In addition to the environmental toll, human’s reliance on animals for food has been a public health disaster for at least a century. Consuming animals has been the root cause of a disproportionate number of viruses and pandemics, including:

The 1918 “Spanish flu” (from swine viruses)
HIV/AIDS
SARS
The majority of human cases of influenza A (from live or dead infected poultry)
COVID-19
The mission of Impossible Foods is to eliminate the need for animals in the food system.

Transitioning away from eating animal products is one of the best ways to reduce the likelihood of future animal to human pandemics.

Five Champions of Clean Development

Our planet was already facing an emergency before the pandemic – these top individuals and businesses will not forget it.
Despite these challenging times, we must ensure we take this opportunity for reflection. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres reminded the planet not to forget the climate emergency, he said that taxpayers money “needs to be tied to achieving green jobs and sustainable growth”, as well as facing the impact of the pandemic.

Here, CleanTech News acknowledges five forces across the world who are driving for a carbon neutral future.

Cleanest Corporate: Nex Group
Nex Group, which focuses on electronic financial markets, has a ‘Giving Day’, in which the company gives away a full-days’ revenue. Approximately £2 million was donated in 2018 and one of the charities to have benefited from this move included the Blue Marine Foundation.

The charity is working to improve sustainable fishing across the world, support fishers and their communities, as well as providing education of marine life and finding answers to untenable fishing procedures. Blue Marine Foundation is currently working in the Indian Ocean to safeguard overfished yellowfin tuna, which is believed to be at risk of total collapse.

Cleanest policymaker: Marianne Kettunen
After studying Ecology, Marianne Kettunen rose to become the Head of Global Challenges in the Institute for European Environmental Policy.

For over 15 years, in various capacities, she has advised the European Union on their Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Yet Kettunen says she is still asking herself every day, what is a good policy recommendation? “To make a good recommendation you also have to understand where the policy is at a given moment and where it’s going next.”

Cleanest startup: Freight Farms
Shipping containers are having a bit of a moment. Following the devastating earthquake in 2011, the city of Christchurch, New Zealand, used the containers to help newly-homeless businesses continue functioning. Now, besides transporting goods, indebted millennials are converting them into off-grid homes and now, farms.

Unlike traditional farms, Freight Farms farm vertically, storing the vegetables in high shelves. Most of the crops are leafy greens, such as kale and lettuce and as the walls are insulated, crops can continue to grow all year. “Freight Farms is helping anyone grow food anywhere in the world”, said vertical farmer, Andrew McCue.

Cleanest leader: Tshering Tobgay
“We are a small, under-developed country, doing our best to survive, but we are doing OK,” said the Prime Minister of Bhutan, Tshering Tobgay, in his TedTalk, “In fact… we are thriving.”

The video has over two million hits on YouTube and helped to raise the profile of the tiny Asian nation, as the only nation on earth to be carbon-negative.

Whilst the vastly bigger Amazon jungle remains the “lungs of the earth”, over 70% of Bhutan is covered in forest. Sandwiched in-between China and India, the landlocked nation is absorbing an estimated six million tons of carbon a year, while producing only 1.5 million tons.

A third of the size of its neighbour, Nepal, Bhutan also boasts a small population of 700,000 and a rising tourism industry.

COVID-19 and the Fashion Industry – How the Pandemic is Encouraging Sustainability

Even in tough times, there are silver linings. Although the global pandemic is causing struggle and strife for the masses, the effects of the pandemic are changing the fashion industry for the better.
In the last few years, the fashion industry has found itself subject to mounting critique, stemming from its careless approach to the climate crisis, and the catastrophic environmental impact of ‘fast fashion’. Indeed, mass production, reduced costs, and speedy delivery have placed the fashion industry as one of the most polluting in the world, accountable for 10% of global carbon dioxide emissions per year.

With the global economy experiencing a time of unprecedented stagnation, now more than ever, ethical, eco-friendly business models should be considered, encouraging the adoption of a ‘slow’ fashion concept as the fashion industry begins to rebuild.

Revisiting Business Models
The ‘fast fashion’ model is founded upon consumer demand for low cost and high-speed access to the newest trends. Through rapid design turnover and shorter production cycles, consumers are now able to refresh their wardrobes at an unpredicted rate, with widespread environmental consequences. According to McKinsey, annual global garment production now exceeds 100 billion units, using high volumes of water, whilst contributing to chemical and carbon pollution.

However, with an increasing awareness of the negative effects of fast fashion, almost 50% of shoppers online are now seeking out organic, ethical and vegan garments. Fashion designers are therefore taking the cost to the environment into consideration by launching brands that embrace sustainability.

According to Eileen Fisher, an American fashion designer who has been successfully leading her sustainable fashion brand since 1984, the global pandemic has highlighted that even ethical fashion brands produce too many items. With COVID-19 forcing the closure of 65 of her stores, Fisher is only surer in her beliefs, stressing the need to further simplify the supply chain from clothes, company structure and retail strategy.

“People say during this time they keep wearing the same things over and over because they are comfortable,” said Fisher. “I think we are going to find since we can’t go out shopping, we need a lot less and can live more simply.”

This reflects a shift in mindset, with consumer taste changing from mass market items to more exclusive and ethical. As a result, designers are increasingly trying to maintain a balance between the production and consumption to minimise waste and embrace sustainability.

“Waste, at the end of the day, is a design flaw. It doesn’t exist in nature,” says Gabriela Hearst, a luxury fashion designer and a strong sustainability advocate. She believes that the pandemic will be a good motive to reassess the values by which the industry measures its actions and grow with quality over quantity. With the fashion industry currently generating an estimated 92 million tons of textile waste each year, this change is crucial to building a carbon net-zero world, and an essential focus moving forward.

Increased Brand Transparency
Overproduction and the consequent abundance of inventory also remain of the industry’s most environmentally damaging practices, with British luxury brand Burberry faced public outrage for burning $37 million worth of excess product in 2017. However, Carry Somers, Founder of Fashion Revolution, and Sarah Ditty, Global Policy Director, believe that brands will be forced to modify their business models to survive the economic crisis, thus bringing positive change by mediating overproduction.

Additionally, Somers emphasises the continued importance of the public scrutiny of the relationship between brands and suppliers. With many retail brands withdrawing their orders and delaying payments to suppliers as a result of the pandemic, public awareness will encourage brands to be more accountable for their commitments, both socially and environmentally, galvanising positive change.

“We know that transparency is good for business; we know that it helps to protect the brand reputation ultimately,” says Somers.

Event Cancellations & Carbon Footprints
Finally, cancellation and postponement are the current reality facing fashion shows and events around the world, the impact of which is undeniable. Yet, thanks to companies such as Internet capabilities, a significant amount of fashion events have been able to demonstrate their collections online. Such a digital transformation have benefitted the consumer twofold, with shows becoming less expensive and more accessible.

Meanwhile, digital shows have also reduced the need to travel. A recent study from Zero to Market showed that staggering 241,000 tons of CO2 is generated when travelling for pret-a-porter (ready-to-wear) wholesale buying that takes place during the fashion show weeks. Climate activists and sustainable business supporters expect this novelty to become a new normal for the greener good.

Overall, although challenging, CleanTech News remains hopeful that the current pause forced upon the fashion industry can be utilised, increasing sustainability and reducing the enormity of its current environmental impact.

Eneco Joins Neptune Energy in World’s First Offshore Green Hydrogen Project

The leading European sustainable energy company, Eneco, is the latest to sign onto the world’s first offshore green hydrogen pilot project, PosHYdon, led by Neptune Energy.
With the project due to start in late 2021, Eneco will supply the PosHYdon pilot project with simulated wind data from its offshore wind farm, Luchterduinen. This wind data will enable specialists on The PosHYdon project to accurately model the use of electricity generated by Luchterduinen. This will then power the electrolysis process of the Q13a platform owned and operated by Neptune Energy.

Managing Director of Neptune Energy, Netherlands branch, Lex De Groot, said: “We are very pleased to welcome Eneco onboard as a partner. Their participation will provide realistic data for the pilot, which in turn delivers better insights for the next stages of the project.

“The goal is to obtain valuable lessons for successfully integrating offshore energy systems to support the acceleration of the energy transition, and the Dutch North Sea is ideally suited for this. The ability to convert energy from windfarms to hydrogen, then transport it via the existing gas infrastructure offers major advantages, particularly for those windfarms located much further offshore.”

Ruben Dijkstra, the Director of Eneco offshore wind, said: “Hydrogen is indispensable in achieving the climate objectives to support sectors such as industry, the built environment and transport in their sustainability. With the possibilities of offshore wind and the enormous potential that the North Sea still offers, hydrogen production in the North Sea is an important element in the energy transition.

“Eneco gladly supports the steps being taken in this direction with the PosHYdon pilot. In addition to the technical aspect of offshore electrolysis, Eneco also has a strong interest in developing green hydrogen certificates and adding hydrogen to the natural gas network.”

PosHYdon is an innovative pilot project started by Nextstep, the Dutch association for decommissioning and reuse, in partnership with TNO, the Netherlands organisation for applied scientific research. This exciting venture aims to integrate three energy systems in the North Sea: offshore wind, offshore hydrogen, and offshore gas.

The PosHYdon pilot project will enable participating companies to develop and progress their understanding of hydrogen production in an offshore environment for future applications or expansion into this renewable energy field.

Eneco’s Luchterduinen wind farm is located approximately 23 kilometres off the coast of Zandvoort, the Netherlands and about 25 kilometres north of the Q13a platform itself. For the PosHYdon project, there is no direct connection between the wind turbines and the platform.

The Q13a platform is the first platform in the North Sea, located near the Dutch coast, 13 kilometres from Scheveningen, to be fully operated by electricity let alone renewable electricity. The seawater involved in the PosHYdon project will be demineralised on this platform to produce hydrogen.

Specifically, according to Offshore Wind, a megawatt electrolyser will be placed within a sea container and installed onto the Q13a platform. The platform will then use the wind power to convert seawater into demineralised water to produce hydrogen.

Astonishingly, according to Offshore Wind, not only is the Q13a platform the first fully electrified offshore oil platform, it will save approximately 16.5 kilotons of CO2 per year, which is equivalent to 115,500 plane journeys from Amsterdam to Paris.