Loud fart sound erupts during John Kerry’s speech at climate panel

Energy News Beat

The Biden administration’s climate envoy was discussing US policy on coal power plants at the Climate Change Conference in Dubai on Sunday when Kerry may have unleashed a burst of wind energy.

The former secretary of state was speaking next to Becky Anderson, managing editor of CNN Abu Dhabi, and Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, when a Bronx cheer suddenly erupted midsentence.

“There shouldn’t be any more coal-fired power plants permitted anywhere in the world,” Kerry began before launching into an anti-coal diatribe.

“I find myself getting more and more militant because I do not understand how adults who are in a position of responsibility can be avoiding responsibility for taking away those things that are killing people on a daily basis…”

Before Kerry can complete his thought, the crude sound of passing gas can be heard over the microphone. The crowd breaks into applause, apparently oblivious to the crude theatrics.

CNN’s Anderson — sitting to Kerry’s right and within striking distance of a potential bodily function — quickly jerks her head aside and inconspicuously places her hand to her mouth, possibly in the event of any stench permeating the climate panel.

Birol, the energy executive, simply nods his head in rapt contemplation.

“And the reality is that the climate crisis and the health crisis are one and the same,” Kerry continues, unabated.

The former secretary of state was speaking next to Becky Anderson, managing editor of CNN Abu Dhabi, and Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, when a Bronx cheer suddenly erupted midsentence.

Larry O’Connor of Townhall Media said Kerry’s alleged flatulence was an embarrassment to the US.

“The biggest problem is, during this entire exchange, representing us, the United States of America, he ripped a fart out,” O’Connor said. “He let loose with flatulence on an international stage.”

The pundit said the evidence was overwhelming and Kerry must answer for his actions.

“He should lose his job immediately,” he said. “John Kerry farted.”

Source: Nypost-com.cdn.ampproject.org

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22 Countries, Including U.S., Pledge to Triple Nuclear Power Capacity

Energy News Beat

The U.S. and 21 other countries have said they want to triple the global generation capacity of nuclear power by mid-century. The pledge, announced Dec. 2 at the United Nations’ COP28 climate summit in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), comes as more of the world’s governments say increased use of nuclear power is critical to reduce emissions of carbon and combat climate change.

Countries involved in Saturday’s announcement, along with the U.S., include Canada, the UK, France, South Korea, and the UAE. Officials have said increasing nuclear power in Europe would help European nations reduce dependence on oil and gas from Russia, while conceding it will require major investment. Data from nuclear power analysts has shown that in countries with the most nuclear power capacity, many projects over the past several years have experienced delays and cost overruns.

That includes the two-unit expansion of the Vogtle nuclear power plant in Georgia. Unit 3 at Vogtle came online this past summer, some seven years after it originally was expected to begin service. Unit 3 is the first newly-constructed nuclear unit in the U.S. in more than 30 years. Unit 4 at Vogtle is expected to enter commercial operation in the next few months. Officials have said the cost to build the two units, which feature Westinghouse AP1000 reactors, has surpassed $34 billion—more than double original estimates.

Craig Piercy, executive director of the American Nuclear Society (ANS), in a statement emailed to POWER on Saturday, said about the “Declaration to Triple Nuclear Energy”: “On behalf of America’s nuclear professionals, we applaud the historic commitment made today by the U.S. and 21 other countries to tripling global nuclear energy production by 2050. This is real, tangible climate action in meeting the world’s clean energy needs. Tripling the world’s nuclear energy supplies by 2050 is the catalyst required to halt rising temperatures and achieve a sustainable future while lifting millions out of poverty.”

Global Nuclear Generation Capacity at 371 GW

The International Atomic Energy Agency reported that global nuclear power generation capacity was about 371 GW at the end of 2022, with 411 reactors in operation.

Piercy added, “The Declaration to Triple Nuclear Energy also recognizes the key role of carbon-free nuclear energy in halting climate change—and calls on international financial institutions to craft nuclear-inclusive lending policies. A rapid, large-scale deployment of new reactors around the world can only happen with the end of financing bans against nuclear energy projects by multilateral banks like the World Bank.”

The U.S. Dept. of Energy in a statement said the agency “recognizes the key role of nuclear energy in achieving global net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and keeping the 1.5-degree goal [of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate] within reach.”

Maria Korsnick, president and CEO of the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), the policy organization of the nuclear technologies industry, in an October speech said there is bipartisan support in Congress for nuclear power. Korsnick at that time said, “Nuclear energy had support under the Biden administration, and it also had support under the Trump administration. So, it really should leave no question about the government’s view—nuclear is vital to a clean-energy grid and to our economic future.”

Judi Greenwald, executive director of the Nuclear Innovation Alliance, in an email to POWER on Dec. 4 wrote that “Given [NIA’s] work on advanced nuclear, we welcome this weekend’s announcement of a new global goal of tripling nuclear energy capacity by 2050. This goal is broader and even more ambitious than our previous call for a doubling of nuclear energy in the U.S. by 2050 as outlined in our Fission Vision report published in April of 2022.”

Greenwald wrote, “We welcome this broad support for advanced nuclear development and look forward to working with policymakers, regulators, non-governmental organizations and industry to ensure we meet it. The challenge will be building on the momentum created with this announcement to address the real barriers to continued development and deployment of advanced nuclear energy not just in the U.S., but around the world … we look forward to the ongoing partnership between the 20 countries that committed to this goal and what that means for the future of nuclear energy.”

U.S. Nuclear Capacity

Nuclear power in the U.S., about 95 GW of capacity generated by more than 90 operating reactors, accounts for about 20% of the nation’s electricity production. John Kerry, the Biden administration’s climate envoy, at the UAE conference said there are “trillions of dollars” available for investment in nuclear power. “We are not making the argument to anybody that this is absolutely going to be the sweeping alternative to every other energy source … no, that’s not what brings us here,” said Kerry. He said, though, echoing statements from other energy analysts, that “you can’t get to net-zero 2050 without some nuclear.”

Though nuclear power is carbon-free, opponents point to concerns about disposal of spent nuclear fuel—nuclear waste—and potential of accidents that could release radiation into areas near nuclear power plants.

France, with more than 50 reactors and 61 GW of generation, is Europe’s biggest producer of nuclear power. It is second globally only to the U.S. in nuclear capacity, and receives about 70% of its electricity from nuclear.

French President Emmanuel Macron said nuclear is an “indispensable solution” to help fight climate change. Macron is a supporter of small modular reactors (SMRs), which many in the nuclear industry say is the best way to rapidly increase generation capacity. SMRs are touted as cheaper to build, operate, and scale than large utility-scale reactors.

Financial Support Needed

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson of Sweden, another country involved in the nuclear pledge, said the World Bank and other international financial institutions must help finance nuclear power projects. Kristersson said governments must “assume a role in sharing the financial risks to strengthen the conditions and provide additional incentives for investments in nuclear energy.”

Other countries signing on to Saturday’s agreement include Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Finland, Ghana, Hungary, Japan, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine.

Notably absent from the agreement is Germany, which this year closed its last three nuclear power plants.

Data from the World Nuclear Association published in November shows about 60 reactors are under construction worldwide, with another 110 in the planning stage. Most of those reactors are of Russian or Chinese design.

The International Energy Agency has said China, which had installed nuclear generation capacity of 57 GW at the end of June 2023 according to government data, will become the leading producer of nuclear power by 2030. The China Nuclear Energy Association last year said the country could add as many as 10 reactors annually over the next several years, and could have as much as 300 GW of nuclear power capacity online by 2035. The Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, though, earlier this year said reaching about 100 GW of generation capacity by 2030 is “more likely” for China.

Source: Powermag.com

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Governments Are Paying Up to Restore Confidence in Offshore Wind

Energy News Beat

After a year of struggles for offshore wind developments amid rising costs, canceled projects, and failed auctions, governments and policymakers in Europe and the U.S. have realized they may need to pay up to ensure projects are built to help their decarbonization goals.

Europe and the United States risk missing their ambitious wind power installation targets as soaring costs, supply chain delays, and low electricity prices at auctions hamper development and lead to a cancelation of offshore wind projects.

The offshore wind industry has seen several major setbacks since the summer—auctions in the U.S. and the UK were a flop and a large UK project was canceled due to surging costs and challenging market conditions pressuring new developments. Meanwhile, developers in the U.S. are seeking looser requirements for tax credits to make projects economically feasible.

But now some governments, including the UK government, have raised the minimum prices for next year’s auctions to ensure there will be bidders to develop offshore wind projects.

“The reality is governments are starting to react and are accepting that to keep their offshore wind programmes on track – which are important for the economy, energy security, decarbonisation targets and jobs – it’s worth paying a bit more,” Jonathan Cole, chief executive of project developer Corio Generation, told Reuters.

In the UK, the government last month raised the maximum price for offshore wind projects in its flagship renewables scheme, the Contracts for Difference (CfD) auction.

“Following an extensive review of the latest evidence, including the impact of global events on supply chains, the government has raised the maximum price offshore wind and other renewables projects can receive in the next Contracts for Difference (CfD) auction to ensure it is performing effectively,” the UK said.

In a bid to keep Europe competitive in the wind power industry, the European Commission unveiled last month the so-called European Wind Power Action Plan, “to ensure that the clean energy transition goes hand-in-hand with industrial competitiveness and that wind power continues to be a European success story.”

Source: Oilprice.com

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Latest Cuts Leave OPEC with Fewer Options

Energy News Beat
Part of the reason oil prices went lower rather than higher last week despite the OPEC+ announcement was the suspicion that some of the cuts will remain so only on paper.
Because of algorithms-driven trading, futures market has got even more divorced from the physical market for oil than before.
For OPEC+ the situation is difficult as the more it cuts production, the more traders would question the outlook on oil demand, as suggested by the latest cuts.

Last week, OPEC and its partners from OPEC+ agreed to deepen and extend their production cuts into the first quarter of 2024.

The move, almost unanimously seen as a means to propping up oil prices, did not have the desired effect. After an initial jump, benchmarks slid again, with Brent crude dipping below $80 per barrel on Monday morning in Asia.

So, it seems that the cuts have, at least for now, failed in their purpose. Of course, the tighter supply may yet be felt on the market, but in the meantime, OPEC—and OPEC+—seems to be running out of options. And those that are left are painful ones.

“The market is going to test Opec+ and whether $80 a barrel is really a floor they can defend,” Raad Alkadiri, an analyst with Eurasia Group, told the Financial Times. “The cuts being billed as ‘voluntary’ undermines the psychological impact for the market a little, but if the full cut is realised, its impact on the market should not be discounted.”

Indeed, part of the reason oil prices went lower rather than higher last week despite the OPEC+ announcement was the suspicion that some of the cuts will remain so only on paper. The suspicion emerged after reports that OPEC members had internal disagreements about the production level they should be free to pursue.

The total cuts for the first half of 2024 are set at 2.2 million barrels daily, equal to about 2% of global supply. A few years ago, this would have been reason enough for traders to pile into oil futures. Now, this is not the case.

Some, such as Reuters’ Clyde Russell, argue that this indicates that oil demand is not as strong as OPEC says it is. Others, such as energy analyst Paul Sankey, suggest OPEC could do a U-turn and sink prices to neutralize the rising output of U.S. drillers. Physical oil demand and its relation to the oil futures market are at the heart of it all.

OPEC has been upbeat about that, just as the International Energy Agency has been increasingly pessimistic about it, recently forecasting peak demand growth before 2030. At the same time, there has been a multitude of reports and forecasts projecting weak economic growth for the world in the immediate future.

With such projections, it is easy to understand why traders are turning bearish after the initial shock of the latest war in the Middle East wears out. It’s even easier to understand after Bloomberg reported that as much as a fifth of what we collectively think of as traders are actually computer algorithms.

Commodity trading advisors use algorithms to track the market and place bets on various commodities. In oil, the trading volume of these algorithm-driven trades constitutes 70% of the total daily average volume on a given day, per data from JP Morgan and TD Bank, cited by Bloomberg.

This means that the futures market has got even more divorced from the physical market for oil than before. And that, in turn, means that OPEC could be driven to desperation as algo traders, which Bloomberg notes are trend followers and trend exaggerators, ignore any attempt by the cartel to control oil supply, and, as a result, prices.

This would prove a dangerous situation, especially for U.S. producers that have set another production record this year even though growth has been slower and more moderate than in previous growth years. Indeed, this is what Paul Sankey suggested to CNBC last week: that Saudi Arabia may simply decide to reverse course and open the taps to flood markets with oil. The question is whether it can afford to do so with all its expensive energy transition plans.

On the other hand, OPEC in general, and Saudi Arabia specifically, can simply cut even deeper if the price of oil in the first quarter of 2024 comes across as unsatisfactory. It would be a risky move, given the market reaction to this latest cut. But it could be the less risky move compared to the above alternative.

According to Reuters’ Russell, a big part of the market’s skeptical reaction to the cuts was the news about internal disagreements in OPEC. Apparently, these suggest that not all members of the group would actually follow through with their cuts. On the other hand, many OPEC members have been underproducing even with their original quotas—and prices have still declined.

It is certainly a complicated situation for OPEC. The more often it cuts production, the more traders would question the outlook on oil demand, as suggested by the latest cuts. On the other hand, there is a divide between the physical market and the futures market.

The physical market looks quite healthy based on seaborne oil volumes, which are up by 1.86 million bpd so far this year, per Kpler data cited by Russell. The futures market appears to be dominated by automatic trading, which affects prices in a major way. In any case, next year will be interesting to watch on the OPEC front.

Source: Oilprice.com

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Cop28 president forced into defence of fossil fuel phase-out claims

Energy News Beat

Sultan Al Jaber, who is state oil CEO, had said phase-out of fossil fuels would take world ‘back into caves’

The president of Cop28 has been forced into a fierce defence of his views on climate science, after the Guardian revealed his comment that there was “no science out there, or no scenario out there, that says that the phase-out of fossil fuel is what’s going to achieve 1.5C”.

Sultan Al Jaber, who is also the chief executive of the United Arab Emirates’ state oil company, Adnoc, said at a hastily arranged press conference at the summit in Dubai: “I respect the science in everything I do. I have repeatedly said that it is the science that has guided the principles or strategy as Cop28 president. We have always built everything, every step of the way, on the science, on the facts.”

Al Jaber made the controversial comments in ill-tempered responses to the former UN climate envoy Mary Robinson during an online event on 21 November. During the exchange, he also said: “Show me the roadmap for a phase-out of fossil fuel that will allow for sustainable socioeconomic development, unless you want to take the world back into caves.”

At the press conference, Al Jaber said: “I have incredible respect for Mary Robinson.” He added: “I have said over and over the phase-down and the phase-out of fossil fuel is inevitable. In fact, it is essential.”

More than 100 countries already support a phase-out of “unabated” fossil fuels – those where the resultant emissions are not captured – and whether the final Cop28 agreement calls for this or uses weaker language such as “phase-down” is one of the most fiercely fought issues at the summit. The former US vice-president Al Gore said a commitment to phase out fossil fuels would be Cop28’s only measure of success.

Al Jaber said: “I know that there are strong views among some [countries], about the phase-down or phase-out of fossil fuels. Allow me to say this again: this is the first [Cop] presidency ever to actively call on parties to come forward with language on all fossil fuels for the negotiated text.” Cop26 in Glasgow in 2021 agreed for the first time to “phase down” coal use.

Al Jaber did not refer to the Guardian story directly, but said: “One statement taken out of context, with misrepresentation and misinterpretation, that gets maximum coverage.” The Guardian story contains the full recording of his interaction with Robinson.

“If anything, judge us on what we will deliver at the end [of Cop28],” he said.

The issue of a phase-out or phase-down is complicated by the terms not having agreed definitions and by the highly uncertain role of technologies to “abate” fossil fuel emissions, such as carbon capture and storage (CCS).

Al Jaber’s comments to Robinson prompted a strong reaction from climate scientists who had read the transcript, who described them as “incredibly concerning” and “verging on climate denial”. They also conflicted with the view of the UN secretary general, António Guterres, who told Cop28 delegates on Friday: “The science is clear: The 1.5C limit is only possible if we ultimately stop burning all fossil fuels. Not reduce, not abate. Phase out, with a clear timeframe.”

Prof Johan Rockström, the director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, said: “I cannot see scientifically there being any other communication than that we need to phase out fossil fuels.”

Alden Meyer, of the thinktank E3G, told the Guardian: “It was a mistake for Al Jaber to say ‘going back into caves’ – that’s an old trope of the fossil fuel industry. I bet, if he could, he would take that back.”

Earlier in the day, youth climate activists mounted a protest at Cop28. Ina-Maria Shikongo, from Namibia, said: “We are here in response to [Al Jaber’s comments] making loud and clear. There is no debate whether we need a fossil fuel phase-out to stick with the Paris agreement. The science is clear.”

Tina Stege, the climate envoy for the Marshall Islands, speaking before Al Jaber’s press conference, pointed out that he had called 1.5C his “north star”.

She said: “We will hold him to that. If 1.5C is the north star, in practice what that means is a phase-out of fossil fuels; that is what the science has said. We can’t pretend there are other pathways to achieve 1.5C when so many lives are at stake.”

Leo Roberts, an energy policy expert at E3G, said competing claims that the 1.5C target could be achieved only by a phase-out of fossil fuels, or by a phase-down while still burning some fossil fuels, resulted from the “translation of science into politics”.

“I think, understandably, the climate movement is really concerned about [CCS] being deployed instead of phasing out fossil fuels, and it is a real concern,” he said. “It’s a slippery issue, because the actual amount of abated fossil fuel use [possible] in 2050 is almost zero. So getting to as close to zero as possible means that we have to aim for zero politically.”

Mayer said: “Phasing down could mean 1% by 2040, but it’s not what we need. You have to get specific on timeframes and numbers, or it’s just gobbledegook.”

Laurence Tubiana at the European Climate Foundation, one of the architects of the 2015 Paris climate deal, said on Monday: “Contrary to what some in the oil and gas sector claim, the deployment of CCS does not provide the industry with a reason to only ‘phase down’ fossil fuels. Not even close. While it can be helpful at the margins, CCS cannot possibly deliver reductions in greenhouse gas emissions on the scale needed to avert climate disaster.”

Source: Theguardian.com

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Greece’s Elpedison testing market interest for Thessaloniki FSRU

Energy News Beat

Elpedison, a power firm owned by Greece’s Hellenic Petroleum and Italy’s Edison, is inviting companies willing to secure capacities at its planned Thessaloniki FSRU project to submit their bids.

The firm announced on Monday it has launched the non-binding phase of the market test for the FSRU project, where all interested parties are invited to express their interest in contracting capacities and services at the planned LNG terminal.

The project will include two permanently moored vessels, one floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) and one floating storage unit (FSU), located in Thermaikos Gulf, according to Elpedison.

“Thessaloniki FSRU, a new flexible and secure natural gas entry point to the country, due to its strategic location, will contribute to the security of gas supply in Northern Greece as well as to the entire South-East European region and will enhance congestions’ management in the national natural gas transmission system,” it said.

Elpedison said the deadline for submission of expressions of interest is January 12, 2024.

Last year, Elpedison submitted an application to Greece’s Regulatory Authority for Energy (RAE) for an independent natural gas system (INGS) license.

According to Elpedison, the FSRU and the FSU, will have a combined LNG storage capacity ranging between 250,000 cbm and 280,000 cbm.

During ship-to-ship operations, LNG will be loaded by vessels into the FSU, while the regasification system is designed for a nominal sendout capacity of 500 mmscf/day, or about 150 GWh/day.

The pipeline includes a 4.4 km offshore route, connecting the regasification system to the beach valv, and a 7 km onshore route, connecting the beach valve to the entry point into the NNGTS and serving Elpedison’s power generation facilities in Thessaloniki area.

Greece will soon get its first FSRU and also the second LNG import facility, adding to DESFA’s import terminal located on the island of Revithoussa.

The 153,600-cbm, Alexandroupolis, which will serve Gastrade’s FSRU-based LNG import terminal in Alexandroupolis, has left Singapore and is on its way to Greece where it is expected to arrive on December 17.

In addition to this unit, Gastrade is also planning to install a second FSRU offshore Alexandroupolis.

Besides these two FSRUs, Dioriga Gas, a unit of Motor Oil, is looking to develop another FSRU-based import project in Greece’s Gulf of Corinth, while Greece’s Mediterranean Gas, the developer of an FSRU-based import project which includes ExxonMobil, has also previously received approval for its planned development in the port of Volos.

Should all these projects materialize, Greece would have at least five FSRUs in operation in the future.

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Peru LNG terminal sent four cargoes in November

Energy News Beat

Peru LNG’s liquefaction plant at Pampa Melchorita has shipped four liquefied natural gas cargoes in November, the same number of shipments as in the previous month.

According to data by state-owned Perupetro, during October the LNG plant sent three shipments to the UK and one to Spain.

The shipments loaded onboard the LNG carriers Kool Baltic, SM Albatross, Maran Gas Amphipolis, and Maran Gas Olympias equal about 272,021 tonnes, the data shows.

These four LNG cargoes loaded at the Peru LNG plant in October compare to four cargoes in November last year, while Peru LNG shipped four cargoes (252,309 tonnes) in October this year.

Peru LNG shipped 49 LNG cargoes during January-November, compared to 46 shipments during the same period last year, the Perupetro data shows.

The 4.45 mtpa LNG plant has sent about 746 LNG cargoes since 2010, according to the data. However, some of the same shipments in the list are included two or three times.

US-based Hunt Oil holds a 50 percent operating stake in the Pampa Melchorita LNG plant, while SK and Marubeni have 20 percent and 10 percent, respectively.

LNG giant Shell also holds a 20 percent stake and takes all the volumes produced at the facility.

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Why an Ohio welding supply company is getting into the electric vehicle charging business

Energy News Beat

A 128-year-old Cleveland-area industrial equipment manufacturer is among the newest makers of fast chargers for the growing electric vehicle market.

Lincoln Electric’s new Velion DC fast charger adapts and adds to technology the company has used for its welding machines and other heavy-duty power equipment.

The innovation is an example of how more U.S. manufacturers outside of the energy sector are beginning to find sometimes unexpected opportunities to participate in the country’s growing clean energy economy.

It all started almost two years ago when a group of senior engineers walked into president and CEO Chris Mapes’ office and explained the similarities between direct-current electric vehicle chargers and the plasma and electronics equipment the company has long manufactured, adding: “We think we can make these.”

“If you were to open up a welding machine or a plasma cutting machine, you would see power electronics,” Mapes explained, following a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Euclid, Ohio, last week for the company’s new fast charger product. Software engineering works with printed circuit boards to manage power, similar to what happens in a DC fast charger.

The company already has its own printed circuit board manufacturing facility. The innovation challenge was developing software to let a charger interface with any electric vehicle. When people plug in a vehicle, it and the charger go through a series of electronic messages and “handshakes.” Those share information about the car and the charger, as well as details about how much electricity is needed, signals and feedback for a precharge test, and then the actual charge.

Reliability has been a challenge for electric vehicle charging. Drivers can plan trips to stop at charging stations along the way, but out-of-order chargers can cause frustration and derail trips. That all adds to range anxiety.

Lincoln Electric’s new Velion charger, unveiled at an event in Euclid, Ohio last week. (Kathiann Kowalski / Energy News Network)

Steve Sumner, vice president for corporate innovation, said some other EV chargers “were born out of designs and manufacturing strategies that were more appropriate for lab-grade equipment — something that would see its whole life inside in perfect conditions.” In the real world, rain, snow, cold temperatures, hot temperatures, wind, dust and other factors can mess with electronics.

“What Lincoln Electric’s really known for, besides being a very good power conversion company, is making devices that last and live their whole lives outside,” Sumner said, noting that the company’s industrial products have been used on ships, in deserts and even in Antarctica. Likewise, the new charger is “purpose-built for ruggedness in the field.”

One reason for that reliability is that the company coats its printed circuit boards with a clear plastic epoxy. Two circuit boards go together in a metal casing to make 50-kilowatt modules.

Three of those modules make up the heart of the charger’s power tower, which typically sits behind a fence near a grid connection. The relatively few electrical connections between the modules and other parts of the equipment also provide protection from the elements.

“Because it’s so ‘simple’ and clean in design, and well protected, that’s where we believe the inherent reliability comes from,” Sumner said.

As an established company that began in the United States, Lincoln Electric was already compliant with Federal Highway Administration’s Buy America standards, levy standards and other regulatory programs, said Sheila Cockburn, who works with the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Joint Office of Energy and Transportation that advises on those standards.

“They’re leveraging their current technology to enter a newer market,” Cockburn said. “And they’ve been smart in being able to see the vision of where things are going and being able to pivot to use what they have to supply the new market.”

The move is an example of how companies can play a role in the clean energy economy, even if they aren’t currently part of the energy sector, said Rick Stockburger, president and CEO of BRITE Energy Innovators, based in Warren, Ohio. The organization acts as a hub to provide business and technical expertise to entrepreneurs looking to serve the energy sector.

“It’s exactly the type of leadership we need to see from all of our legacy manufacturers in developing new products,” Stockburger said.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and other recent federal policies and funding programs can help private manufacturers make that transition.

“If you look at what came down in legislation from the past three years, we’re not leaving behind American manufacturing like we did with the solar tax credits in the Obama administration,” Stockburger said. “We put American-made caveats in all of these bills.” And he looks forward to seeing what comes next from other companies.

“The one thing I’ll never underestimate is the power of American innovation,” Stockburger said. “There are just really, really smart people that look at opportunity and frankly are interested in seizing it.”

 

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Sentinel Midstream Announces ExxonMobil Joint Venture Serving the Louisiana Energy Market

Energy News Beat

Sentinel Midstream Announces ExxonMobil Joint Venture Serving the Louisiana Energy Market – Oil & Gas 360

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Maverick Energy Group, Ltd. and Willcox International Holdings, Inc. Form Joint Venture for Lithium Extraction from Saltwater Brine in Oil Production

Energy News Beat

Maverick Energy Group, Ltd. and Willcox International Holdings, Inc. Form Joint Venture for Lithium Extraction from Saltwater Brine in Oil Production – Oil & Gas 360

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