Category Archives: Sustainability

Impact of Trade Wars on Sustainable Energy Projects

Posted on June 6, 2025 by | Leave a comment

How will the trade wars affect sustainable energy projects and products? S&P Global has a report that analyzes this.

Any long-term conclusions are risky, given the US propensity to alter course (TACO tactics). But thanks to them for giving it a try.

This traffic light analysis is helpful to understand the implications for different utility grade technologies.

Batteries seem to be hit the hardest. Wind falls within the medium range for most criteria. However, it suffers from policy bias by the current US administration. Distributed generation, such as home solar, is also at risk because of policy and cost implications.

Retaliatory measures from trade partners add more complexity and unpredictability to decisions for these technologies.

The full report is available here.

Energy Transition, Electric Power, Renewables, May 28, 2025

Analysis by Paola Perez Pena, Alex Kaplan, Tiffany Wang, John Murray, Timothy Stephure. With contribution from Indra Mukherjee, Tom Kim, Jiani Wang, Jessica Jin, George Hilton, Cinthya Pena, and Edurne Zoco

https://www.spglobal.com/commodity-insights/en/news-research/blog/energy-transition/052825-the-new-normal-how-trade-tensions-and-policy-uncertainty-may-reshape-the-us-cleantech-landscape

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Posted in Strategy, Sustainability

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A “radically simplified” solution for SAF

Posted on June 1, 2025 by | Leave a comment

I don’t usually write about air, but in this case I have two connections.

First, Aether Fuels is a new Chicago-based concern with an innovative approach to the Fischer-Tropsch process for making fuel from waste. When I was in Chicago, I participated in some of the planning for the South Chicago airport, which sparked my interest in airport development. If you’ve flown through O’Hare, you have some idea of how jammed-up air transport is in Chicago, and why new venues are needed, especially for freight.

Second, I’m interested in new technologies for sustainable fuels. What caught my eye here is the point at the end. The process can also be used to produce sustainable marine fuel! That really caught my eye.

The company is called Aether; they are well-funded by big corporate names. The article discusses a bit about the process, which is being developed now. A pilot plant is in the offing, maybe in the next couple of years.

One of the advantages of their process is its ability to use carbon-capture output as a feedstock. One of the big problems of carbon capture technologies is what to do with the output. Bury it? Crazy and costly! Another use for CO2 would be useful.

The article mentions that while the company’s goal is SAF fuel for airplanes now, the process could also make fuel for maritime transport. That’s a huge market, with a present-day need. There’s a risk that air carriers might have to compete for sustainable fuels with the maritime transport industry.

We can use all the sustainable fuels production we can get. It’s nice to see a startup that’s not “AI” or software, that can acquire funds to move a worthwhile effort ahead.

Dirk Singer Jun 01, 2025

https://open.substack.com/pub/simpliflying/p/how-aether-fuels-saf-conor-madigan

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Posted in Air, Investing, Logistics, Supply Chains, Sustainability

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Is Ammonia cheapest long-term for IMO carbon rules?

Posted on May 30, 2025 by | Leave a comment

University College London has published a new study considering in detail how shipowners can comply with the IMO rules for carbon emission compliance. It’s very detailed and takes into account not only the different technologies available, such as methanol and LNG, but also the timing of implementing the various regulations. One has to consider all these factors over the 25 or so years of the lifetime of a ship.

Granted, new technologies and availability of different fuel choices can change from what we can see now, but this impartial study favors ammonia-powered ships over the longer time frame. They suggest dual-fuel ammonia ships might be the best bet for investors in new shipping.

“Although there are significant complexities and uncertainties in what was agreed [at IMO MEPC 83] in April, even conservative projections of how remaining policy details will be finalised results in a ‘no brainer’ choice for shipowners in dual fuel ammonia,” said Dr. Tristan Smith, Professor of Energy and Transport at the UCL Energy Institute. 

The report is available here.

This figure from the report indicates when different fuel choices become cheapest in terms of abatement cost. It seems that e-ammonia never outcompetes blue ammonia before 2050. And LNG remains viable for quite a while, especially with integrated carbon capture.

There are a lot of assumptions in any such study, and the IMO could change the rules in the meantime. But shipowners should be thinking hard about ammonia, and so should international bunker fuel providers.

Published May 29, 2025 9:08 PM by The Maritime Executive

https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/ucl-ammonia-is-the-cheapest-compliance-option-for-new-imo-carbon-rules

Update 6/5/2025: Fortescue is jumping on the dual-fuel ammonia bandwagon, and has some not-so-polite comments about others in shipping sticking with LNG.

Sam Chambers June 5, 2025

https://splash247.com/fortescues-mission-to-champion-ammonia-goes-global/

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Posted in maritime, Sustainability

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