Displaying items by tag: Electricity

Europe: Norway-based Capsol Technologies says that it has signed contracts for two new feasibility studies for carbon capture installations at ‘large cement plants’ in the EU. If successful, the plants will proceed to the installation of Capsol Technologies’ CapsolEoP carbon capture systems. Nordic Daily News has reported that the technology reduces the energy consumption of carbon capture by 50%, and lowers its costs by 25%, according to the supplier.

The new contracts bring Capsol Technologies’ number of cement industry carbon capture contracts to four, and its total contracts to nine, with a potential CO₂ capture capacity of 10Mt/yr.

CEO Jan Kielland said "We are pleased that our solution is gaining attention, as demonstrated by an increasing number of incoming requests for sales engineering and engineering studies, and look forward to being a major contributor in the path to net zero for cement.”

India: Ratings agency ICRA says that the cement industry in India will reach a renewable energy reliance of 40% across its operations in the 2025 financial year. The Hitavada newspaper has reported that this will involve the construction of 537MW-worth of new renewable power capacity. During the 2023 financial year, which ended on 31 March 2023, producers used 35% renewable energy. ICRA said that they can expect to make costs savings of US$240m/yr from 2025 through the scale-up of renewables, including solar, wind and waste heat recovery. This would correspond to a 15 – 18% reduction of estimated energy costs for the 2025 financial year.

Over the same two-year period, ICRA forecast blended cements to rise to 81% of cement sales in the 2025 financial year, from 78% in the 2023 financial year.

France: The French cement sector association, France Ciment, has called on the government to make ‘heavy investments’ in the industry amid its on-going transition to net zero CO₂ cement production. It estimated the total cost of its transition, which will include carbon capture, at Euro3.5bn,according to Les Echos newspaper. The association said that producers currently benefit from the government’s partial price cap on electricity for industrial plants. It sought clarity as to whether the cap will remain in force beyond its scheduled limit in 2025. Lafarge France said that capped prices covered 50 – 60% of its electricity consumption in 2022.

India: Solar power plant developer Oriana Power has received a US$4.2m order to supply a solar power plant to a cement producer in Rajasthan. The supplier says that it will build a 7MW ground-mounted array at the site of cement plant belonging to the producer. The engineering, procurement and construction will take until the end of January 2024.

US: Heat Battery developer Rondo Energy has concluded a financing round with US$60m raised in investments, Renewables Now News has reported. Investors included Siam Cement Group and Titan Cement Group, as well as Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Energy Impact Partners, the Climate Innovation Fund, Rio Tinto, SABIC, Aramco Ventures, SDCL Energy Efficiency Income Trust and John Doerr. Rondo Energy’s Heat Battery is a means of connecting cement plants and other industrial facilities to a constant supply of electricity ultimately derived from renewable energy sources.

CEO John O'Donnell said “Our Strategic Investor Advisory Board will help Rondo focus on the simplest, fastest ways to power their operations with low-cost clean energy and shape our priorities for ongoing research and development.”

Australia: Boral’s sales were US$2.28bn in the 2023 financial year, which ended on 30 June 2023. This corresponds to a 38% year-on-year rise from the previous first half. The group’s net profit dropped by 1.3% to US$96.6m. It noted a rise in its costs of energy, labour and transport, which it expects to continue up to the end of June 2024, and possibly on throughout the second half of 2024.

The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper has reported that Australian residential construction activity dropped by 7.7% month-on-month in June 2023. Boral CEO Vik Bansal said that the company expects residential, commercial and civil construction to return to growth in the 2024 financial year.

France: Vicat's consolidated sales were Euro1.91bn in the first half of 2023, up by 9% year-on-year from Euro1.76bn in the first half of 2022. The group's earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 17% to Euro314m from Euro269m. Vicat said that it recorded generally 'resilient' sales volumes and price rises across most of its markets. Volumes dropped in France and Switzerland. During the half, Vicat's specific CO₂ emissions per tonne of cement fell by 3.6% year-on-year to 571kg/t from 591kg/t.

Chair and chief executive officer Guy Sidos said "The group has not yet returned to its pre-crisis margins rates. I’d like to thank all our teams for their unwavering commitment enabling us to reach our industrial, financial and climate targets." He added that Vicat is on track to achieve its CO₂ emission target of 497kg/t of cement by 2030.

Regarding its outlook for the current 2023 full year, Vicat said "The group is targeting further significant sales growth, with its markets overall expected to display resilience and reflect the full benefit of the price hikes in selling prices implemented in 2022 and the fresh increases introduced in 2023." It added "The performance in 2023 will reap the benefit of the full impact of the new kiln at the Ragland plant in the US, the elimination of the non-recurring costs incurred in 2022 and the stabilisation in energy costs."

US: A fire broke out in a building at Buzzi subsidiary Buzzi Unicem USA's Stockertown cement plant on the evening of 13 July 2023. Local fire crews arrived at the plant in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, at 19:18. The Express-Times newspaper has reported that the fire affected an electrical room, and that parties present at the scene requested that power to at least a portion of the facility be cut.

Argentina: Cementos Avellaneda has inaugurated its 22MW La Calera solar power plant in San Luis Province. Forbes has reported that the power plant will supply electricity to the producer's 1.1Mt/yr San Luis cement plant. As a result, operations at the plant will henceforth be 55% renewably powered. In total, the new solar power plant will eliminate 22,600t/yr-worth of CO₂ emissions. Engineering company Industrias Juan F Secco supported the installation of the US$25m plant, which took 16 months to build.

Cementos Avellaneda's general director José Luis Maestri said "It was key to the success of this project to have been able to find a strategic partner such as Industrias Juan F Secco, an Argentine company with more than 80 years of history and experience in the energy sector, which provided us with all its professionalism and commitment."

Spain: Cementos El Molino plans to invest Euro3.7m in an upgrade to energy infrastructure at its 450,000t Santa Eulalia grinding plant in Aragon. Alimarket Construction News has reported that the upgrade consists of a 12MW substation and a 2.4MW solar power plant. Euro2m-worth (54%) of investments will go towards construction of the subsystem and Euro1.7m (46%) towards the solar power plant. Cementos El Molino expects to carry out the investments before the end of 2023.