Achieving Scotland’s net zero target by 2045 will require “immediate action at pace and scale”, independent experts have told Holyrood ministers. The Climate Change Committee (CCC) said the country needs to see a “rapid increase” in the number of electric vehicles (EVs) on the roads while the installation of heat pumps must also “accelerate rapidly”. MSPs also stressed a switch to EVs and alternative heating systems could help Scotland reduce carbon emissions. But the CCC said: “Getting to net zero by 2045 will require immediate action, at pace and scale.” Its latest report for the Scottish Government said while the CCC could offer advice, “decisions on the exact pathway and policies within devolved powers are for the Scottish Government and the Scottish Parliament”. Scotland net zero target However, the CCC set out a “pathway” for reaching net zero by 2045, saying as part of this the number “fully electric” should increase from about 2.2% of cars and 0.8% of vans in 2023 to “around three-fifths of cars and vans” by 2035, rising again to 94% over the next 10 years. Two-fifths of homes should be heated by low-carbon electric systems by 2035, it added, saying the “majority” of these would be heat pumps, with this then rising to 92% of properties by 2045. To achieve this, the CCC said that “annual heat pump installations in existing homes will need to accelerate rapidly, reaching nearly 35,000 by 2030”. However, it stressed this “rapid increase in installation rates is feasible”, although it said “immediate policy support” would be needed. © Wilfried Wirth/imageBROKER/ShuttHeat pump in front of the house wall of a new building, Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The CCC also said it was “disappointing” Scottish Government plans to require heating systems to be converted to low-carbon technologies after a property sold “have

Oil edged lower in a choppy session as broader financial markets weakened and uncertainty lingered about whether sanctions on Iran will be loosened or tightened.    Prices whipsawed after Iran’s supreme leader expressed skepticism over discussions with the US, further denting expectations of an agreement on his country’s nuclear program. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said he doesn’t think negotiations with the US will succeed and urged the Trump administration to stop “talking nonsense.” He added he doesn’t know what will happen in any discussions. US West Texas Intermediate’s most-active July futures contract declined 0.2% to settle just above $62 a barrel. Brent also edged lower but still settled above $65 for the third consecutive session. Oil prices have been volatile since last week on mixed headlines about the fate of Iran-US talks, which could pave the way for more barrels to return to a market that’s expected to be oversupplied later in the year. Adding to global uncertainty, US President Donald Trump is pulling back from his efforts to end the war between Ukraine and Russia. “It’s just a road to ‘nowhere’ for crude right now until more is known about how the OPEC, Iran, and Russian sagas play out,” said Dennis Kissler, senior vice president for trading at BOK Financial Securities. Crude has rebounded this month, after sliding 19% in April, following an easing in the trade war between the US and China. In bullish sign for prices, premiums of several refined fuels over crude have surged over recent weeks, potentially bolstering demand for crude oil.   Elsewhere, ConocoPhillips Chief Executive Officer Ryan Lance said he doesn’t think US shale output has peaked. Prices in the $50s on a sustained basis would lead to a slow decline, but in the $60s, output will just plateau, he added. Traders have been

India plans to spend 850 billion rupees ($10 billion) to purchase 112 crude carriers through 2040, people familiar with the matter said, as the world’s third-biggest importer of oil seeks to have its own fleet to secure supplies. State-owned oil companies currently operate an aging fleet that’s mostly on-charter from global companies and the shipping and petroleum ministries want to change that, said the people, who asked not to be identified citing rules. The plan’s first phase involves purchasing 79 ships, of which 30 of them would be medium-range vessels, they said. The purchase order for 10 tankers should come out as early as this month, the people said. Only ships built locally — even if there’s foreign collaboration — will be considered for purchase, they said. Despite the global push for transition to cleaner sources of energy, India’s crude oil refining capacity is set to expand — to 450 million tons by the end of the decade from about 250 million tons now — on the back of growing domestic and overseas demand for oil products. For a nation that relies on imports for the bulk of its crude oil needs, it’s imperative to have sufficient shipping capacity of its own to carry out its energy trade. India targets to raise the share of locally built oil tankers in its fleet to 7% by 2030 from 5% at present, the people said. The idea is to eventually increase it to 69% by 2047 — the deadline the country has set for becoming a developed nation. The shipping and petroleum ministries and the government’s Press Information Bureau didn’t immediately respond to emailed requests for comments.  Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government this year announced a 250 billion-rupee fund to support the country’s maritime sector, with one of its goals being to eventually

A Republican-backed budget bill that rolls back clean energy incentives to pay for tax cuts could jeopardize nearly 300,000 jobs and some 287 solar and storage factories across the country, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. The bill passed out of the House Budget Committee over the weekend and will be considered by the House Rules Committee early Wednesday morning. “If this proposal becomes law, nearly 300 U.S. factories — mostly in red states — could close or never open, and we simply won’t have the energy we need to power American innovation in AI and data centers,” SEIA president and CEO Abigail Ross Hopper said in a statement Tuesday. SEIA’s analysis urged supporters to join the group in lobbying their representatives against the bill, saying the current version of it “could trigger an immediate decline in solar and storage investments. By 2030, up to $220 billion in investment could be lost.” The group also estimated an increase of $51 billion in consumer electricity costs. The bill would set earlier phaseouts to several credits that have been boosting the solar and storage industries: The 25D residential energy credit would be phased out after 2025; the 48E clean electricity investment credit would be phased out after 2028; and the 45X advanced manufacturing production credit would be fully phased out after 2031.  The “removal of 25D alone will result in a minimum of 75,000 [to] 85,000 fewer jobs by 2026 and up to 250,000 by 2028,” SEIA’s analysis said.  The analysis emphasized that the IRA’s incentives have generated manufacturing investment largely in districts that voted for President Trump, and cited support for their preservation from Republicans like former Federal Energy Regulatory Comission Chairman Neil Chatterjee and GOP lawmakers in the House and Senate who have appealed to leadership to preserve parts of

Industry commentators highlighted the importance of firm direction, demand creation and realistic expectations during the opening sessions of the World Hydrogen 2025 Summit in Rotterdam, fending off criticism over the laggardly pace of European progress. During a fireside chat on the state of the industry, Hy24 chief executive Pierre-Etienne Franc said the industry needed to manage its expectations better following the hype that followed the creation of the Hydrogen Council in January 2017. Hy24 is “the world’s first and largest” hydrogen private equity asset management company. “People are a bit lost. They don’t see whether we need to believe the press, or we need to believe the facts,” said Franc. “There are three major critiques that are always given for hydrogen. The first one is ‘time’ – not being fast enough. The second one is ‘cost’. And the third one is ‘scale’, and in fact if you deep dive a bit on what’s going on – and we, as investors, we see that relatively well – we believe those three [issues] are not properly understood.” Responding to the accusation that the industry is not delivering, Franc pointed out that “the energy dynamic is going to take decades”. “We were expecting, looking at the press and the ambitions put forward by all the countries… hydrogen to deliver in less than 20 years, which is of course ridiculous.” “The big players have derisked the technology and they’re ready to invest significantly. So we’re not so bad. We are faster than the other energy waves and it’s, in fact, just the time to deploy a nascent industry.” Hydrogen Council chief executive Ivana Jemelkova added that, with exuberance having well and truly died down since the excitement of the Paris Agreement, the reality of the situation is now sinking in. © Supplied by Hydrogen

In this week’s Charging Forward, Centrica has warned it could shut down its Rough offshore gas storage facility without UK government support. Meanwhile, Harmony Energy is in the midst of a bidding war for its battery storage portfolio with competing offers from Drax Group and Foresight Group. In addition, Field Energy, SAE, Balance Power and EOS are all progressing various battery energy storage system (BESS) projects across the UK. This week’s UK energy storage headlines: Centrica warns it may close Rough gas storage facility Harmony Energy Income Trust to auction battery storage portfolio SAE forms joint venture with Econergy for 250 MW Uskmouth BESS EOS gets approval for £62m Teesside BESS Field secures £42m loan to accelerate three UK BESS projects Balance Power secures approval for 29.9 MW Ayrshire BESS Devon council rejects Clearstone Enrgy 150 MW BESS plans International energy storage news: Noon Energy targets ultra long duration storage and China’s Sungrow installs BESS near Arctic Circle Centrica warns it may close Rough offshore gas storage facility British Gas owner Centrica has warned it may shut down and decommission its Rough offshore gas storage facility without additional UK government support. In an interview with the BBC, Centrica chief executive Chris O’Shea said operating the Rough facility will lead to a £100 million loss for the company this year. “If we were to simply spend £2 billion redeveloping this field and the summer-winter gas price stays the same, then we will lose that £2bn and we’ll lose the cost of operating the facility,” O’Shea said. “It’s just not sustainable.” Centrica initially shut down Rough in 2017, but moved to reopen the site following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. © Supplied by CentricaCentrica has plans to revamp its Rough site into a storage base for hydrogen. The company is investigating converting