The Facility

CO₂ Capsol

CO₂ Capsol is a Norwegian technology provider of post-combustion carbon capture systems that uses hot potassium carbonate (HPC) as a solvent. In October 2022, IDTechEx Technology Analyst Dr Hydra Rodrigues spoke with Johan Jungholm, Chief Commercial Officer at CO₂ Capsol, during the Carbon Capture Technology Expo Europe 2022 in Bremen, Germany.

CMS Closes Series of High Profile Battery Storage Deals

International law firm CMS has closed five significant battery storage deals in recent months, reinforcing the firm's position in this space.

Britishvolt: A New Giga Factory for the UK

Britishvolt is a UK-based company setting up a lithium-ion cell production facility in the North East. The company is in the early stages, without production capacity yet, but with the ambition to be generating 50GWh.

Synhelion Starts Construction of DAWN to Produce Solar Fuels

Synhelion marks the start of construction work on DAWN - the world's first industrial plant to produce synthetic fuels using solar heat. Located in Jülich, Germany, the facility will be the first to demonstrate the entire process from concentrating sunlight to producing synthetic liquid fuel on an industrial scale. SWISS will be the first airline to fly using the CO2-neutral solar kerosene produced there.

Small Scale Pumped Heat Energy Storage System Demonstrated

Southwest Research Institute in collaboration with Malta Inc has completed assembly and commissioning of the first-of-its-kind pumped heat (or thermal) energy storage demonstration facility.

Coast: Autonomous Shuttles and Utility Vehicles

Coast is a start-up that is working on a 'ground-up' purpose-built autonomous shuttle. The shuttle is currently in the prototype phase, but other autonomous utility vehicles are being trialled by industry partners.

A New Concept for Low Cost Batteries

Made from inexpensive, abundant materials, an aluminum-sulfur battery could provide low-cost backup storage for renewable energy sources.

Precision Micro

Precision Micro is a UK-based photochemical etching company. IDTechEx spoke with Rachael O'Connor (Sales Manager) with respect to metal bipolar plates for fuel cells.

International Space Station Tests Organisms, Materials in Space

Space may look empty, but it contains extreme temperatures, high levels of background radiation, micrometeoroids, and the unfiltered glare of the Sun. In addition, materials and equipment on the outside of the International Space Station are exposed to atomic oxygen and other charged particles as it orbits the Earth at the very edge of our atmosphere. Only the hardiest materials, equipment, and organisms can withstand this harsh environment, and scientists conducting research on the orbiting laboratory have identified some of them for a variety of potential uses.

Waymo: Autonomous Trucking

Waymo is one of the key players and leaders in both autonomous trucking and robotaxis. It has backing from Alphabet (parent company of Google). Waymo is running daily commercial trips (with a safety driver) for potential partners and expanding its fleet and operations ready for full autonomous missions.

Mercedes Hypercar with Formula 1 Technology Goes Into Production

Only 275 units will be built in total, and job#1 of the exclusive production of the Mercedes‑AMG ONE hypercar has now begun. The first customer vehicles will be delivered in the second half of 2022. The Formula 1 based hybrid powertrain with a 1.6-litre V6 turbo engine and four electric motors is being built by the motorsport experts at Mercedes‑AMG High Performance Powertrains in Brixworth (England), who are also responsible for developing and producing the Power Units for the Mercedes‑AMG Petronas F1 racing cars.

iUNU

iUNU are an industrial computer vision company, founded in 2013 with headquarters in Seattle. The company provides data analytics and automation systems for greenhouse monitoring.

Vertical Farming: Location a Key Factor to Success

Vertical farming, the practice of growing crops indoors on vertically stacked layers, has received no small amount of interest over the last few years. The recent IDTechEx report, "Vertical Farming 2022-2032", details the economic and technological factors shaping this rapidly growing industry.

ANYbotics

Founded in 2016, ANYbotics is a Swiss spin-off from ETH Zurich specializing in legged robots used for inspection. Its product, ANYmal D, is the fourth-generation product and is priced at around €140,000.

Nikola: Electric Truck

Nikola are an American company manufacturing battery electric vehicles and fuel cell electric vehicles.

Volvo to Build Electric Cars at a New Plant in Slovakia

Volvo Cars will establish a third manufacturing plant in Europe, positioning the company well to meet the continued demand from its customers for electric cars and capture future growth potential. The new state-of-the-art plant will be climate neutral and build only electric cars, underpinning the company's ambition to become fully electric by 2030 and climate neutral by 2040, and to continue expanding its global production capacity to match its growth ambitions.

Organifarms

Organifarms is a robotics company, founded in 2020 with headquarters in Germany. The company demonstrated their strawberry harvesting robot at the GreenTech 2022 event.

Velo3D Opens New European Technical Center in Augsburg, Germany,

Velo3D Inc announced the opening of its European Technology Center in Augsburg, Germany to manage the company's operations in Europe, host customers for trainings, and conduct meetings with customers and partners.

Parcitank SA/Farmitank

Parcitank is a Spanish company providing solutions for the implementation of processing plants. IDTechEx analyst Brendan Beh spoke with Parcitank at the GreenTech 2022 exhibition, discussing its efforts to enter the vertical farming industry.

First Gas Turbine Powered by Pure Hydrogen

University of Stavanger operates a micro gas plant in south-west Norway. The gas turbine produces both heat and electricity. It also supplies hot water for heating the laboratory buildings in the immediate area. In addition, surplus energy is supplied to power provider Lyse's district heating and electricity grids. All energy is used efficiently.