Good morning, nice people. We have pretty significant news coming out of Saudi Arabia this morning, with whispers of a new PIF-backed green hydrogen production firm on the horizon. There’s also a smattering of other investment and green tech updates to dig into. First, a boost of investor confidence in Europe's offshore wind sector…

THE BIG CLIMATE STORY OUTSIDE THE REGION- A big wind acquisition: Norway’s biggest oil and gas company Equinor has acquired a USD 2.5 bn 9.8% stake in Danish wind energy giant Orsted. Orsted has been struggling over the last year, having recorded USD bns of write-downs due to problems with offshore wind projects in the US. The equity purchase agreement triggered an 8% jump in Orsted shares. Equinor’s clean energy portfolio will get a boost to help the company achieve its goal of 12-16 GW of green energy by 2030, a few weeks after it scrapped planned low-carbon hydrogen plants.

The story grabbed ink in the international press: Reuters | Bloomberg | Financial Times | The Wall Street Journal

HAPPENING THIS WEEK-

#1- The International Renewable Energy Agency is set to release an official progress report on the UAE Consensus’ goals at the Pre-COP29 in Baku on Friday. The report will outline the progress made on tripling renewables and doubling energy efficiency and hydrogen by 2030. The goals were set under the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency pledge at COP28.

#2- The World Air TaxiCongress is currently underway in Dubai and will run through to Thursday. The event is showcasing the latest in aerial technologies, including eVTOLs, next-generation STOLs, eCTOLs, delivery and cargo drones, and the role of autonomy and AI in aviation.

WATCH THIS SPACE-

#1- Egypt’s new investment incentive package will be announced within a week, AsharqBusiness reports, citing comments made by Egyptian Investment Minister Hassan El Khatib said at the Private Sector Engagement Annual Conference. El Khatib also laid out some of the state's investment priorities at the conference, pointing to industry, healthcare, agriculture, energy, and tourism. The minister also highlighted hydrogen production and energy storage as a priority, along with solar technology, microchip production, data centers, and outsourcing services. We first heard about the package last month from Egypt’s Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly, who said that it would encourage and incentivize both new and current investors to pour more investments into various sectors.

#2- Site visits commence for Oman green ammonia project: French state-owned EDF Group and UK green hydrogen and ammonia producer Yamna scouted possible locations in Salalah for their large-scale green ammonia project, according to a statement. The site visits serve a precursor to launching detailed site studies and renewable energy measurement campaigns, as the companies proceed with the project development phase.

Hydrom recently tapped the consortium to develop the facility: The consortium signed an agreement with Oman’s state-owned hydrogen company Hydrom to develop a utility-scale green ammonia project back in April. The EDF consortium also signed a sub-usufruct agreement for a 341 sqkm bloc of land in Dhofar to be allocated for the development of the newly signed project for a period of 47 years.

About the project: The project, part of Oman's green hydrogen initiative, will include 4.5 GW of wind and solar stations coupled with battery storage and a 2.5 GW electrolyzer, with the aim of producing 178k tons per year of green hydrogen by 2030.

#3- BP has backtracked on its ambitious goal to slash oil output by 40% before 2030, Reuters reports, citing three sources with knowledge to the matter. Investors’ skepticism about the profitability of the company under its ambitious transition strategy has been building up for some time. Last February, the company downgraded its target to 25% before dropping it altogether. Most recently, last July, BP paused development on new offshore wind projects.Despite abandoning the ambitious goal, BP’s net zero 2050 target is still intact.

#4- India is moving to fill the void left by China in US solar market, the Financial Times reports. “India can actually become that plus one to China as far as the green tech supply chain is concerned” due to the need for diversification, India’s ReNew CEO Sumant Sinha told FT. US’ heightened crackdown on Chinese solar input producers is creating an avenue for producers as US-based companies look for other suppliers. Manufacturing beyond China and its associated Southeast Asian hubs is set to double, and India can pick up to 40% of the new capacity, Wood Mckenzie predicts. US imports of Indian solar panels ballooned to USD 1.8 bn from USD 250 mn just in the previous year, according to BloombergNEF data.

#5- Increasing data center energy and operational efficiency could save USD 27.6 bn by 2030, according to a report (pdf) prepared by Atlantic Ventures. Incorporating hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) solutions would optimize data centers to reduce 19 mn tons of CO2 in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. A switch to an HCI-based platform can result in a 27% reduction in needed energy, while a complete transition could save up to 92 TWh of electricity. HCI technology also helps optimize disaster recovery which is more challenging in traditional cloud solutions.

What is HCI? HCI combines servers and storage into one distributed infrastructure platform to reduce the number of physical machines required in data centers. The technology is credited with its flexibility, energy efficiency, and localization potential as opposed to traditional infrastructure, which is composed of separate servers, storage networks, and arrays that is known to be energy-intensive and have several pain points.

REMEMBER- Data centers guzzle energy: Electricity consumption for data centers — facilities composed of networked computers, computing infrastructure, and storage systems — is expected to double by 2026. The growing demand for electricity is also evident in global tech giants’ emissions, with Google’s emissions surging nearly 50% in five years due to AI energy demand. US tech company Microsoft also reported a 30% increase in carbon emissions since 2020 driven by its AI investments. Data from September also revealed that data center emissions were likely 662% higher than officially reported between 2020 to 2022.

DANGER ZONE-

2023 recorded as driest year in over three decades for rivers with 3.6 bn people lacking adequate access to water at least one month per year, according to a UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) report (pdf). Dwindling water supplies in reservoirs from five years of below-normal river flows have threatened the water security for communities, agriculture, and ecosystems, and glaciers also saw 600 gigatons of ice loss.

Canary in the coalmine of climate change: Changes in water levels such as extreme rainfall, floods, and droughts act as distress signals, WMO Secretary General Celeste Saulo said. Rising temperatures have accelerated the water cycle and made it more “erratic and unpredictable,” she added.

Africa took the brunt of it: Africa saw the most human casualties due to water insecurity, including 11k lives in Libya due to two dams collapsing. The Greater Horn of Africa, the DRC, Rwanda, Mozambique, and Malawi also experienced floods.

Data collection is imperfect: There are gaps in the data collected, making it so that “far too little is known about the true state of the world’s freshwater resources,” Saulo added. The report calls for better monitoring, data collection, and cross-border collaboration to improve accessibility and availability of data as well as hazard monitoring.

THE SCORECARD-

Masdar’s clean energy capacity reached 31.5 GW in 2023 up from 20 GW, according to a company sustainability report (pdf). The UAE renewable energy developer’s operational projects generated 27k GWh of power to cut 14 mn tons of CO2. The report also boasted Masdar’s ESG rating of 2 and entity score of 71 from Sustainable Fitch based.

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CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

Egypt will host Cairo Water Week from Sunday, 13 October to Thursday, 17 October in Cairo. The event will explore various themes relating to water and climate and enhancing resilience in communities.

Egypt will host the World Urban Forum from Monday, 4 November to Friday, 8 November in Cairo. The forum, established by the UN, will center around the effect of rapid urbanization on communities, economies, climate change, and policies.

South Africa will host the Critical Mineral Africa Summit from Wednesday, 6 November to Thursday, 7 November in Cape Town. The summit aims to attract critical minerals investment to the continent.

Azerbaijan will host the United Nations Climate Change Conference or Conference of theParties (COP29) from Monday, 11 November to Friday, 22 November in Baku. The annual conference brings together governments, world leaders, and other stakeholders to advance the Paris Agreement and negotiate ways to fight climate change.

Check out our full calendar on the web for a comprehensive listing of upcoming news events, national holidays and news triggers.