The Triple Bottom - 🌱 A sand battery?

A tipping point for electric vehicle (EV) adoption in the US?
According to Bloomberg analysis, the US has passed a critical tipping point for EV adoption with 5% of new car sales being powered by electricity. 
Why 5%? Most successful new tech (i.e., mobile phones) have followed an S-shaped adoption curve - sales are very slow at the beginning (bottom of the S-curve) then accelerate quickly once the tech goes mainstream. In the case of EVs, 5% has historically been the point when early adopters are overtaken by mainstream demand. If the US follows the trend set by 18 other countries hitting 5%, then 25% of new car sales could be electric by 2026.
Approach with caution: The US EV market still faces challenges. Rising raw-material costs are rendering some battery-powered models unprofitable forcing car producers to prioritise higher-margin, premium models and reducing the availability of more affordable vehicles.

Controversy as the EU taxonomy's green label for gas and nuclear lives another day
What happened? The European Parliament voted on Wednesday (6 July) in favour of plans to award a green investment label to certain nuclear and gas power projects in its “sustainable finance taxonomy”. The taxonomy was the first attempt by a major global regulator to create a classification system to steer investment towards green projects.
Why? A group of pro-nuclear and pro-gas governments in southern and eastern Europe demanded that the taxonomy should not punish energy sources that provide a bulk of their power generation. They also argued that both sources are critical ‘transition fuels’ in the move away from higher content fossil fuels (coal and oil) to reduce emissions over the near term.
Impact: Critics fear the move will sap investor confidence in the taxonomy and undermine its central purpose: galvanising a surge of capital towards low-carbon projects.

Australia ambition to become a clean energy exporter is put to the test
Australian energy startup, Sun Cable, aims to raise US$20.6bn over the next 18 months to create a giant solar farm and the world’s longest undersea cable. Sun Cable plans to build 20 gigawatts of solar capacity in northern Australia along with a 4,200km undersea cable to Singapore (dwarfing the world’s current longest undersea cable - a 720km line between the UK and Norway) So what? Australia is currently a leading fossil fuel exporter, so obtaining investment for this project will be viewed as a test as to whether Australia can shake its historical ties with fossil fuels and transition toward clean energy exports.

A funding boost for the world's most powerful tidal turbine 
The company running the project, Orbital Marine Power, has just secured £8mn in funding. The turbine has the energy-creating capacity to power 2,000 homes while also powering an onshore electrolyser to generate green hydrogen. 
The importance: Tidal energy is more predictable and reliable at producing energy due to continuous tides which rarely experience unexpected changes compared to solar and wind. 
A long way to go: Tidal power being in its infancy means the size of the tidal project remains small compared to other renewable projects - 2.2 megawatts of capacity were installed in Europe last year VS a 50-gigawatt target for UK offshore wind by 2030.

• The Queen’s property company, The Crown Estate, has identified 5 locations to develop the UK’s first commercial-scale floating wind farm which could provide power to 4mn homes.

• Rolls Royce has revealed the shortlist of sites for a small nuclear reactor factory - up for grabs is an investment of £200mn and the creation of 200 direct jobs.

• UN experts warn that global economic policy overlooks nature, and calls for a science-based valuation of nature that needs to be placed at the heart of economic decision-making.

• Extreme temperatures will challenge the Texas power grid this week

• E.P.A. Describes How It Will Regulate Power Plants After Supreme Court Setback