energy

Investing in carbon capture instead of renewable energy is to throw money

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The fight against climate change is fundamentally based on reducing the amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. One of the most direct solutions is carbon capture: extract the co₂ from industrial fireplaces or ambient air. So why don’t you finish taking off in front of renewables? Short. Carbon capture technologies are equipment that is placed in industries or outdoors to eliminate pollution without modifying the source. Although it sounds promising, A recent Stanford study It shows that carbon capture is in the long run much more expensive and less effective than direct transition to renewable energy. In addition to improving air quality and stopping climate change, for most countries of the world, electrifying the industry and obtain Energy, compared to a total bet for carbon capture that maintained the consumption of fossil fuels. The study. The researchers compared two extreme scenarios: a world that bets 100% for renewable energies and electrification; and a world that continues to burn fossil fuels, but tries to reduce its impact with carbon capture and improvements in energy efficiency. In contrast to intuition, the most profitable option is by far completely replacing fossil fuels by sources such as wind, sun, geothermia and hydroelectric energy. Because They directly eliminate the use of fuelswhich is the main source of pollutants in the air, and because they reduce energy demand instead of continuing to increase it. More profitable. Clean sources and electrification would not only directly reduce carbon dioxide, avoiding five million deaths a year caused by pollution. Since carbon capture consumes energy, the first scenario would also involve economic savings compared to the other scenario, reducing energy consumption by 54% and energy costs by 60%. The key is the opportunity cost. Using renewable energy to feed carbon capture systems prevents those same energies from being used to replace polluting sources. “If you spend a dollar in carbon capture instead of renewables, you are increasing carbon dioxide, air pollution, energy requirements, energy costs, pipelines and total social costs,” Explains the main author of the studyMark Jacobson. Conclusion. What the study points out is that, although carbon capture may seem an attractive technical solution, in practice it maintains the inefficient and polluting infrastructure of combustion. How to try to empty a bathtub without closing the tap. The substantive problem is not solved: the use of fossil fuels. The researchers conclude that, to face the climatic crisis effectively, it is much more beneficial to abandon the idea of ​​cleaning the air after polluting and betting on a total transformation towards renewable energies. The evidence says that investing in clean energy is not only cheaper, but also the safest option for the environment and global health. Image | Pixabay In Xataka | The big business in which CO2 is becoming captured and burying it underground

The appliance that consumes the most energy at home after heating: the water heater

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If you believe that everything that influences your electrical invoice is air conditioning or heating, think about it again. There is an appliance that is making a mella much more silently and that, probably, you had not noticed. In situation. In recent months, the price of electricity in Spain He has experienced fluctuations important, with a significant increase in January 2025. The electricity rate reached 68.41 euros per MWhreaching a quota that was only remembered three years ago. This increase is not accidental, since it is mainly due to the increase in the price in the wholesale electricity market and the return of the VAT to 21%. In addition, the Finish of the Iberian Exception In August 2024 it has contributed to this increase. However, the solution is not only to use less heating or turning off lights, which also, but certain appliances are raising the price of the light invoice. The one you least expected. The water heater You need a lot of energy To warm up, redundancy, large amounts of water. Despite having transformed people’s daily lives and facilitated domestic tasks, their use has inevitably increased energy consumption in homes. In data. To make it easier to understand, an average consumption per person is around 800kwh per year, so in a house of four people and a 200 -liter deposit we would be talking about spending an annual total of 3,200kwh. All this, monetarily translated would be about € 600 a year only by the water heater. How can we save? To start, you have to look at the things we do wrong, such as adjusting the temperature to very high levels that raise the price, as at 60 ° C or more, when in reality a temperature between 50 ° C and 55 ° C is more than enough. Also, regular maintenance must be carried out to avoid the accumulation of tartar in resistances. This accumulation hinders heat transmission, which forces the system to consume more energy to heat the water. Another advice is to take advantage of the lowest demand schedules, improve the insulation of the tank and opt for alternative systems such as heat pumps or thermal panels. These options can generate important long -term savings. The alternatives. The latest technologies mentioned are going to analyze them more carefully. On the one hand, The thermal energy that uses the solar radiation to heat waterwhich makes it an option for homes with sufficient sun exposure, allowing to reduce the dependence of electric heaters. On the other hand, aerothermia, which takes advantage of The energy contained in heating aircooling and hot water, has become popular for its high energy efficiency. However, these options have a fairly high initial investment plan, but over time they are profitable and contribute to reduce carbon emissions. Knowing how and why we use energy at home is important to save money and take better advantage of our appliances. In fact, the latter has transformed and improved our daily lives, but it is also important to be more aware of how we consume energy to take care of both our pocket and the environment. Image | Unspash Xataka | The best way to heat the house: we analyze the spending and energy efficiency of heat pumps and heating

It was inaugurated in 2014 as the largest solar thermal energy plant in the world. Will close after setting fire to birds

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The huge Ivanpah thermosolar energy plant, opened in 2014 in the Mojave desert, will close after just 11 years of operation. An accelerated end for its history of technical, economic and environmental problems. Context. The thermal concentration energy, once considered one of the most avant -garde technologies for clean electricity generation, is not going through its best moment. Especially in Nevada, where Crescent Dunes fiasco was already very popular. The concentration thermoso use thousands of mirrors, or “heliosteats”, which follow the trajectory of the sun to concentrate its light on central towers. In these towers, extreme heat is used to heat water and produce steam, which drives turbines connected to electric generators. The Ivanpah case. The Ivanpah plant was built with an investment of 1.6 billion dollars in loans from the United States Department of Energy and long -term contracts for important electrical companies. It was the world’s largest solar thermal energy Until the inauguration of Port Augusta In Australia. 11 years after its inauguration, the huge thermosolar has begun to close by not fulfilling its initial expectations. The lack of profitability condemned her. A succession of failures and complaints from environmental groups for their impact on wildlife accelerated their end. A complex technology. One of the main problems has been the difficulty of maintaining mirrors aligned precisely. Technology, which requires an exact monitoring of the sun, has proven unstable and unreliable in practice, says a CNN report. The maintenance of the complex mechanisms and the management of the turbines in turn generate high operating costs, which has made concentration thermosar loses competitiveness compared to other renewable technologies, especially photovoltaic solar, whose prices have collapsed. A Bird Incinerate Machine. Criticisms are not limited to technical aspects. The Ivanpah plant has been questioned for years for its environmental impact, especially in the wildlife of the desert. Environmental groups denounce the irreparable damage in the habitat of species such as desert turtle. But also The death of birds that are incinerated by intense rays concentrated by mirrors. A second Crescent dunes. The case of Crescent Dunes, also occurred in Nevada, reinforces this image of failure of the thermosolar energy. This project, which was intended to be one of the milestones in energy innovation and storage through molten salts, ended up becoming a multimillionaire waste. Developed By the Spanish group ACSpromised continuous production of electricity, even during the hours without light, thanks to the thermal storage in salts. In practice, Crescent Dunes never managed to deliver the amount of promised energy and ended up breaking due to engineering and management problems. In the shadow of the photovoltaic. In short, the rapid drop in photovoltaic technology and its lower impact on wildlife have obsolete concentration thermos. While solar panels have gained efficiency and reducing their installation and maintenance costs, thermosolar plants have lagged behind in terms of competitiveness, which has led to investors and electrical companies reconsidering their bets in this type of projects. In Xataka | The first solar plant of Central Torre to explode commercially is in Seville: a pioneer that has survived more ambitious

Nuclear energy has given you a key advantage that you are already taking advantage of

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“I have a good friend on the other side of the ocean that says: ‘PERFORA, HAR Emmanuel Macron said this week in reference to Trump’s efforts to increase oil extraction. “But here it is not necessary to pierce. Here is only: ‘Plug, honey, plug!’ Electricity is availableyou just have to connect, ”added the French president during a summit on artificial intelligence (AI) held in Paris. The message is quite clear and reflects France’s intention to take advantage of its energy ecosystem as a strategic advantage to consolidate its role in the development of AI. The European country exported More than 90 Teravatios Hora (TWH) of electricity in 2024, which, according to the Government, allows it not only to cover the current needs of its companies and homes, but also host a large number of data centers. Nuclear energy, the key of France The aforementioned declaration of intentions has come accompanied by two ambitious agreements. As we pointed out at the end of last week, The United Arab Emirates committed themselves to make a multimillion -dollar investment in France to build a data center of 1 Gigavatio within a Largest AI campus in Europe. Yesterday Monday The announcement was formalized From the cloud AI platform Fluidstack. Fluidstack, a British firm with clients such as Mistral AI and Character.AI, plans to establish a 1 gigavatio data center on Gallic floor, completely driven by nuclear energy. It is expected that the first phase of the project, promoted by 10,000 million dollars (10,360 million dollars) to materialize in 2026. The agreement, which bears the signing of several French ministers, leaves the door open to later stages in 2028. As in many parts of the world, building a data center in France implies challenges, including bureaucracy. To facilitate the process, the Government has assured that the National Electric Management Company will guarantee the necessary supply. As a whole, this should be translated not only in a better position in France in the AI ​​career, but also the creation of “thousands of jobs” of research and infrastructure. France’s relationship with nuclear energy has evolved over time. A decade ago, the country announced a plan to reduce its dependence on this source from 70% to 50%, but in 2022 the strategy took a turn and the initiative was discarded. Instead of limiting its use, the government chose to expand it with the construction of new reactors. Currently, France has 57 reactors distributed in 18 plants. These movements are allowing the country led by Macron to gain advantage over other countries in the region and the world. Although data centers can operate with ENergía Solar and Windthe intermittency of these sources raises additional challenges. Nuclear energy, on the other hand, guarantees a stable supply and large scale. In addition, the new generation of small modular reactors (SMR) reinforces this scenario. Images | Heyee | MasterButler (CC by 2.0) In Xataka | Spain plans to close all its nuclear power plants. And the Valencian Community thinks it is a serious mistake

Floating solar energy seemed all advantages. Until someone has occurred to him if it is

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Earth is no longer the limit for solar energy. From The Acts of India until The Swiss Alps reservoirsgoing through more and more swamps in the Iberian Peninsula. Floating solar panels begin to cover all types of bodies of water with advantages that go beyond the generation of electricity, such as stop water evaporation in the areas most whipped by drought. The other effects of floating solar energy. Something we have less studied is how floating solar panels affect the ecosystem of some bodies of water, particularly small ponds and lagoons. A Recent Study of Cornell University It has analyzed the environmental consequences of covering these smaller bodies of water with floating solar energy and the conclusion is unexpected: they can significantly increase the emission of greenhouse gases of the organisms that inhabit the pond. The experiment. To carry out your research, scientists They installed photovoltaic panels on three experimental ponds In the Experimental Cornell Pond Facity. In total, they covered 70% of their surface. On the other hand, they left ponds exposed as control groups for the experiment. In this way, they managed to observe the changes and the evolution of the ponds in which they had installed floating solar energy by comparing them directly with other similar ponds without panels. The results. Although it was thought that floating solar energy has an environmental impact less than other energy sources, the results showed that it can generate counterproductive effects. Specifically, the researchers registered a significant increase in methane concentrations and carbon dioxide dissolved in the water, which raised greenhouse gas emissions of semi -covered ponds almost 27% compared to the unbreaking ponds Solar In addition, they observed a considerable decrease in the availability of dissolved oxygen, which can affect aquatic life and alter ecological processes such as decomposition and microbial activity. The conclusion. Although part of the gases were more slowly released due to the lower amount of water exposed to the sun, the largest concentration in the form of bubbles ended up increasing the total amount of emissions. These findings are especially relevant in the context of the energy transition, since many floating solar energy facilities are carried out in small lakes and ponds without taking into account how they affect the ecosystem. Here is the complicated part. If we compare the greenhouse gas emission trace per kilowatt generated time, floating solar energy remains more favorable than fossil fuel -based technologies. But the study shows that we still do not know very well how these rapid changes in the energy industry are affecting certain ecosystems. You have to continue investigating. Image | Cornell University In Xataka | Spain is ready for floating solar energy. Portugal has shown that the reservoirs take advantage of

Energy generation and storage

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2024 was not a good year for Tesla. Or, at least, it was not the best in terms of electric car sales. For the first time, the company He sold less cars electric that the previous exercise despite stepping on the accelerator at the end of the year to improve the figures. The forecasts in November They already pointed to a stagnation in the growth that ended up confirming when presenting results at the end of the year. But this is as long as we focus on the sale of cars. Tesla has long boiled have opened your business lines. In fact, Elon Musk has repeated by active and passive that The software will be a central leg of your future and has even claimed that there are conversations with third parties to provide them with their technology. The Robotaxi and the Driverless Travel Business It is the other great promise. But among all these more striking businesses, among those who occupy headlines, there is a highly profitable Tesla activity that, however, we usually ignore: energy. Tesla and a business that does not make noise As when we started discovering the Huge performance that Amazon takes out its servers (Although that has not prevented They will join the wave of layoffs last year), 2024 has been the confirmation that Tesla has a huge business related to energy, both to its generation and storage. If we attend to the Tesla income Due to the generation and storage of energy, the company reported in its annual results an income of 3,061 million dollars in the last quarter of 2024. Growth is 113% If compared to the same period last year but, in addition, it is huge if we compare it with the results obtained this year. In the first quarter of 2024, Tesla entered 1,635 million dollars in this game and shot up to 3,014 million dollars in Q2. Although he reduced his income in the third quarter, adding 2,376 million dollars, he grew again above 3,000 million dollars in revenues in the last quarter, as we said. If we look at the annual photography, Tesla has added 10,086 million dollars in revenues originated with energy generation and storage. It is 67% more than in 2023 (6,035 million dollars) and is completely away from the 1,994 million dollars collected in 2020. Since then, the growth has been sustained to exceed 10,000 million dollars of the previous year. In the last year, energy production and storage has only given good news to Tesla. Last year, its gross benefit increased to 2.6 billion dollars (compared to the 1,100 million dollars of 2023) as a result of exploiting a business with very wide profit margins. In fact, while the company has played with the profit margins it had in the production of vehicles to tighten competition by reducing prices, this aspect has not stopped improving in the production of batteries to store electricity and in the production of the same Already in summer, Bloomberg This business highlighted as the most profitable in Tesla. Then, its profit margin was approaching 25%, compared to vehicles that fell for the first time below 20%when in 2022 it far exceeds 30%. This cost and the increase in benefits has been intimately linked to Fiscal advantages provided for in the Inflation Reduction Lawthe Law designed by Joe Biden To attract the production of different products to the country, including electric cars and favor a transition to cleaner energy. These good results come hand in hand with Powerwall and the Megapack. The first of these products is designed for small -scale electric power storage, at the residential level. Megapack, however, is the system used to store large -scale energy, such as a large company. In both cases they play with the modularity and the ability to adapt to the needs of the client. According to Tesla accounts, in 2024 they managed to produce energy storage system with a total capacity of 31.4 GWh. There are three quarters of the amount that the Volkswagen group wants to generate in its Sagunto plant, in Valencia. But the amount is very significant because the growth with respect to 2023 is 114% (14.7 GWh in 2023). In addition, in 2025 they hope to shoot income for this business. MEGAFACTORRY will work since February 11 In Shanghai, the plant dedicated to producing megapacks in China. They hope to achieve a rhythm of 10,000 megapacks per year which would mean 40 GWh. That is, with the plant to full performance they will greatly fold the results obtained this year. In Forbes They ensure that it is complicated that the production of energy storage systems gain weight within the company at the income level but seeing the huge benefit margins obtained and with a greater demand for electricity on the horizon, it is expected that this business will be nods as essential when presenting results every year. Photo | Tesla In Xataka | Europe’s anger with Elon Musk grows like foam. Tesla pays the consequences with sales falls of up to 75%

A study has estimated Chatgpt’s energy cost. According to its conclusions, it is not as apocalyptic as it appears

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Chatgpt at 3 WHating. In October 2023 A study Alex de Vries pointed out that a Chatgpt consultation had an estimated energy cost of 3 Wh. His estimate came from comments from Google, whose managers indicated that Chatgpt’s consumption was “probably” 10 times that of a search. And Google herself had revealed that in 2009 each search was 0.3 Wh, and hence the final figure. De Vries, by the way, has previously published another study in which he warned of the worrying bitcoin mining energy consumption. From Vries, yes, he took reference that the average consultations were about 4,000 input tokens and 2,000 output, which would be equivalent to quite long questions and answers, when it is normal to make them shorter. Efficiency gains whole. Throughout that time many things have changed, both for Google – whose results and infrastructure are very different from that of 15 years ago – and for Chatgpt, which has also gained whole efficiency. It is very likely that Google consultations are now more efficient, but surely those that are also those of Chatgpt and other chatbots. A new estimate. Epoch AI is a non -profit organization that among other things is responsible for the creation of the Benchmark FrontierMath. This test tries to assess the mathematical computing capacity of AI models, and has become one of the most interesting metrics for its difficulty. Your researchers have now published a study in which they precisely estimate the energy consumption of a chatgpt consultation. Chatgpt consumes ten times less than what was thought. According to its conclusions, Chatgpt consultations based on the LLM GPT-4O consume about 0.3 watts-room, which is ten times less than what was previously considered. That 0.3 Wh “calculation is in fact relatively pessimistic, and it is possible that many or most requests are even cheaper.” How they have done the calculation. In Epoch they have been based on known data for their calculations. Thus, they point out that according to Openai a Token equals approximately 0.75 words and that generating a token costs approximately 2 flops. Taking into account the calculation capacity of the GPUS NVIDIA H100 (989 TFLOPS in TF32, 67 Tlops in FP32 Operations) and their consumption (1500 W, although they consider that they actually consume 70% of that average power), the result It is the aforementioned. Everything has improved. As we pointed out, in Epoch AI, they emphasize that the difference between this estimate and the previous Until better multiply. In addition, in the previous estimate “there was an excessively pessimistic count of the necessary tokens.” How much are 0.3 Wh? They are equivalent to less than the amount of electricity than a LED bulb or a laptop consume “in a few minutes.” According to the Energy Information Administration of the United States, an average home there consumes 10,500 kWh per year, that is, about 28,000 Wh a day. Even an intensive use of chatgpt does not seem excessively to influence that consumption. Reason consumes more. Although they take GPT-4O as a reference, they make it clear that using reasoning models such as O1 or O3-mini requires more energy consumption, but for the moment they are less popular. And train the models, too. These researchers have also highlighted the energy cost of training models such as GPT-4O, which according to their estimates would have been between 20 and 25 MW in a period of three months. That would be equivalent to some 20,000 middle homes in the US. The general costs are worrisome. Although the data in this study reveal that using chatgpt does not consume as much energy as previously estimated, the problem may be another. The general energy costs of AI are colossal and aim to be much higher in the short term: the Big Tech fever for investing tens of billions of dollars to build data centers. And he does it because all these data centers will have huge needs at the energy level. Eye: Let’s not forget the air conditioning. Image | Xataka with Freepik Pikaso In Xataka | The amazing history of ARM, the architecture that triumphs on the mobile and that was born more than 30 years ago in Acorn Computer

Rural Spain produces more energy than consumes. And in Teruel it is already proposed to take the VAT of the electricity there

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In a recent report, the Ember Analysis Agency has demonstrated that the total electric production of Spain is 60.2%. However, the generation and distribution of energy are not equal throughout the country, and in the community of Aragon they know well. Proposition. The Aragón-teruel parliamentary group exists has registered A proposition of law in the autonomous chamber so that the collection of VAT obtained from the electricity companies is redistributed to compensate for the territories according to their energy production. The parliamentary spokesman for this training in a press conference, Tomás Guitarte, He explained that this initiative aims to compensate for those areas that produce more electricity than they consume. In his statements he has exposed the case of Aragon, which generates 9% of the country’s energy, but consumes only 4%. However, he added that with the current VAT to 21% and a forecast of 2,000 million euros, he would correspond about 180 million. Previously. The proposal has a historical basis, since it is inspired by the fee created in 1981, which compensated for the territories sacrificed in the production of electricity before being replaced by VAT in 1986. In addition, the law seeks to promote the well -being and development of The regions that generate energy, not only from the economic point of view, but also with a vision of territorial justice, where environmental and landscape impacts are compensated by the benefits generated by the energy transition. To Congress. The proposition of the law has been registered in the courts of Aragon and is protected in the Article 292 of the Regulation of the Courts of Aragon and in him Article 87 of the Constitution. This allows the proposal to be raised to the Congress of Deputies, where it would be processed if it exceeds the procedures in the Autonomous Courts. Once approved by the regional government and taken to Plenary, if accepted, it would go to Congress for processing. This proposal does not imply the creation of a new tax, but a redistribution of electric VAT income. The core of the problem. A couple of months ago, Aragon tried keep their surplusesbut the Constitutional Court stopped him. This situation reflects a broader imbalance which affects many producing communities, whose energy surplus is directed towards other regions of the country, generating tensions about the control and distribution of these resources. For that reason, there is a distancing between urban and rural areas In energy terms. While cities are provided with more energy and do not have the same installed infrastructure, rural areas have to live with large -scale facilities, thus generating an environmental impact and an imbalance in the territory. For example, Madrid only produces 4.8% of the energy that consumes and depends on territories such as Extremadura that produces an energy surplus of 423%. The next steps. The proposal is already in the Courts of Aragon and, after its approval by the regional government, it will be taken to the plenary. If approved, it will go to Congress for processing, which could take several months. Meanwhile, Aragon-teruel exists continues to struggle to ensure that energy producing communities receive fair compensation for the sacrifices they make. Image | Unspash and Unspash Xataka | In a town in Badajoz they have encountered a strength of 5,000 years ago. And a Roman with a suspicious burial

A Japanese study is being able to transform methane into a clean energy source: turquorogen turquorogen

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Green hydrogen is the best known for its production from renewable energy, becoming One of the cleanest options. However, there are other types of hydrogen that can be of less to more pollutants. Among which we are going to highlight turquoise hydrogen, because it has aroused interest in its production process from methane without emitting CO₂. Turquoise hydrogen. The Japanese company Ebara has begun to investigate The main benefits of using turquoise hydrogen in front of other types of hydrogen. In his studies he has found in this gas a clean alternative that comes from methane contained in natural gas or biogas. The National Institute of Materials Sciences and the University of Shizuoka participate in the project, as well as the Taiyo Koko material manufacturer. In addition, the initiative is part of the Organization for the Development of New Energies and Industrial Technologies, promoted by the Japanese Government. How is the process? The Japanese company has concentrated its work on the pyrolysis of methane, that is, in trying to separate hydrogen and solid carbon into different reactors. From this work, more efficient hydrogen can be produced without compromising the quality or amount of carbon generated. In addition, when separating solid carbon, the possibility of using it in a variety of industries, such as the manufacture of tires, carbon fibers for cars and airplanes, among others, is opened. What happens in Spain? If we have to talk about hydrogen and methanewe can talk about Spain, but before that a recent report has detailed that the Iberian Peninsula leads the energy transition with 82% of clean electricity. Spain has stood out for ambitious initiatives, such as the H2Med corridorwhich aims to create an infrastructure for the distribution of green hydrogen between Spain, France and other countries in Europe. For its part, the biomethane It is presented As an interesting option in the context of the transition towards cleaner and sustainable energy, being one of the sources to produce hydrogen without CO₂ emissions, as demanded by the growing energy industry. Turkish hydrogen forecasts. The future of turquoise hydrogen seems promising and Spain could become a great energy hub if combines the different projects that are underway. For its part, the Ebara company hopes to have its production process ready for marketing around 2026. In addition, the combination of clean hydrogen with solid carbon industrial applications opens new opportunities for the use of these materials in key sectors, such as automotive and aviation, which could transform not only energy, but also entire industries. Everything remains in Navarra. Apart from producing hydrogen through methane, there are also other investigations to continue taking advantage of this gas. A group of engineers from the same Autonomous Community managed to develop A solution by transforming the way clean energy occurs from methane. This research, focused on a technique of decomposition of methane, promises to offer a sustainable natural gas alternative without generating carbon dioxide emissions (CO₂). Image | Pixabay Xataka | The largest recorded methane is just a warning: we have been underestimating this greenhouse gas for decades

Novo Energy wanted to stand up to Chinese batteries for electric cars. It has ended in the hands of a Chinese company

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Point and apart for the soap opera of the Great European hope In the battery segment for electric cars. In the European assault on electric car industryVolvo and the Northvolt battery manufacturer founded Novo Energy. Both were Swedish and it was a Join Venture with the aim of producing batteries in Europe. It seemed that everything was going to be A ROSA pathbut a few years later and after thousands of layoffsNorthvolt sell His participation in Novo Energy A Volvo. And behind Volvo is Geelyan important Chinese holding. Culebrón. Things stopped going well for Northvolt practically from the beginning. During the first years, the European Investment Bank, BMW, Goldman Sachs or Volkswagen invested sums of hundreds of millions of euros in the company. The Swedish company, founded by two Exegutive of Tesla, became the great European promise to create batteries and be the heart of that European flying towards the electric car. In a market increasingly controlled by ChinaIt seemed like a great idea and everything pointed in good sense. In addition, together with Volvo they founded Novo Energy in 2021 to produce the batteries of both Volvo and Polestar. However, things began to twist in 2023, when it was uncovered that the company had been operating with losses of 1,000 million dollars during the first nine months of the year. And, in 2024, the situation exploded. Last nail in the coffin. Everything happened very fast. After the delays in the delivery dates, BMW canceled its agreement of 2,000 million euros, there were a series of employee deaths in work shifts, fired more than 1,600 workers in September and, shortly after, the bankruptcy arrived. In November 2024, Northvolt requested bankruptcy protectionarguing that they had 30 million in cash and, with them, they could only operate for a week. The hole they had was 5.8 billion dollars. A skinny dog, everything is fleas, and a day later one of the founders resigned, arguing that the company would need 1.2 billion dollars to save itself. After a few days of 2025 in which the company was still looking for financing, something that nobody seemed willing to do, sales arrived. It was even rumored that Catl, the main Chinese rival in battery manufacturing, I could give a hand. Volvo. After getting rid of some services, this January 29 we learned that the Swedish company sold its participation in Novo Energy to its partner in this adventure, Volvo. It is something that does not catch by surprise, since, as with BMW, Volvo saw that Northvolt’s delivery plans were not being fulfilled and in October last year he showed his interest in acquiring participation in Novo. Last week, Novo Energy advertisement which had to reduce its workforce by 30% due to “the changing market conditions and a modified business plan”. Northvolt wants to reduce everything possible and focus on its Swedish plant, but they have also signed an agreement with Volvo to explore joint collaboration paths in the future, so everything is not lost. China looks out to Europe. Therefore, Volvo will now be the one Novo Energy, we will see if alone or with partners, but the interesting thing about this operation is that, although Volvo is a Swedish company that is in the bag of his country, the matrix is ​​Geely, A Chinese holding. They are present in multitude of companies and sectors, with an important participation in Mercedes-Benz, Aston Martin or Lotus, as well as co-owners of smart, polestar and with a participation of more than 80% in Volvo. It is curious that Northvolt was born to stand up to the Chinese battery industry and that the Join Adventure That I had with Volvo to produce batteries in Europe, now, is controlled by a Chinese company, in the absence of seeing the resolution of the authorities. And all this, shortly after Tariffs imposed by Europe To the Chinese electric car. In Xataka | Catl’s investment in Spain is not accidental: China is punishing those who supported tariffs on their electric cars

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