New bipartisan congressional support for NYRI

Greengen Misfeasance Ruling details a B.C. Supreme Court decision awarding $10.125 million over wrongfully denied Crown land and water licence permits for a Fries Creek run-of-river hydro project under a BC Hydro contract.

Key Points

A B.C. Supreme Court ruling awarding $10.125M for wrongful denial of Crown land and water licences on Greengen's project.

✅ $10.125M damages for misfeasance in public office

✅ Denial of Crown land tenure and water licence permits

✅ Tied to Fries Creek run-of-river and BC Hydro EPA

A B.C. Supreme Court judge has ordered the provincial government to pay $10.125 million after it denied permits to a company that wanted to build a run-of-the river independent power project near Squamish.

In his Oct. 10 decision, Justice Kevin Loo said the plaintiff, Greengen Holdings Ltd., “lost an opportunity to achieve a completed and profitable hydro-electric project” after government representatives wrongfully exercised their legal authority, a transgression described in the ruling as “misfeasance,” with separate concerns reflected in an Ontario market gaming investigation reported elsewhere.

Between 2003 and 2009, the company sought to develop a hydro-electric project on and around Fries Creek, which sits opposite the Brackendale neighbourhood on the other side of the Squamish River. To do so, Greengen Holdings Ltd. required a water licence from the Minister of the Environment and tenure over Crown land from the Minister of Agriculture.

After a lengthy process involving extensive communications between Greengen and various provincial and other ministries and regulatory agencies, the permits were denied, according to Loo. Both decisions cited impacts on Squamish Nation cultural sites that could not be mitigated.

Elsewhere, an Indigenous-owned project in James Bay proceeded despite repeated denials, underscoring varied approaches to community participation.

40-year electricity plan relied on Crown land
The case dates back to December 2005, when BC Hydro issued an open call for power with Greengen. The company submitted a tender several months later.

On July 26, 2006, BC Hydro awarded Greengen an energy purchase agreement, amid evolving LNG electricity demand across the province, under which Greengen would be entitled to supply electricity at a fixed price for 40 years.

Unlike conventional hydroelectric projects, such as new BC generating stations recently commissioned, which store large volumes of water in reservoirs, and in so doing flood large tracts of land, a run of the river project often requires little or no water storage. Instead, from a high elevation, they divert water from a stream or river channel.

Water is then sent into a pressured pipeline known as a penstock, and later passed through turbines to generate electricity, Loo explained, as utilities pursue long-term plans like the Hydro-Québec strategy to reduce fossil fuel reliance. The system returns water to the original stream or river, or into another body of water. 

The project called for most of that infrastructure to be built on Crown land, according to the ruling.

All sides seemed to support the project
In early 2005, company principle Terry Sonderhoff discussed the Fries Creek project in a preliminary meeting with Squamish Nation Chief Ian Campbell.

“Mr. Sonderhoff testified that Chief Campbell seemed supportive of the project at the time,” Loo said.

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Urban Piezoelectric Energy Textiles capture wind-driven motion on tunnels, bridges, and facades, enabling renewable microgeneration for smart cities with decentralized power, resilient infrastructure, and flexible lamellae sheets that harvest airflow vibrations.

Key Points

Flexible piezoelectric sheets that convert urban wind and vibration into electricity on tunnels, bridges, and facades.

✅ Installed on London Crossrail to test airflow energy capture

✅ Flexible lamellae panels retrofit tunnels, bridges, facades

✅ Supports decentralized, resilient urban microgrids

Charlotte Slingsby and her startup Moya Power are researching piezo-electric textiles that gain energy from movement, similar to advances like a carbon nanotube energy harvester being explored by materials researchers. It seems logical that Slingsby originally came from a city with a reputation for being windy: “In Cape Town, wind is an energy source that you cannot ignore,” says the 27-year-old, who now lives in London.

Thanks to her home city, she also knows about power failures. That’s why she came up with the idea of not only harnessing wind as an alternative energy source by setting up wind farms in the countryside or at sea, but also for capturing it in cities using existing infrastructure.

The problem

The United Nations estimates that by 2050, two thirds of the world’s population will live in cities. As a result, the demand for energy in urban areas will increase dramatically, spurring interest in nighttime renewable technology that can operate when solar and wind are variable. Can the old infrastructure grow fast enough to meet demand? How might we decentralise power generation, moving it closer to the residents who need it?

For a pilot project, she has already installed grids of lamellae-covered plastic sheets in tunnels on London Crossrail routes; the draft in the tube causes the protrusions to flutter, which then generates electricity.

“If we all live in cities that need electricity, we need to look for new, creative ways to generate it, including nighttime solar cells that harvest radiative cooling,” says Slingsby, who studied design and engineering at Imperial College and the Royal College of Art. “I wanted to create something that works in different situations and that can be flexibly adapted, whether you live in an urban hut or a high-rise.”

The yield is low compared to traditional wind power plants and is not able to power whole cities, but Slingsby sees Moya Power as just a single element in a mixture of urban energy sources, alongside approaches like gravity power that aid grid decarbonization.

In the future, Slingsby’s invention could hang on skyscrapers, in tunnels or on bridges – capturing power in the windiest parts of the city, alongside emerging air-powered generators that draw energy from humidity. The grey concrete of tunnels and urban railway cuttings could become our cities’ most visually appealing surfaces...

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ADNOC Hydrogen Export Projects target global energy transition, courting investors and equity stakes for blue and green hydrogen, ammonia shipping, CCS at Ruwais, and long-term supply contracts across power, transport, and industrial sectors.

Key Points

ADNOC plans blue and green hydrogen exports, leveraging Ruwais, CCS, and ammonia to secure long-term supply.

✅ Blue hydrogen via gas reforming with CCS; ammonia for shipping.

✅ Green hydrogen from solar-powered electrolysis under development.

✅ Ruwais expansions and Fertiglobe ammonia tie-up target long-term supply.

Abu Dhabi is seeking investors to help build hydrogen-export facilities, as Middle Eastern oil producers plan to adopt cleaner energy solutions, sources told Bloomberg.

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) is holding talks with energy companies for them to purchase equity stakes in the hydrogen projects, the sources referred, as Germany's hydrogen strategy signals rising import demand.

ADNOC, which already produces hydrogen for its refineries, also aims to enter into long-term supply contracts, as Canada-Germany clean energy cooperation illustrates growing cross-border demand, before making any progress with these investments.

Amid a global push to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, the state-owned oil companies in the Gulf region seek to turn their expertise in exporting liquid fuel into shipping hydrogen or ammonia across the world for clean and universal electricity needs, transport, and industrial use.

Most of the ADNOC exports are expected to be blue hydrogen, created by converting natural gas and capturing the carbon dioxide by-product that can enable using CO2 to generate electricity approaches, according to Bloomberg.

The sources said that the Abu Dhabi-based company will raise its production of hydrogen by expanding an oil-processing plant and the Borouge petrochemical facility at the Ruwais industrial hub, supporting a sustainable electric planet vision, as the extra hydrogen will be used for an ammonia facility planned with Fertiglobe.

Abu Dhabi also plans to develop green hydrogen, similar to clean hydrogen in Canada initiatives, which is generated from renewable energy such as solar power.

Noteworthy to mention, in May 2021, ADNOC announced that it will construct a world-scale blue ammonia production facility in Ruwais in Abu Dhabi to contribute to the UAE's efforts to create local and international hydrogen value chains.

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Daimler Electric Strategy drives EV adoption with global battery factories, Mercedes-Benz electrified models, battery cells procurement, and major investments spanning vans, buses, trucks, and production capacity across Europe, Asia, and the USA.

Key Points

Daimler Electric Strategy is a multi-billion EV roadmap for batteries, factories, and 130 electrified Mercedes models.

✅ Eight battery factories across three continents

✅ EUR 10B for EV lineup; EUR 20B for battery cells

✅ 130 electrified variants plus vans, buses, trucks

Throughout 2018, we all witnessed the unprecedented volume of promises for a better future made by the giants of the auto industry. All say they've committed billions so that, within a decade, combustion engines will be on their way out.

The most active of all companies when talking about promises is Volkswagen, which, amid German plant closures, time and time again has said it will do this or that and completely change the meaning of car in the coming years. But there are other planning the same thing, possibly with even vaster resources.

Planning to end the year on a high note, Daimler detailed its plan for the electric future once again on Tuesday, this time making no secret of its gigantic size and scope.

As announced before, Daimler plans to build electric cars, but also manufacture electric batteries for its own and others’ use, and has launched a US energy storage company to support this strategy. These batteries will eventually be produced by Daimler in eight factories on three continents.

Batteries are already rolling off the lines in Kamenz, and a second facility will begin doing so next year. Two more factories will be built in Stuttgart-Untertürkheim, one at the company’s Sindelfingen site, and one each at the sites in Beijing (China), Bangkok (Thailand) and Tuscaloosa (USA).

In all, one billion EUR will be invested in the expansion of the global battery production network, but that is nothing compared to the 10 billion to be poured into the expansion of the Mercedes-Benz car fleet.

On top of that, 20 billion EUR will go towards the purchase of battery cells from producers all around the world, echoing other automakers' battery sourcing strategies worldwide over the next 12 years.

“After investing billions of euros in the development of the electric fleet and the expansion of our global battery network, we are now taking the next step,” said in a statement Dieter Zetsche, Daimler chairman of the board.

“With the purchase of battery cells for more than 20 billion euros, we are systematically pushing forward with the transformation into the electric future of our company.”

By 2022, the carmaker plans to launch 130 electrified variants of its cars, as cheaper, more powerful batteries become available, adding to them electric vans, buses and trucks. That pretty much means all the models and variants sold by Daimler globally will be at least partially powered by electricity.

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Utility Renewable Investment Gap highlights Oxford study in Nature Energy: most electric utilities favor fossil fuels over clean energy transition, expanding coal and gas, risking stranded assets and missing climate targets despite global decarbonization commitments.

Key Points

Most utilities grow fossil capacity over renewables, slowing decarbonization and jeopardizing climate goals.

✅ Only 10% expand renewables faster than coal and gas growth

✅ 60% still add fossil plants; 15% actively cut coal and gas

✅ Risks: stranded assets, missed climate targets, policy backlash

Only one in 10 of the world’s electric utility companies are prioritising clean energy investment over growing their capacity of fossil fuel power plants, according to research from the University of Oxford.

The study of more than 3,000 utilities found most remain heavily invested in fossil fuels despite international efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and barriers to 100% renewables in the US that persist, and some are actively expanding their portfolio of polluting power plants.

The majority of the utility companies, many of which are state owned, have made little change to their generation portfolio in recent years.

Only 10% of the companies in the study, published in the research journal Nature Energy, are expanding their renewable energy capacity, mirroring global wind and solar growth patterns, at a faster rate than their gas- or coal-fired capacity.

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Of the companies prioritising renewable energy growth, 60% have not stopped concurrently expanding their fossil fuel portfolio and only 15% of these companies are actively reducing their gas and coal capacity.

Galina Alova, the author of the report, said the research highlighted “a worrying gap between what is needed” to tackle the climate crisis, with calls for a fossil fuel lockdown gaining attention, and “what actions are being taken by the utility sector”.

The report found 10% of utilities were favouring growth in gas-fired power plants. This cluster is dominated by US utilities, even as renewables surpass coal in US generation in the broader market, eager to take advantage of the country’s shale gas reserves, followed by Russia and Germany.

Only 2% of utilities are actively growing their coal-fired power capacity ahead of renewables or gas. This cluster is dominated by Chinese utilities – which alone contributed more than 60% of coal-focused companies – followed by India and Vietnam.

The report found the majority of companies prioritising renewable energy were clustered in Europe. Many of the industry’s biggest players are investing in low-carbon energy and green technologies, even as clean energy's dirty secret prompts debate, to replace their ageing fossil fuel power plants.

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In the UK, amid UK renewables backlog that has stalled billions, coal plants are shutting at pace ahead of the government’s 2025 ban on coal-fired power in part because the UK’s domestic carbon tax on power plants make them uneconomic to run.

“Although there have been a few high-profile examples of individual electric utilities investing in renewables, this study shows that overall, the sector is making the transition to clean energy slowly or not at all,” Alova said.

“Utilities’ continued investment in fossil fuels leaves them at risk of stranded assets – where power plants will need to be retired early – and undermines global efforts to tackle climate change.”
 

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Nelson DC Fast-Charging EV Station delivers 50-kilowatt DCFC service at the community complex, expanding EV infrastructure in British Columbia with FortisBC, faster than Level 2 chargers, supporting clean transportation, range confidence, and highway corridor travel.

Key Points

A 50 kW public DC fast charger in Nelson, BC, run by FortisBC, providing rapid EV charging at the community complex.

✅ 50 kW DCFC cuts charge time to about 30 minutes

✅ $9 per half hour session; convenient downtown location

✅ Funded by NRCan, BC government, and FortisBC

FortisBC and the City of Nelson celebrated the opening of Nelson's first publicly available direct current fast-charging (DCFC) electric vehicle (EV) station on Friday.

"Adopting EV's is one of many ways for individuals to reduce carbon emissions," said Mayor John Dooley, City of Nelson. "We hope that the added convenience of this fast-charging station helps grow EV adoption among our community, and we appreciate the support from FortisBC, the province and the federal government."

The new station, located at the Nelson and District Community Complex, provides a convenient and faster charge option right in the heart of the commercial district and makes Nelson more accessible for both local and out-of-town EV drivers. The 50-kilowatt station is expected to bring a compact EV from zero to 80 per cent charged in about a half an hour, as compared to the four Level-2 charging stations located in downtown Nelson that require from three to four hours. The cost for a half hour charge at the new DC fast-charging station is $9 per half hour.

This fast-charging station was made possible through a partnership between FortisBC, the City of Nelson, Nelson Hydro, the Province of British Columbia and Natural Resources Canada. As part of the partnership, the City of Nelson is providing the location and FortisBC will own and manage the station.

This is the latest of 12 fast-charging stations FortisBC has built over the last year with support from municipalities and all levels of government, and adds to the five FortisBC-owned Kootenay stations that were opened as part of the accelerate Kootenays initiative in 2018.

All 12 stations were 50 per cent funded by Natural Resources Canada, 25 per cent by BC Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources and the remaining 25 per cent by FortisBC. The funding is provided by Natural Resources Canada's Electric Vehicle and Alternative Fuel Infrastructure Deployment Initiative, which aims to establish a coast-to-coast network of fast-chargers along the national highway system, natural gas refueling stations along key freight corridors and hydrogen refueling stations in major metropolitan areas. It is part of the Government of Canada's more than $180-billion Investing in Canada infrastructure plan. The Government of British Columbia is also contributing $300,000 towards the fast-chargers through its Clean Energy Vehicle Public Fast Charging Program.

This station brings the total DCFC chargers FortisBC owns and operates to 17 stations across 14 communities in the southern interior. FortisBC continues to look for opportunities to expand this network as part of its 30BY30 goal of reducing emissions from its customers by 30 per cent by 2030. For more information about the FortisBC electric vehicle fast-charging network, visit: fortisbc.com/electricvehicle.

"Electric vehicles play a key role in building a cleaner future. We are pleased to work with partners like FortisBC and the City of Nelson to give Canadians greener options to drive where they need to go, " said The Honourable Seamus O'Regan, Canada's Minister of Natural Resources.

"Nelson's first public fast-charging EV station increases EV infrastructure in the city, making it easier than ever to make the switch to cleaner transportation. Along with a range of rebates and financial incentives available to EV drivers, it is now more convenient and affordable to go electric and this station is a welcome addition to our EV charging infrastructure," said Michelle Mungall, BC's Minister of Jobs, Economic Development and Competitiveness, and MLA for Nelson Creston.

"Building the necessary DC fast-charging infrastructure, such as the Lillooet fast-charging site in British Columbia, close to highways and local amenities where drivers need them most is a critical step in growing electric vehicle adoption. Collaborations like this are proving to be an effective way to achieve this, and I'd like to thank all the program partners for their commitment in opening this important station, " said Mark Warren, Director of Business Innovation, FortisBC.

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