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One of the world’s largest mining and steel manufacturing companies — ArcelorMittal — has announced grand plans to develop renewable energy assets in India.

According to media reports, ArcelorMittal has expressed interest in developing renewable energy projects in the Indian states of Rajasthan and Gujarat.

The company is believed to have proposed a 4.5-gigawatt solar park in Rajasthan with an estimated investment value of $2.6 billion. The news reports, however, did not mention the timeline for development of this project. In the recent past, Rajasthan has attracted investment in solar power park development from many private companies in India. These include Adani and IL&FS. These ventures have been highly successful with associated project auctions yielding some of the lowest tariff bids in India.

Rajasthan is a preferred choice for developers to set up projects due to the high solar irradiation available and availability of large non-agricultural areas. With large solar and wind power capacity already operational in the state, transmission infrastructure is also ready for use. The Indian government is also working to further strengthen the transmission network for future renewable energy projects under the Green Energy Corridor programme — a network of transmission projects dedicated for evacuation of renewable power across India.

An incentive offered by the Indian government to renewable energy projects makes Rajasthan an attractive destination for project development. Renewable energy projects selling power to distribution utilities are free to set up projects anywhere in the country without paying any transmission charges. The government recently extended this incentive to all solar and wind power projects commissioned by June 2025.

ArcelorMittal has also announced plans to invest in development of solar and wind energy and green hydrogen projects In the neighbouring state of Gujarat. News reports do not provide any capacity-related details, but the company may invest Rs 500 billion ($6.8 billion) in the state. 

Gujarat has been a popular investment destination for the renewable energy sector. A number of solar modules manufacturers have set up shop in the state, including India’s largest cell and module manufacturer — Mundra Solar. More recently, Reliance Industries announced plans to invest $10 billion in the state to set up four gigawatt-scale manufacturing facilities for production of solar modules, batteries, electrolyzers, and fuel cells.

The Indian government, too, is planning to set up large-scale solar power parks in these two states. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is studying possibilities to set up 55 gigawatts of solar and wind power parks along the international border with Pakistan. Recently, the ministry approved a proposal by NTPC Limited, India’s largest power generation company, to set up a 4.7 gigawatt solar power park in Gujarat.

Rajasthan and Gujarat are among the only five states in India to have more than 10 gigawatts of operational renewable energy capacity — Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra being the others. As of last month, Gujarat had 14.7 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity, while Rajasthan had 12.2 gigawatts. Gujarat had 5.7 gigawatts of solar power capacity, while Rajasthan had 7.7 gigawatts. These two states together account for 29% of India’s solar power capacity.

Rajasthan has set a target to have 30 gigawatts of solar power and 7.5 gigawatts of wind and hybrid power generation capacity by March 2025. Gujarat aims to have 30 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity operational by 2022.

 

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Economists, experts call for governments to ditch hydrogen, go fully electric

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Economists, experts call for governments to ditch hydrogen, go fully electric

In a joint statement, French and German economists have called on governments to adopt “a common approach” to decarbonize European trucking fleets – and they’re calling for a focus on fully electric trucks, not hydrogen.

France and Germany are the two largest economies in the EU, and they share similar challenges when it comes to freight decarbonization. The two countries also share a border, and the traffic between the two nations generates major cross-border flows that create common externalities between the two countries.

At the same time, the EU’s transport sector has struggled to reduce emissions at the same rate as other industries – and road freight in particular is a major contributor to harmful carbon emissions issue due to that industry’s heavy reliance on diesel-powered trucks.

And for once, it seems like rail isn’t a viable option:

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While rail remains competitive mainly for heavy, homogeneous goods over long distances. Most freight in Europe is indeed transported over distances of less than 200 km and involves consignment weights of up to 30 tonnes (GCEE, 2024) In most such cases, transportation by rail instead of truck is not possible or not competitive. Moreover, taking into account the goods currently transported in intermodal transport units over distances of more than 300 km, the modal shift potential from road to rail would be only 6% in Germany and less than 2% in France.

FRANCO-GERMAN COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC EXPERTS (FGCEE)

That leaves trucks – and, while numerous government incentives currently exist to promote the parallel development of both hydrogen and battery electric vehicle infrastructures, the study is clear in picking a winner.

“Policies should focus on battery-electric trucks (BET) as these represent the most mature and market-ready technology for road freight transport,” reads the the FGCEE statement. “Hence, to ramp-up usage of BET public funding should be used to accelerate the roll-out of fast-charging networks along major corridors and in private depots.”

The appeal was signed by the co-chair of the advisory body on the German side is the chairwoman of the German Council of Economic Experts, Monika Schnitzer. Camille Landais co-chairs the French side. On the German side, the appeal was signed by four of the five experts; Nuremberg-based energy economist Veronika Grimm (who also sits on the National Hydrogen Council, which is committed to promoting H2 trucks and filling stations) did not sign.

You can read an English version of the CAE FGCEE joint statement here.

Electrek’s Take

Hydrogen-sceptical truck maker MAN to produce limited series of 200 vehicles with H2 combustion engines
MAN hydrogen semi; via MAN Trucks.

MAN Trucks’ CEO famously said that it was “impossible” for hydrogen to compete with BEVs, and even committed to building 200 hydrogen-powered semi truck to prove out that hypothesis.

He’s not alone. MAN’s board member for research and development, Frederik Zohm, said that the company is the one saying hydrogen still has years to go. “(MAN) continues to research fuel cell technology based on battery electrics,” he said, in a statement quoted by Hydrogen Insight, before another board member added that, “we (MAN) expect that, in the future, we will be able to best serve the vast majority of our customers’ transport applications with battery-electric trucks.”

With companies like Volvo and Renault and now Mercedes racking up millions of miles on their respective battery electric semi truck fleets, it’s no longer even close. EV is the way.

SOURCE | IMAGES: CAE FGCEE; via Electrive.

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Quick Charge | the terrifying Trump tariffs are finally upon us!

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Quick Charge | the terrifying Trump tariffs are finally upon us!

On today’s tariff-tastic episode of Quick Charge, we’ve got tariffs! Big ones, small ones, crazy ones, and fake ones – but whether or not you agree with the Trump tariffs coming into effect tomorrow, one thing is absolutely certain: they are going to change the price you pay for your next car … and that price won’t be going down!

Everyone’s got questions about what these tariffs are going to mean for their next car buying experience, but this is a bigger question, since nearly every industry in the US uses cars and trucks to move their people and products – and when their costs go up, so do yours.

Prefer listening to your podcasts? Audio-only versions of Quick Charge are now available on Apple PodcastsSpotifyTuneIn, and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded, usually, Monday through Thursday (and sometimes Sunday). We’ll be posting bonus audio content from time to time as well, so be sure to follow and subscribe so you don’t miss a minute of Electrek’s high-voltage daily news.

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Got news? Let us know!
Drop us a line at tips@electrek.co. You can also rate us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or recommend us in Overcast to help more people discover the show.

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SunZia Wind’s massive 2.4 GW project hits a big milestone

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SunZia Wind’s massive 2.4 GW project hits a big milestone

GE Vernova has produced over half the turbines needed for SunZia Wind, which will be the largest wind farm in the Western Hemisphere when it comes online in 2026.

GE Vernova has manufactured enough turbines at its Pensacola, Florida, factory to supply over 1.2 gigawatts (GW) of the turbines needed for the $5 billion, 2.4 GW SunZia Wind, a project milestone. The wind farm will be sited in Lincoln, Torrance, and San Miguel counties in New Mexico.

At a ribbon-cutting event for Pensacola’s new customer experience center, GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik noted that since 2023, the company has invested around $70 million in the Pensacola factory.

The Pensacola investments are part of the announcement GE Vernova made in January that it will invest nearly $600 million in its US factories and facilities over the next two years to help meet the surging electricity demands globally. GE Vernova says it’s expecting its investments to create more than 1,500 new US jobs.

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Vic Abate, CEO of GE Vernova Wind, said, “Our dedicated employees in Pensacola are working to address increasing energy demands for the US. The workhorse turbines manufactured at this world-class factory are engineered for reliability and scalability, ensuring our customers can meet growing energy demand.”

SunZia Wind and Transmission will create US history’s largest clean energy infrastructure project.

Read more: The largest clean energy project in US history closes $11B, starts full construction


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