Previously accused of greenwashing, HSBC partners with Google to deploy $1 bn in climate tech financing

HSBC Bank and Google Cloud partnered up to offer financial support to businesses that are committed to improving efforts to mitigate climate change through technology. As per the agreement, HSBC will try to finance businesses that the US tech giant hand-picks to be a part of its Google Cloud Ready-Sustainability (GCR-Sustainability) initiative. The programme’s objective is to support users as they travel through the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) spheres. HSBC will allocate funding to selected companies under its commitment to invest $1 billion in early-stage climate technology ventures. These cover various sectors, including electric vehicles, battery storage, and sustainable food systems, by 2030. 

In late 2022, two HSBC commercials were prohibited by the UK’s advertising watchdog in 2022 for providing “misleading” information on the company’s efforts to combat climate change. According to the watchdog, HSBC’s advertisements “omitted material information” from the posters.

Chinese engineers develop a rechargeable calcium-oxygen battery that operates at room temperature

A proof-of-concept calcium-based battery that can survive 700 charge cycles at ambient temperature has been created by a group of Chinese engineers. The researchers have attempted to develop a useable, rechargeable, calcium–oxygen-based battery. Lithium is currently the industry standard for rechargeable batteries used in consumer goods. However, due to its scarcity and problems (poor ageing, need to avoid overcharging), scientists have been searching for a good substitute. Calcium is 2,500 times as abundant as lithium.

Previous studies have indicated that the combinations of calcium and oxygen have the best energy density among calcium-based batteries. The Chinese team developed a novel kind of liquid electrolyte that is capable of using both calcium and oxygen in order to make this function. This involved the use of a two-electron redox process and specific proportions of materials. The end product was a battery that, at normal temperature, could be charged and refilled up to 700 times. Although they admit that the battery is still insufficiently efficient to be used in commercial devices, they intend to keep working to see if they can make it better.

Tata Motors slashes prices of EV cars by ₹1.2 lakh

Tata Motors, the industry leader in electric passenger vehicles, has reduced the price of two of its electric vehicle (EV) models by as much as ₹1.2 lakh. This is the first time an Indian automaker has made such a cut. The extended range Nexon.ev now starts at ₹16.99 lakh, saving customers up to ₹1.2 lakh on the pricing. The base model of the Tiago.ev now starts at ₹7.99 lakh, a price decrease of up to ₹70,000. The choice was made, according to Tata Passenger Electric Mobility Ltd. (TPEM), since raw material costs were lower. Given that the cost of battery cells has decreased and that this trend is expected to continue in the near future, the company said that they have decided to pass on the benefit to their customers. 

Inverted perovskite solar cell with antimony-doped tin oxides achieves 25.7% efficiency 

Researchers in Singapore have built an inverted perovskite PV device with a p-type antimony-doped tin oxides (ATOx) interlayer that reportedly reduces the efficiency disparity between small and large-area perovskite cells. Their results suggested that ATOx could be a suitable substitute for nickel oxides (NiOx), which are widely utilised as a hole transport medium. According to the researchers, ATOx-using devices effectively reduce the efficiency disparity between small and large-area perovskite cells. Compared to the widely utilised NiOx, ATOx provides a combination of higher efficiency, stability, and scalability as a transport medium.

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