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Insurance giants accused of climate policy double standard
 A climate activist group is calling out a handful of European insurers for having significant holdings in fossil fuels despite pledges by the companies to be more climate friendly.

A report released today alleges that Allianz, Generali, Munich Re, Swiss Re and Zurich continue to hold at least $361 million of assets collectively in companies that are planning to develop 97,000 megawatts of new coal power plants.

Unfriend Coal, a coalition of climate activists, put out a sort of “put your money where your mouth is” report examining the climate and coal policies of the insurers ahead of half-year media reports due this month from Allianz (Aug. 4), Swiss Re (Aug. 4), Munich Re (Aug. 9) and Zurich (Aug. 10).

The release of the report is timed to put the information in the hands of financial journalists and analysts just ahead of when the carriers are reaching out to the media and public to talk about their financial results for the first half of the year, according to one of the authors of the report.

“Coal investments and climate risk have financial implications for insurers,” said Peter Bosshard, coordinator of the Unfriend Coal coalition and director of the finance program for the Sunrise Project. The Sunrise Project is an Australian group that’s part of the coalition, which includes Friends of the Earth France, Greenpeace Switzerland, Re:Common (Italy) and Urgewald (Germany).

The report is part of a broad movement on myriad fronts to get the financial industry away from coal and fossil fuel investments.

The G20s Financial Stability Board last year issued recommendations for companies to disclose how they manage risks to their business from climate change and greenhouse gas emission cuts.

There are also efforts in the U.S. to get insurers to disclose their investments in coal from some state regulators, who say that coal and fossil fuels are at risk of being stranded due to regulatory trends and falling prices for alternative fuels. However, those efforts haven’t gone unchallenged.

The $361 million of investments highlighted in the report are in coal companies that are expanding their capacity – that figure does not include investments in coal companies that aren’t expanding, Bosshard said.

Only investments in expanding coal concerns were examined because investing in this expansion undermines the goal of the Paris agreement, which is to curtail greenhouse gases and reduce reliance on dirty fuels, he said.

The $361 million in assets held by Allianz, Generali, Munich Re, Swiss Re and Zurich in companies that are planning to capacity are in 20 countries, including China, India, Indonesia, Vietnam and Poland.

“If completed these projects would make it impossible for the world to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement,” Unfriend Coal states in its report.

European Insurers Not Necessarily Ahead in Divesting Fossil Fuel Investments

On its face, the report appears goes counter to the popular notion that European insurers are ahead of their counterparts when it comes to divesting in fossil fuels and environmentally conscious investing.

Others who have compiled reports on investments in fossil fuels have lauded European insurers for being more progressive on climate change than their U.S. counterparts. And unlike many European insurers, the U.S. PC industry mostly reacted with silence to President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the country from the Paris climate change accord.

Bosshard said the report shouldn’t be taken as an indication that European insurers are falling behind.

“We see the European insurers as leaders in this field,” Bosshard said. “They have taken action, we recognize that. But their effort is not yet consistent. There are a lot of gaps and contradictions.”

Ceres, a sustainability advocate that also produces reports on climate change and the insurance industry, applauded the authors of the report and encouraged further assessments that take into account both energy transition and physical impact risk of climate change.

“Many of the world’s largest insurers remain potentially highly exposed to climate change risk, and its negative effects on companies’ assets and liabilities,” said Cynthia McHale, director of the Ceres insurance program. “Scenario analysis can be particularly helpful to companies when assessing climate change, as outcomes are highly uncertain and they will play out over a long period of time.”

Many of the insurers being called out not only have significant investments in coal, but they continue to underwrite new coal power plants, according to the report.

While Allianz, Munich Re and Swiss Re are in the process of divesting their assets from the coal sector, so far only France’s AXA has also stopped underwriting coal companies in which it no longer invests. AXA is also the only carrier divesting third-party assets which it manages from the coal sector, according to the report.

The group couldn’t offer specific underwriting data to expand on its allegations.

The report also calls out Zurich and Generali for taking little to no action to distance themselves from coal.

“Zurich so far hasn’t taken any active policy on coal,” said Bosshard, who believes the carrier could divest easily since it has so little of its overall investment in coal.

Zurich’s coal holdings make up less than 0.5 percent of its total bond portfolio, according to the report.

However small the percentage, the total of Zurich holdings in coal appear to be large. The company currently holds bonds of at least $164.7 million in coal companies, and its portfolio includes major exposure to coal mining and power companies with a bad environmental track record like Duke Energy, Glencore and BHP Billiton, according to the report.

Zurich Insists Coal Investments Are Limited

A spokeswoman from Zurich offered the following emailed statement when asked for a comment for this article:

“Zurich’s exposure to coal is very limited both on the insurance business and investment sides. With regard to fossil fuels and the energy sector in general, we continue to act responsibly in both our investments and insurance for this sector. Rather than systematically exclude certain assets or business sectors, it is better to engage with customers to understand their business and operations, and work together to ensure responsible and sustainable business practices are in place.”

The spokeswoman also noted that Zurich has nearly $2 billion invested in green bonds to date. In addition to its green bond investing practices, the carrier has also been called out for other environmentally friendly measures it has taken. That includes its new 783,800-square-foot corporate campus in a Chicago suburb, which has garnered high recognition for its environmental design and building sustainability.

Spokespersons for Munich Re, Swiss Re, Generali and Allianz were all reached out to for comment. Those queries were not immediately returned.

Allianz was a main focus of the report for continuing to manage large coal assets for third parties through its investment funds, making Allianz is the most active investor in the expansion of global coal capacity, according to authors of the report.

The report shows that Allianz is holding $241 million in equity and bonds of coal companies that are still expanding.

Bosshard acknowledged that Allianz has taken big steps to divest from coal, but he said the company still has large investments funds at play in the coal sector.

“They take pride in having divested their own resources, but they’re really offering a platform to keep this industry alive,” he said.

Swiss Re is another company that has taken great strides to rid itself of coal investments, but the company continues to invest in tar sands in Canada and in pipelines like Keystone, TransMountain and Dakota Access, according to the report.

Unfriend Coal is evidently not done with pressing the insurance industry to be more environmentally friendly.

The group is currently working on a scorecard on investing in and underwriting fossil fuels that will rank 25 of the world’s leading insurers, which it plans to publish in November, according to Bosshard.

*This story appeared previously in our sister publication Insurance Journal.

Output: Allianz, Generali, Munich Re, Swiss Re and Zurich have been targeted by a climate activist group for investing in fossil fuels despite their claims of being environmentally friendly. Unfriend Coal said the insurers hold at least $361m of assets linked to companies that are developing coal-fired power production and that some underwrite new coal power plants. The message was timed to coincide with the insurers' latest results announcements. While Zurich responded by saying its coal exposure is limited and that it acts responsibly, the other insurers offered no comment.


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Insurers help recover stolen masonic sword from auction house
 The Mark Provincial Sword of Kent, an important ceremonial sword belonging to the Provincial Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons of Kent, has been recovered from an auction house in London.

The sword was stolen from a Provincial Officer during a brazen home invasion in March 2016 while the occupants were asleep. Opportunistic thieves initially targeted the keys to two vehicles, one of which contained the sword, awaiting transportation back to its home in Whitstable.

One of the vehicles was recovered but the contents had never been located until this June when a researcher from the Masonic Library and Museum in Norfolk spotted the sword being offered for sale at a London based auction house specializing in the sale of antique arms, armor and military items.

The Mark Province of Kent contacted their insurance company, who in turn reached out to Art Recovery International (ARI), an organization that specializes in recovering stolen and looted works of art. ARI took the case on a pro-bono basis. With the aid of the Metropolitan Police Service (Bromley Borough), an unconditional surrender of the sword was negotiated with the dealer who had consigned the sword for sale.

When questioned, the dealer recalled purchasing the sword at a car boot sale in Ford, West Sussex, but neglected to retain the license plate number of the car offering the lot.

No arrests have been made.

The ornately carved and bespoke Masonic swords are valuable among collectors and often uniquely inscribed with their provenance. ARI is disappointed with the level of due diligence performed by the art trade prior to selling objects in their galleries or sales rooms.

“A cursory internet search reveals a 2016 posting about this theft. I urge the art market to get with the program and search stolen art databases such as the non-profit Artive Database (artive.org) before accepting works for sale. It is imperative, as well, that victims of crime report their losses to these databases for the due diligence process to work effectively,” said Art Recovery’s Christopher Marinello.

Source: Art Recovery International

Output: A ceremonial sword stolen from a masonic organisation in the UK has been recovered after being spotted on sale in an art auction. The Mark Provincial Sword of Kent was returned to the Provincial Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons of Kent after the owners' insurers called in Art Recovery International, an organisation that tracks stolen art. The sword was being kept in a van that was stolen from outside a London home last year. The Masonic Library and Museum in Norfolk saw it being offered for sale at an auction house and contacted the insurance company.


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Researchers produce 200 litres of fuel from solar energy and CO2
 The compact pilot plant used in the SOLETAIR project is designed for decentralized production, fits into a shipping container, and can be extended modularly. (Photo: VTT)

Production of liquid fuels from regenerative electric power is a major component of the energy turnaround. The first 200 l of synthetic fuel have now been produced from solar energy and the air’s carbon dioxide by Fischer-Tropsch synthesis under the SOLETAIR project. Here, INERATEC, a spinoff of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), cooperates with Finnish partners. The mobile chemical pilot plant that can be used decentrally produces gasoline, diesel, and kerosene from regenerative hydrogen and carbon dioxide. It is so compact that it fits into a shipping container.

“Success of the energy transition needs innovations generated by research extending from fundamentals to applications,” says Professor Thomas Hirth, KIT Vice President for Innovation and International Affairs. “The success of SOLETAIR reflects the importance of international research networks that tackle global challenges and develop applicable solutions.”

The SOLETAIR project started in 2016. This summer, a decentralized plant network was established. It consists of three components. The “Direct Air Capture” Unit developed by the Technical Research Center of Finland (VTT) captures carbon dioxide from air. An electrolysis unit developed by Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT) uses solar power to produce the required hydrogen. Afterwards, carbon dioxide and hydrogen are first converted into reactive synthesis gas at high temperature and then into liquid fuels in a microstructured chemical reactor. This reactor, the core of the plant, was developed by KIT and extended to a compact plant commercialized by INERATEC. For the first time, the complete process from photovoltaics and capturing carbon dioxide from air to fuel synthesis has been set up to demonstrate its technical feasibility.

The pilot plant has a production capacity of up to 80 l of gasoline per day. In the first campaign now completed, about 200 l of fuel were produced in several phases to study the optimum synthesis process, possibilities of using the heat produced, and product properties. The compact plant is designed for decentralized production, fits into a shipping container, and can be extended modularly.

In June 2017, the plant network was opened officially by Jamie Hyneman. Hyneman is honorary doctor of the project partner LUT and hosts the “MythBusters” science television series. The special effects expert is entrepreneur, innovator, and patent holder himself. His program has contributed significantly to making science and engineering more popular. The US American develops safety technologies for industry and the public space. When opening the SOLETAIR pilot plant, he impressively demonstrated the improved combustion and ignition properties of the synthetic fuel produced compared to conventional fuel. For the cut-together video on the opening and demonstration, click:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOWQh9T_W64

INERATEC GmbH is a spinoff of KIT and develops, builds, and commercializes compact chemical facilities for gas-to-X and power-to-X applications. The spinoff is supported under the EXIST research transfer program of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. Last week, INERATEC won the third prize in the category of “Emission Reduction, Processing, and Separation” in the Baden-Württemberg 2017 competition for the Environmental Technology Award.

Under the national research alliances of “Energy Lab 2.0” and “Neo-Carbon Energy,” KIT, INERATEC, and VTT intensify their cooperation for the investigation and development of innovative energy systems based on renewable energy sources, novel storage technologies, and the conversion of renewable power into chemical energy carriers. Together with other project partners, KIT and INERATEC also study decentralized production of high-quality synthetic fuel from air and renewable power under the “Power-to-X” Kopernikus project funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

“The energiewende will only be a success, if we pool our know-how and jointly strengthen the competencies of European industry in the energy sector,” VTT scientist and SOLETAIR project head Dr. Pekka Simell says. “In this respect, innovative startups, such as INERATEC, play a key role,” Professor Roland Dittmeyer, Head of KIT’s Institute of Micro Process Engineering, adds.

This summer, the power-to-liquid pilot plant was built on the LUT campus and connected to the solar power plant there. The SOLETAIR project will expire in mid-2018 and is funded with EUR 1 million by the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation (Tekes). Information obtained in the course of the project will be used for the commercialization of the technology. This will give rise to new business models for the more efficient utilization of local surpluses of renewable power, heat use concepts, use of carbon dioxide, or decentralized synthesis of chemical fuels and interim products. In future, the process may essentially contribute to reducing carbon dioxide emissions of traffic.

More information:

http://soletair.fi/news/finnish-demo-plant-produces-renewable-fuels/

http://www.kit.edu/kit/english/pi_2016_156_power-to-liquid-pilot-operation-of-first-compact-plant.php

Videos of the opening ceremony:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOWQh9T_W64 (short)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6d0uiqxjEOE (long)

More about the KIT Energy Center: http://www.energy.kit.edu

Being “The Research University in the Helmholtz Association”, KIT creates and imparts knowledge for the society and the environment. It is the objective to make significant contributions to the global challenges in the fields of energy, mobility, and information. For this, about 9,800 employees cooperate in a broad range of disciplines in natural sciences, engineering sciences, economics, and the humanities and social sciences. KIT prepares its 22,300 students for responsible tasks in society, industry, and science by offering research-based study programs. Innovation efforts at KIT build a bridge between important scientific findings and their application for the benefit of society, economic prosperity, and the preservation of our natural basis of life. KIT is one of the German universities of excellence.

Output: Scientists have produced 200 litres of synthetic fuel from solar power and carbon dioxide in the air. The fuel was produced in a mobile and compact pilot plant as part of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology's Soletair project. Small enough to fit in a shipping container, the plant can be used for decentralised production of petrol, diesel and kerosene from regenerative hydrogen and CO2. Currently the pilot has a production capacity of 80 litres a day.


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Southeast US saw six times global sea level rise from 2011-2015
 For people in the southeastern United States, and especially in Florida, who feel that annoying tidal flooding has sneaked up on them in recent years, it turns out to be true. And scientists have a new explanation.

In a paper published online Wednesday, University of Florida researchers calculated that from 2011 to 2015, the sea level along the American coastline south of Cape Hatteras rose six times faster than the long-term rate of global increase.

“I said, ‘That’s crazy!’” Andrea Dutton, one of the researchers, recalled saying when a colleague first showed her the figures. “ ‘You must have done something wrong!’ ”

But it was correct. During that period of rapid increase, many people in Miami Beach, Fort Lauderdale and other coastal communities started to notice unusual “sunny-day flooding,” a foot or two of salt water inundating their streets at high tide for no apparent reason.

Output: The sea level on the Southeast US coastline rose six times faster between 2011 and 2015 than the worldwide average, according to research from the University of Florida. Scientists argued that the intersection of two large-scale atmospheric patterns, El Niño and the North Atlantic Oscillation, had resulted in the drastic rise. If the claim of links between specific atmospheric patterns and high sea levels is validated, the discovery might help researchers to predict tidal flooding more accurately, and to provide warnings to potentially affected communities months in advance.


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Using fibre optic technology to improve shale efficiency
 Much of what the industry knows about operating in the North American unconventional oil and gas plays has come through trial and error — not a bad way to learn in most circumstances, but hard to justify in a climate of intense pressure to cut exploration and production costs.

In the drive for greater efficiency, drilling and completions teams are looking for ways to optimise well spacing, fracturing stage spacing, perforation cluster density and the distribution of frac fluids and proppants.

Making

Output: Ziebel, a Norway-based oil and gas diagnostics company, has developed a carbon rod that uses multiple optical fibres to gather data on the completion design of a well. The rod combines temperature and acoustic sensing to collect real-time information to help monitor the results of fracking and determine which zones have been effectively stimulated. It also helps identify how close neighbouring wells should be spaced through interference testing. Ziebel aims to develop an extended reach rod, but must first improve energy conversion to its well tractor. Currently, Ziebel's Z-System technology can travel 5,000 ft horizontally.


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Evolving chemical tracers increase shale production
 At its most basic, a chemical tracer allows operators to see the flow-back from each stage of a well.

In an unconventional well, which may have four dozen or more stages, operators can find this quantitative measurement useful.

“Putting tracers in the well is neat, but I want a better well. I want to make money from it. I don’t want to do it just because I like science,” says Dave Bucior, Tracerco’s Reservoir business development manager.

“It’s nice to say that I got 10% of the oil from stage five and 20% of the oil from stage seven, but I want to know why stage seven gave me 20%, and why stage five gave me 10%.”

Output: Shale production's growing complexity requires more evolved chemical tracers to find correlations between the stage production of oil and the geophysical data of a well. While only 15 tracers per well were required to identify how operational efficiency could be improved five years ago, now wells more commonly use 50 tracers, said Dave Bucior, Tracerco's Reservoir business development manager. Oil and gas diagnostics company Tracerco seeks to develop more environmentally friendly chemical tracers that work for different types of well.


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Arizona to install battery storage instead of power line upgrade
 Dive Brief:

Arizona Public Service and AES Energy Storage plan to deploy 2 MW, 8 MWh batteries in a community northeast of Phoenix to defer investment on a 20-mile transmission line.

The project will provide local generation to residents of Punkin, Arizona, during 20 to 30 peak power demand days per year, offsetting the need for an upgraded line. On other days, it will provide grid services to APS.

The companies say the project is one of the first in the nation to be proposed solely for its ability to cost-effectively defer a transmission investment, marking an advancement for the use of batteries as alternatives to traditional utility infrastructure.

Dive Insight:

Like most non-wires alternatives, the new APS storage project stems from a grid infrastructure problem.

Modest yet persistent load growth in the town of Punkin was set to overload the sole transmission line serving the community in the middle of the Tonto National Forest about 90 minutes drive from Phoenix.

"We had creeping load growth," Erik Ellis, APS manager of energy technology assessment, told Utility Dive in an interview. "You're talking about a town where, every year, 1% or 2% growth occurs and over time you start to approach the limits of your conductor to carry the current to the residents of that town."

Much of the 21 kV radial feeder crosses "pretty rugged terrain," Ellis said, "so for a lot of reasons — for cost, for sustainability, also just in terms of overall challenge of doing a big project like that — a battery made a ton of sense."

The project will provide local generation to Punkin on 20 to 30 peak demand days a year. "The rest of the time the conductor is fine," Ellis said.

On other days, the batteries will provide other grid services for APS, such as shifting renewable generation to peak hours. "In the spring and the fall the battery will be available to soak up low cost, negatively priced solar on the system at those times and then discharge it when the value of the power is much higher," Ellis said. "All those savings accrue to our customers."

Instead of a multi-year transmission construction project, deploying the batteries is expected to take 12-15 months from planning to operation. And rather than planning a transmission line to accommodate 20 to 30 years of expected load growth, the batteries allow APS to make a shorter-term investment.

"A battery allows you to make a much more incremental step — meet the near-term, five-to-seven year need, and then monitor what's happening in the community," Ellis said. "If it turns out we didn't project enough growth then we can turn around and respond to that."

APS will own and operate project under a 10-year maintenance agreement with AES. The storage company will provide augmentation services over that time to keep the batteries running at nameplate capacity, and the facility is designed to be expanded if higher load growth creates a need.

Pricing details were not released, but Ellis said the facility "saves our customers a fair amount of money."

"When we ran the economics in this Punkin center case it came out pretty clearly in favor of the battery," he said.

The utility says the project represents one of the first "pure" transmission deferment plays for storage in the country. While a number of DER projects list infrastructure deferral as a benefit, the Punkin project's size and specific function make the value proposition for storage as a non-wires alternative clear.

"[NWAs have] been talked about in the industry for a long time and the reality is a lot of those savings everyone talks about are not as big when you get down to the actual numbers," Ellis said. "Here we're talking about millions of dollars in poles and wires that we won't build in lieu of putting down this battery."

APS is already familiar with AES batteries, installing two 2 MWh facilities last year. And there's more where that came from: The utility's 15-year integrated resource plan calls for the addition of 500 MW of energy storage.

Output: Arizona Public Service (APS) has partnered with AES Energy Storage to install a 2 MW, 8 MWh battery storage project outside the town of Punkin. The town was in danger of overloading the sole transmission line that served it on numerous occasions so it was decided that "for cost, for sustainability … a battery made a ton of sense", according to Erik Ellis, APS manager of energy technology assessment. The battery pack system will provide energy on 20 to 30 peak demand days a year, thus deferring the need for more investment in the transmission line.


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Private equity swoops in as power companies shed assets
 A tough market for merchant generators could be a fertile field for private equity investors.

The merchant power business model is distressed and headed for a “second round of bankruptcies,” a recent study by Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP and the Power Research Group finds. Merchant generators like Calpine, Dynegy and NRG Energy are struggling with heavy debt loads and low power prices. That has prompted asset sales by the likes of Dynegy and NRG Energy, with private equity again stepping up as a buyer.

In July, Dynegy reached an agreement to sell three plants totaling 935 MW, one to Rockland Capital, and two to Starwood Energy Group Global. That same month, Dynegy closed on the sale of two plants to another private equity group, LS Power. And, in an effort to shed $13 billion of debt, NRG in July said it plans to sell 6,000 MW of its conventional generation and 50% to 100% of its renewable energy assets.

It is a cyclical pattern, a function of the forward curve for gas and power prices, Paul Maxwell, a director in the energy practice at Navigant, told Utility Dive. When these assets become distressed, “private equity steps in for the short term,” he said.

Private equity firms are known for their relatively short term outlook — typically about five years — but for the most part they also do not labor under the quarter-to-quarter earnings pressure of publicly traded companies. They can afford to make a bet on the commodity cycle and wait it out. Right now the commodity cycle favors private equity, not merchant generators.

In April, a report by Moody’s Investors Service said the PJM Interconnection could join California and Texas as the next wholesale power market to see distressed power prices. Low natural gas prices have forced many coal plants out of the market in PJM, but a new crop of even more efficient gas plants could begin to force older gas plants to retire, Moody’s analyst Toby Shea wrote.

Utilities are increasingly shying away from the weak demand and low prices of the merchant market, but for private equity it spells opportunity, one they have been building up to for years.

Over the past several years, private equity firms have amassed billions of dollars in funds aimed at the energy sector. Energy Capital Partners in April 2014 closed a $5 billion fund that will target a range of energy sector assets. ArcLight Capital Partners, which targets North American energy infrastructure assets, closed a $5.5 billion fund in July 2015. Riverstone closed a $7.7 billion fund in June 2013. Starwood Capital in January 2014 closed a $983 million energy fund. LS Power Equity Advisors in February 2014 closed a $2 billion energy fund. And in May 2016, Brookfield Asset Management of Canada raised $25 billion, including $12 billion for its infrastructure fund and $3.5 billion for its private fund.

Other private equity houses appear to be gearing up for power sector investments.

Pegasus Capital Advisors in June hired former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy and an operating advisor. At the time, Pegasus founding partner and chairman, Craig Cogut, touted McCarthy’s expertise in two sectors the firm focuses on — sustainability and wellness. And last year, Pegasus hired David Crane, the former head of NRG Energy, as a senior operating executive. Crane led NRG’s creation of its renewable energy yieldco that is now being sold.

If private equity’s steps into an investment at the bottom of the commodity cycle, the other part of that strategy is being able to exit at the top of the cycle. In some cases an exit is effected when another private equity firm steps in. There are several power sector assets that have traded hands multiple times. Otherwise, it requires an investor with different objectives.

Maxwell said those entities are likely to be investors with longer term outlooks, such as pension funds and foreign investment funds, that are willing to pay a premium in order to earn a higher return. Among them he sees investment funds from South Korea, Japan and Canada.

The next tier of buyers, Maxwell told Utility Dive, would be utilities. For a regulated utility, fuel prices are not as much of a concern because those costs are a pass-through to customers. And, depending on the market, some utilities are interested in adding capacity. He mentioned utilities in the Southwest and possibly the Southeast. But in jurisdictions where there are organized power markets, such as California and PJM, buying generation assets may not be as attractive because there is less control over capacity prices.

The group that Maxwell puts at the bottom of the list of possible buyers are the investor owned merchant generators. By and large, he said, “they are not in a position to buy. They are retrenching to improve their financials and are going to be sellers.”

Output: Low power prices and heavy debt loads are prompting merchant generators to shed assets, providing rich pickings for private equity firms, according to a study by Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP and the Power Research Group. The study revealed the sector's ability to bet on and wait out troughs in the commodity cycle enabled private equity companies to amass billions of dollars aimed at energy sector funds. In recent years, companies such as Energy Capital Partners, Riverstone and Brookfield Asset Management of Canada have all closed funds targeting the power sector.


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New Iberdrola projects to add 600 MW of renewable energy in US
 Iberdrola SA (BME:IBE) expects to put on stream nearly 600 MW of wind and solar power capacity in the US by the end of this year, the Spanish power utility said on Tuesday.

Iberdrola’s US unit Avangrid Renewables is currently working on the construction of four wind projects, namely the 131-MW Tule plant in California, the 75-MW Twin Buttes II park in Colorado, the 298.2-MW El Cabo complex in New Mexico and the 30-MW Deerfield plant in Vermont. In addition, the company is in the initial stages of construction work for a 56-MW photovoltaic (PV) plant in Oregon, to be called Gala.

Most of the projects already have long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) with local companies.

Iberdrola says that the addition of the fresh capacity is seen to help it strengthen its presence in the US where it claims to be the third largest wind power company. The Spanish group has been operating in the US since 2015 through Avangrid Inc (NYSE:AGR), a company in which it has an 81.5% stake. Avangrid owns almost 6,200 MW of installed wind power capacity in the US.

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Output: Spanish power company Iberdrola is building four wind projects and a solar energy facility in the US that will add a total of 600 MW of new output during 2017, as part of a drive to strengthen its presence in the country. Via its US unit Avangrid Renewables, projects in California, Colorado, Vermont and New Mexico are all under construction and have power purchase agreements with local companies in place, while Iberdrola is also at the early stages of building work on a 56 MW photovoltaic project in Oregon. Iberdrola has claimed to be the third largest wind company in the US.


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Poor offshore wind conditions hurt EON earnings
 Unfavourable wind conditions in the UK reduced Eon’s adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) from offshore wind by 36% to €128m in the first half of 2017, compared with €201m in the period last year.

Sales from offshore wind also declined to €321m this year from €333m in the first six months of last year.

Output from offshore wind in Germany increased, mainly because of better wind conditions at the 302MW Amrumbank West project, but this was partially offset by grid congestion, Eon said.Eon generated 2.1bn kilowatt-hours of electricity from offshore wind in the first half of the year, the same as last year.There was better news for Eon in onshore wind and solar, which saw adjusted EBIT increase 45% to €77m in the first six months of 2017 from €53m last year.Sales in onshore and solar also improved, growing to €389m in the first half of this year from €347m in 2016.Eon said the main reasons for the increases were better wind conditions in the US, the commissioning of the 200MW Colbeck’s Corner wind farm in Texas last year and higher earnings from equity interests in the US.Output from the sector was 5.6bn kWh in the period, up from 5bn kWh last year.Overall, Eon’s renewables sales increased to €710m from January to the end of June, compared with €680m in the same period last year.However, adjusted EBIT from renewables as a whole fell 19% to €205m this year from €254m in 2016, Eon said.The company said it expects to make a final investment decision in the third quarter of this year on the 201MW Stella onshore wind farm in the US, and has about 500MW on track for completion in 2017 in North America.Eon added that it has 800MW of offshore wind on schedule to be operational over 2018 and 2019.Overall, Eon’s adjusted earnings for the first half of 2017 were down 12% to just under €1.8bn, from more than €2bn last year.Sales also fell to €19.6bn this year, from over €20.2bn in 2016.

Output: Revenue from EON's UK offshore wind farms fell by more than a third to €128m ($151m) during H1 2017, compared to €201m during the same period in 2016, thanks to sub-optimal wind conditions. Sales were also slightly down year-on-year at €321m. However, better conditions in Germany and the US saw H1 onshore and solar sales rise by €30m to €710m YoY.


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Telehealth Expansion Would Hardly Change Medicare Costs, CBO Says
 The telehealth provisions of the Chronic Care Act of 2017 would have a relatively small effect on Medicare spending over the next 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). This bill is one of several measures with telehealth components that are pending in Congress.

The Senate version of the legislation, S. 870, would expand the use of telehealth services for Medicare beneficiaries, partly by lifting the geographic limitations that Medicare now imposes on these services.

For example, the bill would increase the ability of accountable care organizations (ACOs) to receive Medicare payments for telehealth services, beginning in 2020. It would eliminate the geographic component of the originating site requirement and would allow ACOs to receive Medicare payments for telehealth supplied in a patient's home. The CBO estimates that this provision would increase Medicare spending by about $50 million from 2018 to 2027.

S. 870 would also remove the geographic restriction for telestroke services, starting in 2021. Telestroke consultations can save lives by allowing neurologists in remote locations to examine and diagnose patients quickly, while there is still time to treat stroke victims effectively.

The CBO estimated that if the bill passed, the percentage of strokes occurring in Medicare patients in nonrural areas that would be handled via telestroke services would increase from 6% in 2021 to 14% in 2027.

As a result, the CBO analysts said, Medicare spending by both federal and nonfederal providers would increase in the year in which a patient received telestroke services and would decline in subsequent years. This would include a rise in post–acute care (PAC) costs during the 90 days after hospital discharge because more patients would go to PAC facilities who would otherwise have died. Long-term care costs, however, would decline because fewer people would be discharged with disabilities.

Medicare doesn't cover long-term nursing home care, so much of these savings would accrue to patients, private payers, and state Medicaid programs, not to the federal government, the CBO said. However, it noted, the federal government would participate in Medicaid savings in the long run.

The CBO concluded that increased telestroke coverage under the bill would eventually reduce Medicare spending. But from 2018 to 2027, expansion of these services would increase spending by $180 million.

The legislation would also widen coverage of telehealth for Medicare beneficiaries who belong to Medicare Advantage plans. Under current law, these plans cannot offer telehealth coverage that exceeds what is available to traditional Medicare enrollees unless they obtain special waivers. In that case, they must use rebates that they now receive from Medicare to cover the extra costs. These rebates — which must be spent on supplemental benefits — are awarded to plans that submit bids below the program's benchmark costs for a geographic area.

In place of this system, the Chronic Care Act would allow Medicare Advantage plans to include the estimated cost of telehealth services in their yearly bids to Medicare for contracts covering 2020 and subsequent years. However, the plans could not use telehealth services to show the adequacy of their provider networks.

The CBO found that when private payers paid for telehealth services, the effects on overall spending — either up or down — tended to be small. Its analysts estimated that this provision would reduce direct Medicare spending by $80 million from 2018 to 2027.

In 2016, consulting firm Avalere Health estimated the costs of another bill that would expand Medicare's coverage of telehealth, the CONNECT for Health Act, which was reintroduced in Congress last spring. Avalere analyzed the provisions of an earlier version of that bill and found that it could yield net savings of $1.8 billion for Medicare over the course of 10 years.

The original version of the CONNECT for Health Act — like the current version — had much more sweeping telehealth provisions than does the Chronic Care Act. Even so, the wide gulf between Avalere's prediction and the CBO findings raises the question of whether telehealth would really save much money or simply result in better care.

The full text of the report is available on the CBO website.

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Output: The telehealth features in the Chronic Care Act of 2017 would only have a minimal effect on Medicare spending over the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office has confirmed. The bill is one of many that feature telehealth that are currently being considered by Congress. S. 870, the Senate version of the bill, proposes an expansion of telehealth service for Medicare beneficiaries, eliminating the location limits that the current Medicare system mandates for telehealth services. The bill would offer greater access to telehealth service reimbursement for accountable care organizations (ACOs) from 2027 and would allow them to receive reimbursement from Medicare for telehealth supplied in patient’s own homes. This would increase spending on Medicare by approximately $50m from 2018 to 2027. Telestroke services would also be free of geographic limitations from 2021, allowing neurologists based in remote locales to examine patients quickly enough to alleviate the damage from strokes. The Congressional Budget Office has said that if the bill should pass, the percentage of strokes suffered by Medicare beneficiaries in nonrural areas that could be treated through telestroke services would increase from 6% to 14% by 2027. Federal and non-federal providers of telestroke services would see an increase in spending for the year of providing the service to patients before there would be a decline due to lower post-acute care costs after hospital discharges. Long-term costs would be lower, despite an increased spend of $180m in the years between 2018 and 2027.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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DocFlight puts Chinese patients in touch with US doctors
 When Sally Wang’s mother was diagnosed with breast cancer a few years back, she struggled to figure out how to get her the best medical help available.

Even with assistance from others, including a federal judge she clerked for, it was still a challenge for the 34-year-old who spent a career in the healthcare field.

“So that got me really thinking about if that was this difficult for me, what would it be like for other people who are not medically inclined and don’t have the training in the field and don’t have the connections,” Wang told NBC News.

That experience led Wang, a Harvard graduate with a joint law degree and master’s of public health, to co-found a company in 2015 called DocFlight, for which she serves as CEO.

“Generally in almost all the cases, our physicians have recommended a change, at least a tweak, in the course of therapy."

Wang’s startup counts itself among the firms based in the United States that deal in the domain of telemedicine, sometimes called telehealth, which uses technology to remotely connect doctors and patients otherwise separated by physical distance.

Globally, it’s a burgeoning area of medicine forecast to grow even bigger. Estimates on telemedicine’s market size vary according to research firms that study it. Market Data Forecast, one such research company, projects it will more than double from $25.53 billion in 2015 to $57.92 billion in 2020.

In the U.S., telemedicine has become increasingly popular with patients and doctors. Someone sick in a rural area far away from a hospital, for instance, can still receive care through a virtual visit with a physician. Others with illnesses like colds or the flu can do the same without leaving home, all for less than it might cost for a physical visit.

But DocFlight is different, Wang said, in that it focuses on patients thousands of miles away in China.

“In China, people get just a few minutes with the doctor,” explained Wang, who was born in Nanjing and raised in Queens, New York. “It’s very hard to uncover everything when you have so little time.”

Sally Hwang, co-founder and CEO of DocFlight, a company which uses technology to remotely connect doctors and patients otherwise separated by physical distance. Courtesy of DocFlight

“It’s also hard to access the best doctors in China. It takes a lot of connections,” she added.

With a population close to 1.4 billion, China has been grappling with an ailing healthcare system that the government is trying to reform.

A joint report last July by the World Bank Group, World Health Organization, and several Chinese government agencies recommended that China continue moving its healthcare model toward one focused on primary care and away from a “hospital-centric model that rewards volume and sales.”

Without changes to China’s healthcare system, the joint report projects that health spending there will increase from roughly $3.5 trillion yuan (US$520.9 billion) in 2014 to $15.8 trillion yuan (US$2.35 trillion) in 2035.

But for a couple of thousand U.S. dollars, DocFlight affords patients in China access to its network of several hundred physicians in the U.S. from top-flight hospitals, according to Wang. That includes Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and NYU Langone Medical Center, among others.

The virtual visit, which Wang likened to a health consultation, typically works like this: DocFlight learns about the patient’s condition through an intake system, then makes a match with an appropriate specialist. Medical records are translated first by computer, then reviewed for accuracy by a human, according to Wang.

At a scheduled time, the patient in China comes online; DocFlight has its own translator, staff, and doctor in the U.S. on the other end of the video platform, while a licensed physician in China can also participate.

After any follow-up questions about the patient, findings and recommendations are summarized by the U.S.-based physician, according to Wang. The consultation usually takes around 45 minutes.

DocFlight's patient portal page. Courtesy of DocFlight

“Generally in almost all the cases, our physicians have recommended a change, at least a tweak, in the course of therapy,” she said.

For one middle-aged woman in China who recently used DocFlight, the visit ended up making a world of difference, according to Wang.

Diagnosed with infectious pneumonia, the patient was on a respirator at home in China, and her condition was not improving, Wang said.

Her family, seeking a second opinion, reached out through a friend to Wang a few months back. DocFlight matched the woman with a top pulmonologist in New York, who agreed to see her through an online video consultation.

An evaluation of her CT scan, a kind of specialized X-ray, and medical records translated into English revealed something startling, Wang said — she had been misdiagnosed in China.

“Our expert, before he took a very close look at it, also thought that it could be infectious,” Wang explained. “But he was baffled by the fact that...they had tried a lot of antibiotics and the patient wasn’t getting any better.”

A couple of weeks after her DocFlight consultation, the woman was better and remains healthy, Wang said.

Telemedicine is not without its critics. Some point to the limitations of doctors unable to physically examine a patient through a video screen. Others worry about misdiagnoses and how they’re handled.

For DocFlight, Wang said its doctors don’t write prescriptions, nor do they provide treatments or perform procedures. The company does still protect its physicians with malpractice insurance, Wang noted.

“[We] also help with insurance. A lot of Chinese buy catastrophic insurance, so when they’re really sick, they do have this lump sum to help them pay for the medical expenses.”

The American Medical Association last June adopted new ethical guidance on telemedicine in an effort to help physicians understand how their responsibilities to patients “may play out differently” than under a traditional setting at a hospital or doctor’s office.

"The new AMA ethical guidance notes that while new technologies and new models of care will continue to emerge, physicians' fundamental ethical responsibilities do not change," board member Dr. Jack Resneck said in a news release at the time.

While companies like DocFlight open up top medical experts in the U.S. to patients in China, some worry that such services benefit only the affluent, thus widening China’s healthcare inequality gap.

Nearly 40 percent of China’s population fell into the low-income category, meaning their disposable income amounted to $2,100 per year, CNBC reported in November, citing a report from the Economist Intelligence Unit.

But the same analysis also showed that China, based on income measures, is poised to become a middle-class society by 2030.

“We can’t say that we can help everybody, but we can certainly at least serve those in the middle class, which is the vast majority of the Chinese population,” Wang explained.

“There is also help with insurance,” she said. “A lot of Chinese buy catastrophic insurance, so when they’re really sick, they do have this lump sum to help them pay for the medical expenses.”

In the meantime, one way DocFlight is trying to aid those in China unable to afford its services is by offering patient guides online for free, which Wang said the company is in the process of publishing.

DocFlight's "Find Doctors" page. Courtesy of DocFlight

That literature, she said, translates English-language articles, papers and publications about the latest in medicine and gold-standard treatments in the U.S. into Chinese.

Still, Wang believes DocFlight presents a more affordable option to Chinese patients than so-called medical tourism, in which the wealthy travel overseas for expensive medical treatment, often spending upwards of tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket.

DocFlight also arranges such trips to the U.S. for Chinese patients seeking medical treatment, though Wang added that they also have the option of being treated back home in China.

The good news, Wang said, is that China invests in state-of-the-art equipment to run medical tests, a key to making accurate diagnoses. But the country’s healthcare system still incentivizes dispensing drugs and performing medical procedures over good patient health outcomes, a model that China is trying to reform, according to the joint report.

Costs for unnecessary treatments ordered by doctors can thus mount up fast.

“We can’t say that we can help everybody, but we can certainly at least serve those in the middle class, which is the vast majority of the Chinese population."

“That,” Wang said, “we can stop before the patients are talked into doing them. We could potentially save them [DocFlight patients] money.”

Since its founding two years ago, DocFlight has had a few dozen patients, usually seeing those with chronic diseases or cancer, according to Wang.

She said DocFlight is trying to expand its patient base by working with referral sources in China. Those groups, Wang said, can reach about 10 million patients.

It’s also collaborating with Chinese hospitals, according to Wang, including one in Shanghai that specializes in dermatology, a branch of medicine that lends itself well to telemedicine visits.

Beyond China, Wang said she sees DocFlight possibly expanding to other countries where gaps are present in medicine and healthcare.

“When I started this company, I really just wanted to be helpful to these patients,” Wang said. “And I ultimately believe that this is the way that will make the company successful.”

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Output: Telemedical start-up DocFlight, founded by Harvard graduate Sally Wang, connects American doctors via remote means to Chinese patients in an attempt to alleviate a lack of medical coverage. In China, getting access to the best healthcare providers is difficult without connections and patients often only get a few minutes with doctors. China has been trying to reform its healthcare system, but the sheer scale of its population of 1.4 billion people makes that very challenging. Telemedicine is predicted to increase in value from $25.53bn globally in 2015 to $57.92bn in 2020.


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Polluted California lake used as algae biofuel source
 Scientists from Sandia National Laboratories are working to see if one of California’s most polluted lakes can be turned into a profitable source of algae biofuel.

The 350-square-mile Salton Sea in Southern California has elevated levels of nitrogen and phosphorus due to agricultural runoff. Algae thrives in these conditions, something which causes a host of environmental problems. The team from Sandia are now looking to harness this algae both to provide a new biofuel source, and clean the lake of pollutants.

Key to their solution is algae’s prolific, exponential growth, and Sandia-Labs patented fermentation process. The scientists from Sandia, with funding from BETO, hope that the Salton Sea Biomass Remediation (SABRE) project will help determine whether algae biofuels can play a key role in solving the US’ diverse energy needs.

Just a few months into the research, Sandia biochemist Ryan Davis is optimistic about the prospects. “The early results we’re already getting from the Salton Sea appear to be superior to results from similar algae systems. It’s really promising,” he said in a statement.

New method

The first phase of the project saw Sandia scientists test a new method for producing algae, called an ‘Alga Turf Scrubber’ floway system, which is used to grow a collection of native algae species. The system pulses water from the lake in waves across a sloped floway. The algae consume the nutrients, meaning clean water is then released out the other side.

Low maintenance, solar powered pumps designed by Sandia power the system, while periodic farming of the algae can be done using farming equipment, according to a statement. Early results from testing in Texas suggest turf scrubbers can produce a quantity of algae comparable to the popular raceway form of algae cultivation.

By producing algae native local to the area, the new system is more resistant to pathogens and predators. Meanwhile, it also helps address the main criticism of algae as a biofuel source – that it uses too much water.

“There’s water and then there’s water,” Davis said. “We’ve shown that we can grow algae in turf scrubber systems using water full of nasty components. And it still thrives.” In other words, there isn’t much that can be done with this water until the pollutants are removed.

Double benefit

In an ironic twist, the team from Sandia hope that the SABRE algae growing project could actually help manage harmful, unchecked algae growth.

Algae blooms covering the surface of the Salton Sea cause a host of environmental problems, most notably in the thousands of asphyxiated, dead fish found on the banks of the lake each year. Causing significant ecological damage, these algae blooms have even been connected to the death of sea birds in the area.

The SABRE project has seen Sandia construct a turf scrubber on one of the main tributaries feeding the Salton Sea. The team have found that the algae growing inside the turf scrubber feed on and remove the chemicals in the water as it passes through. Sandia hopes that in doing so, a significant amount of the chemicals responsible for algae growth will be removed.

To find out more about the biofuels market come and visit the tenth Biofuels International Conference & Expo. Register now for Biofuels International 2017 for two days of essential learning to network with experts, sharpen your biofuels knowledge and improve your skills, on 4-5 October.

Output: Researchers from Sandia National Laboratories are using one of California's most polluted lakes to discover whether it could be turned into a profitable source of algae biofuel. The 350-square mile Salton Sea in southern California is heavily polluted because of agricultural runoff causing high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus. The Salton Sea Biomass Remediation (Sabre) project will use an "Alga Turf Scrubber" floway system, in which water from the lake is pulsed in waves across a sloped floway where native algae are grown. The algae consume the chemicals, which means clean water is then released the other side. The system runs on solar power.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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EToro exchange merges crypto and stock trading on same platform
 Cryptocurrency and stock trading are fundamentally different from one another. In conventional stock trading, investors create a diverse portfolio of equity in certain companies, trading stakes in public corporations. In cryptocurrency trading, however, investors and traders prefer to invest in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum as long-term investments.

Leading cryptocurrencies and crypto-assets including Bitcoin and Ethereum are still at their early stages in development. The entire cryptocurrency market, which is valued at over $110 billion, is still dependent on a large group of speculative investors that have invested in crypto currencies to expose themselves to the new asset class and to learn more about cryptocurrencies in general.

The vast majority of investors in Bitcoin perceive the digital currency as a long-term investment, safe haven asset, digital gold and a currency. Many traders utilize Bitcoin as both a digital currency to transact on online marketplaces, offline merchants with Bitcoin visa debit cards, and as a peer to peer payment method to send money efficiently, with low transaction fees and no mediators.

Hence, apart from a small group of traders that attempt to test the short-term trends of leading cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum through technical analysis and publicly available market information, the majority of investors in Bitcoin and Ethereum are long-term investors and traders.

The stock market is significantly different from the cryptocurrency exchange market in the sense that most try to utilize high-performance trading platforms to day-trade and profit off movements within a short period of time. More to that, to be able to trade public stocks, investors either are required to become accredited investors or invest through stock brokers. In the cryptocurrency market, anyone can invest in cryptocurrencies without boundaries.

For instance, through ShapeShift, any trader can purchase a wide range of cryptocurrencies using Bitcoin. The initial purchase of Bitcoin can be facilitated through Bitcoin exchanges by bank transfers, over-the-counter deposits and in some countries including South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and the Philippines, bank ATMs, convenience stores, and subways.

There exist distinctive merits in both stock and cryptocurrency trading. Both markets are highly liquid and offer innovative trading platforms such as eToro, a trusted social trading platforms utilized by millions of active users, that enable investors and traders to invest in stocks and cryptocurrencies without having to undergo a strict accreditation process.

More importantly, on the eToro platform, through its social trading platform, users, investors, and traders can copy the portfolio of successful traders through the CopyFund and benefit from the success of top investors.

Both stock and cryptocurrency markets offer opportunities for investors and traders to drive high profits with limited resources and capital. It will be beneficial for traders to operate on a platform such as eToro that offer both stock and cryptocurrency trading platforms so that alternative trading methods can be tested in both markets.

Image Credit: Pixabay, No Attribution Required

Output: The eToro exchange puts cryptocurrency and stock trading together on the same platform, meaning alternative trading methods can be tested in both markets. EToro lets investors and traders invest in stocks and cryptocurrencies without having to go through a strict accreditation process. It also lets users copy the portfolios of successful traders through its CopyFunds product to help them benefit from the success of top investors.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Ultra Lithium buys three lithium-brine assets in Argentina
 VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 08, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ultra Lithium Inc. (TSX-V:ULI) (“ULI” or “the Company”) is pleased to announce it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire 100% interest in three Lithium Brine properties (the “Properties”) covering 22,176 hectares, located in the Antofagasta region, Province of Catamarca in Argentina. The three properties are comprised of 11 mining licenses and are in addition to the La Borita claim block acquisition announced on June 27, 2017. These properties are located within the “Lithium Triangle,” a region which holds over 50% of the world’s lithium resource.

Below is a summary of the three properties:

Amelia Property: Comprised of 3 mining licenses Amelia I-III, covering 5,400 hectares located in the northern part of Salar de Antofalla, a lithium, potassium deposit historically explored by Rio Tinto and in the vicinity of Albemarle Corporation’s Salar De Antofalla property. Laguna del Salitre / Laguna de Aparoma Property: Comprised of two licenses covering 5,400 hectares, located about 80 km to the south of the Salar del Hombre Muerto partly owned by FMC Lithium. Archibara / Laguna Verde Property: Comprised of six mining licenses Archibara I-III, and Laguna Verde I-III, covering 11,376 hectares located about 80 km to the north of Albemarle’s project.

Under the terms of agreement signed on June 20, 2017 between Luis Manuel Alvarez (the Vendor) and the Company, ULI will pay the following:

2,486,040 Argentinian Pesos (approximately USD $155,378) to the Mining Secretariat of Catamarca for outstanding canon fees upon signing the agreement. USD $30,000 after due diligence is completed. USD $1,980,000 in four equal quarterly payments commencing 270 days from signing the agreement to acquire 100% rights on the Property.

The Vendor will retain a 2.5 % royalty.

Dr. Weiguo Lang, CEO of Ultra Lithium, stated that, “The acquisition of La Borita Property opened up doors for the Company to acquire a sufficiently large area to carry out lithium exploration in a very promising and strategic region within the world known Lithium Triangle. We are very thankful to Mr. Alvarez for having confidence in Ultra Lithium to give this opportunity for acquiring his other lithium licenses. These properties are in the vicinity of a producing mine operated by FMC Corporation, and other deposits owned by Galaxy Lithium and Albemarle, a leading lithium producer in the world. We have developed a work program to complete bench scale testing on La Borita to produce lithium brine concentrate, and to carry out systematic sampling on each mining license. The sampling results will enable us to prioritize further exploration work.”

Qualified Person

The technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Afzaal Pirzada, P.Geo., a qualified person, as defined by NI 43-101 who works as Vice President Exploration of the Company.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

“Kiki Smith”

Kiki Smith, CFO

About Ultra Lithium Inc.

Ultra Lithium is an exploration and development company with a focus on the acquisition and development of lithium assets. The Company is currently holds brine exploration properties in Catamarca, Argentina and Nevada, USA and hard rock spodumene type lithium property in Ontario, Canada.

Output: Canadian company Ultra Lithium has agreed to buy three lithium-brine assets covering 22,176 hectares in Argentina's Catamarca Province. The assets consist of 11 mining licences and are located in the "Lithium Triangle", which holds more than 50% of the world's lithium stocks.