News In Brief July 23: Coal India Gets Graphite Block, PowerCo & QuantumScape, JA Solar And Solarpro

Coal India Secures First Graphite Block In Green Energy Push

Coal India Limited (CIL) secured its first critical mineral asset, a graphite block, in Madhya Pradesh. Acquiring a graphite asset position, Coal India emerged as the preferred bidder for the Khattali Chotti graphite block located in Alirajpur district, Madhya Pradesh.

The state-owned, Coal India Limited (CIL) coal India accounts for over 80% of domestic coal production, making this foray into non-coal mineral mining a significant diversification. The successful bid was part of the tranche two forward auctions held on July 9th by the Ministry of Mines. CIL won the bid with a mining premium of 150.05% of the mineral dispatch value, which will be paid to the state.

PowerCo And QuantumScape Enter Agreement To Industrialise Solid-State Batteries

Volkswagen Group’s battery company PowerCo and QuantumScape agreed to industrialise QuantumScape’s next-generation solid-state lithium-metal battery technology. Upon satisfactory technical progress and certain royalty payments, QuantumScape will grant PowerCo the license to mass-produce battery cells based on QuantumScape’s technology platform.

Under the non-exclusive license, PowerCo can manufacture up to 40 gigawatt-hours (GWh) per year using QuantumScape’s technology with the option to expand up to 80 GWh annually. This would be enough to outfit approximately one million vehicles per year. The agreement supersedes an earlier joint venture between the Volkswagen Group and QuantumScape to co-manufacture batteries.

JA Solar and Solarpro Cooperate To Supply Modules To 240MW Solar Power Plant In Bulgaria

JA Solar, a global manufacturer of high-performance photovoltaic products, is pleased to announce a strategic cooperation with Solarpro to supply high-efficiency TOPCon modules DeepBlue 4.0 Pro for a large-scale 240MW solar power plant in Tenevo village, Yambol district, Bulgaria. Solarpro is a leading EPC contractor and technological provider of solutions for the generation and storage of renewable energy within Europe, managing the entire project’s lifecycle from design to implementation and monitoring. The project is financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).