The R&D World Index (RDWI) for the week ending February 25, 2022, closed at 5,172.49 for the 25 companies in the RDWI. The Index was up 1.92% (or 97.38 basis points) from the week ending February 18, 2022. The stock of 13 RDWI members gained value from 1.05% (Sanofi SA) to 5.93% (Intel). The stock of 12 RDWI members lost value from -0.07% (Merck & Co.) to -9.29% (Alibaba).
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The Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), Helsinki, Finland, and U.S. think tank Global Energy Monitor (GEM). San Francisco, last week reported that China started building 33 GW of new coal-fired power generation capacity in 2021, the most since 2016. The action reveals that China’s economy is struggling as it falls back on fossil fuels, rather than renewables. This new added capacity under construction is three times more than the rest of the world combined according to the report. China also approved 74 million tons of replacement coat-based steel production in 2021, according to the report. These actions violate the environmental pledges China made in the Paris Agreement in 2015. China has stated that it will start cutting coal consumption in 2026 but is likely to add an additional 150 GW of coal-fired power into operation by then, according to researchers with the State Grid Corp. of China.
Real estate investment manager Capri EGM, Chicago, last week announced it had funded and acquired a newly constructed lab and R&D facility for biomanufacturing company National Resilience Inc., San Diego. Ology Bioservices, Alachua, Florida, a wholly owned subsidiary of Resilience and the operator of the Lab & Research facility, was recently awarded a $250 million contract by the Department of Defense to develop and manufacture a monoclonal antibody as a countermeasure to botulinum neurotoxins. Resilience also has a multiyear agreement to produce mRNA for Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, and an R&D alliance with Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, to develop complex medicines. Resilience also has a biomanufacturing development agreement with Takeda Pharamceutical, Round Lake, Illinois, supporting their plasma-derived medicines portfolio. The Resilience Lab & Research facility is in North Florida’s Research and Life Science cluster near the University of Florida, the top ranked biotech incubator globally.
Solid-state battery developer, QuantumScape, San Jose, California, announced last week that it will create a new office in Kyoto Research Park, Japan, which will feature a state-of-the-art lab for battery R&D. Their plan is to work alongside experienced battery scientists in the Asia-Pacific region to develop and manufacture new battery technologies for electric vehicles. QuantumScape has financial backing from Volkswagen Group and a reverse SPAC merger with Kensington Capital Acquisition, New York City. In addition to R&D, the new Kyoto office will also be used for material and equipment evaluation and for collaboration with the company’s partners in the region.
Siemens, Munich, Germany, announced last week that it had developed, with building materials startup Nexii, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, a weather-proof electric charging station for electric vehicles (EVs) in just six months. The VersiCharge XL is designed to be used at new or existing buildings, especially parking garages, office lots, and other locations where large groups of EVs will be using Level 2 and Level 3 chargers. The structure is expandable with battery storage and solar array add-ons planned.
RDW Index member Microsoft, Redmond, Washington, last week announced that they would offer a simpler way to use its security products on Google’s cloud, a major competitor to Microsoft’s Azure cloud product. Microsoft had previously created a version of its security product that is compatible with Amazon’s cloud, the cloud industry leader, so now Microsoft’s popular security software will be available at the three companies that account for nearly two thirds of all cloud infrastructure services. Bringing Microsoft’s security solutions to the clouds of different companies is crucial to solving cybersecurity issues, according to Microsoft. This is because companies are often too dependent on too many small security products that defend parts of their data. Microsoft’s cybersecurity business has grown by about 45% over the past year.
GWM (for Great Wall Motor) Co., Baoding, China, announced at a Brand Launch Conference in Brazil, last week, that they will set up a global fuel cell R&D base to conduct research on fuel cell technology and recruit and train local talents in Brazil in intelligence and clean energy to create green production. GWM already has a world-class R&D team for hydrogen energy and fuel cell systems and technologies in China. GWM released its Hydrogen Energy Strategy last year to support hydrogen energy usage. The strategy consists of a set of vehicle-mounted components R&D system, three technology platforms and five performance advantages. GWM tests have shown that this R&D-based system can ensure high performance, high quality and low costs. The company has already installed these systems in 49-ton hydrogen-powered heavy-duty trucks. GWM has invested about $300 million in the hydrogen energy R&D sector and plans to invest up to $1 billion over the next three years to reach the production capacity of 10,000 vehicle sets/year.
In a separate hydrogen fuel application announcement, European airframe manufacturer Airbus, Leiden, the Netherlands, has announced that it will fly a hydrogen-combustion turbine engine on an A380 jumbo-jet testbed aircraft by the end of 2026. Liquid hydrogen tanks stored in the A380 will be used to feed a General Electric Passport turbine that has been modified for hydrogen combustion through a cryogenic fuel distribution system.
R&D World’s R&D Index is a weekly stock market summary of the top international companies involved in R&D. The top 25 industrial R&D spenders in 2019 were selected based on the latest listings from Schonfeld & Associates’ June 2020 R&D Ratios & Budgets. These 25 companies include pharmaceutical (10 companies), automotive (6 companies) and ICT (9 companies) who invested a cumulative total of nearly 260 billion dollars in R&D in 2019, or approximately 10% of all the R&D spent in the world by government, industries and academia combined, according to R&D World’s 2021 Global R&D Funding Forecast. The stock prices used in the R&D World Index are tabulated from NASDAQ, NYSE, and OTC common stock prices for the companies selected at the close of stock trading business on the Friday preceding the online publication of the R&D World Index.
What about the economic feasibility of setting up large solar power plants in the deserts of Sadia Arabia and using the electricity to produce hydrogen to be used across the world?