Energy

Bloomberg Chinese manufacturers that dominate nearly every step in the global solar power supply chain are being forced to slash prices as the coronavirus disrupts projects around the world. Costs for components like wafers and cells have fallen by as much as 20% since the start of the year. They likely haven’t bottomed out yet, either, as the outlook for ...

Bloomberg India’s two main power exchanges started real-time electricity trading on Monday, a bid to allow buyers greater flexibility in balancing supply and demand. Auctions will be conducted every 30 minutes and deliveries will be made within an hour of the session end, Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) Ltd, the country’s largest power trading platform, said. Day-ahead transactions currently account for ...

Bloomberg Europeans need to urgently increase the solar power that their economies generate or face a reckoning with climate change they could regret. Those are the stark choices outlined by top European Union scientists whose advice will be published by Elsevier BV. They see massive new solar investments not only for the bloc to meet its 2030 climate goals, but ...

Bloomberg JinkoSolar Holding Co, the world’s biggest solar panel maker, started operations at the first phase of a massive 11 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) factory in China’s eastern Zhejiang province that will eventually double its manufacturing capacity. When finished, the entire plant is designed to produce 16 gigawatts of panels a year in Yiwu city, a division of the local ...

Bloomberg Uniper SE’s controversial new German coal plant is opening at a time when the fuel has never been more unpopular. Datteln-4 has drawn international condemnation from teenage activist Greta Thunberg to Greenpeace at a time when many countries are trying to slash their emissions. The environmentalists aren’t buying the argument that the new plant is more climate friendly than ...

Bloomberg Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro said fuel prices would increase starting in June, a historic policy shift after decades of subsidies that have allowed Venezuelans to essentially fill their tanks for free. Gasoline will be sold at 5,000 bolivars (2.5 US cents) per litre at gas stations nationwide starting from Monday, including 200 stations that will sell premium fuel at ...

Bloomberg A shortage of diesel fuel in South Africa will ease up in a few weeks when about 30% of its refining capacity, idled because of a drop in demand spurred by the Covid-19 lockdown, will return to service. Sasol Ltd and Total SA shut the Natref refinery in April after the government restricted economic activity to curb the spread ...

Bloomberg Fossil fuels are no longer considered “green” by China’s central bank. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) plans to remove “clean utilisation of fossil fuel” projects from the list of programs that can be funded by green bonds, according to a draft plan. The bank has drawn the ire of environmentalists for allowing the sustainable financing tools to fund ...

Bloomberg Occidental Petroleum Corp cut its quarterly dividend by 91% to the lowest since at least the 1970s amid the pandemic-driven collapse in energy demand that has strained the oil explorer’s ability to shoulder its debt. Occidental shareholders will receive a penny per share on July 15, the Houston-based company said in a statement. The move extends a cut announced ...

Bloomberg Chevron Corp is planning a 10% to 15% reduction in its global workforce this year, the biggest cut to headcount yet among global oil majors following the Covid-19 pandemic. The cuts equate to about 6,000 of its 45,000 non-gas station employees and may be a precursor to staffing reductions at Big Oil rivals such as BP Plc and Royal ...