Energy

Bloomberg Wartsila Oyj’s East African unit won two engineering, procurement and construction contracts to develop grid-connected solar firms in Kenya, each with a capacity of 40 megawatts. Construction is expected to begin next year, according to George Oywer, a business development ma-nager at Wartsila Eas- tern Africa Ltd. The East African nation, which has an electricity supply deficit, is boosting ...

Bloomberg China’s proposal to increase its solar energy target to as much as 270 gigawatts by 2020 won’t be enough to erase the worldwide panel glut that’s crippling prices, according to analysts at Credit Suisse Group AG. “We forecast that the country needs a 300-350GW by 2020 target to fully absorb new manufacturing capacity planned in the near term,” analysts ...

Bloomberg China Three Gorges Corp.’s pursuit of utility EDP-Energias de Portugal SA has slowed as the Chinese energy producer grapples with unexpected obstacles to creating a global renewable-energy powerhouse, people with knowledge of the matter said. A sudden leadership change at Three Gorges, lingering regulatory and political concerns as well as pressure to raise the 9.1 billion-euro ($10.4 billion) offer ...

Bloomberg Keep pouring money into coal-fired plants and it won’t be just the fuel that’s getting burned. As much as $60 billion of coal power assets may be stranded in the next decade across Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines, according to a new study by Carbon Tracker, which cited tighter environmental policies and competition from cheaper renewable energy. That analysis ...

Bloomberg A Chinese archipelago that served as a pirate’s den in centuries past and was governed by President Xi Jinping in the new millennium is luring the world’s energy giants. State-run Saudi Arabian Oil Co. and US behemoth Exxon Mobil Corp. were among firms that signed $24 billion in preliminary deals last week at the International Petroleum and Natural Gas ...

Bloomberg Almost 84 percent of Southeast Asia’s planned and existing fossil fuel power plants are incompatible with future scenarios that avoid catastrophic damage from climate change, according a new study from the University of Oxford. The report, which comes on the heels of a major United Nations-backed study of the impacts of global temperatures rising 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit), ...

Bloomberg The world is growing more complacent about efforts to squeeze down the use of energy. That’s the signal coming from an International Energy Agency report (IEA), which found the smallest improvement in efficiency in a decade after demand for fuels of all kinds grew more strongly in 2017. The report is a blow to policymakers seeking to ratchet back ...

Bloomberg Drax Group Plc agreed to buy some of Iberdrola SA’s power plants for 702 million pounds ($923 million), boosting its clean energy assets in a further shift away from burning coal. The acquisition involves pumped storage, renewable hydro and gas-fired power assets and will increase the utility’s generation capacity by more than 60 percent to about 6.6 gigawatts, Chief ...

Bloomberg A growing number of California communities are opting to ditch big utilities in favour of alternative programs run by local governments. The state just made it more expensive. The California Public Utilities Commission voted to change the formula that determines how much utilities charge customers who switch to these so-called community choice aggregators, or CCAs. PG&E Corp. and the ...

Bloomberg Central Europe’s third-largest polluter plans to almost triple its clean-energy capacity as emission costs surge. Tauron Polska Energia SA is preparing to add at least 700 megawatts of clean, regulated power to “improve” its portfolio after carbon permits almost tripled over the past year, Chief Financial Officer Marek Wadowski said. That’s the equivalent of half a modern nuclear reactor ...