May, 2020

• 19 May

  Battle over world’s biggest wind turbine is heating up

  

  Bloomberg Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy SA, the Spanish wind turbine manufacturer, is to build what will be the world’s biggest windmill, by the thinnest of margins. The 14-megawatt machine with a rotor diametre of 222 metres (728 feet) will be just two meters bigger than General Electric Co’s own massive turbine. It’s another sign that size matters when it comes ...

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• 19 May

  US shale output set to tumble to 2018 low

  

  Bloomberg Oil production from the top seven shale regions in the US is set to tumble to levels not seen since 2018 as drillers scale back in response to the recent price collapse. Losses will be led by the Permian Basin — which straddles Texas and New Mexico — where output is seen falling by 87,000 barrels a day in ...

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• 19 May

  Ovo Energy plans to slash 2,600 workers

  Bloomberg Ovo Energy Ltd plans to cut 2,600 staff as customers use digital tools to contact the energy supplier, cutting the need for people. Since its acquisition of SSE Energy Services last year, Ovo has been planning the integration of the two businesses which “would have always required difficult changes,” the company said. The impact of the coronavirus has accelerated ...

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• 19 May

  Spain aims to pass law setting climate targets

  Bloomberg Spain’s government is seeking to pass a law setting its climate targets as part of a drive to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. A bill was set to be sent by the government to parliament on Tuesday aims to reduce Spain’s greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2030, relative to 1990 levels, according to copies of the bill distributed ...

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• 19 May

  All vaccine developers need to take their time!

  

  The fast pace at which various laboratories are working on vaccines against Covid-19 carries both promise and peril. On May 18, Moderna Therapeutics Inc announced the first reported data from human trials, and they are positive. That’s good news, and it arrived sooner than expected. But the parts of the project that lie ahead will be harder to accomplish with ...

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• 19 May

  Is Johnson stuck in lockdown mode?

  

  Rival soccer teams in Germany’s Bundesliga clash in an empty stadium, Italians meet for socially distant restaurant dining and tourists are visiting the Acropolis again. Things are reopening in Europe. Not so much in Britain. Here, the lifting of restrictions has been a source of bitter controversy, confusion and nervousness. Britons may be pouring into parks and hitting the roads ...

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• 19 May

  Americans have no clue what’s next on inflation

  The Federal Reserve’s stated mandate is to “promote effectively the goals of maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long term interest rates.” The first part is obviously a disaster right now, with more than 36 million Americans filing initial jobless claims in the past eight weeks, bringing US unemployment to levels not seen since the Great Depression. The last objective ...

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• 19 May

  Virus exposes Putin’s failures in Russia

  It’s been an uncomfortably swift rise to the top of the coronavirus tables for President Vladimir Putin. From only a handful of Covid-19 cases in early March, Russia now has more than 290,000 of them and a rate of new infections that puts it second only to the US — a country with more than twice as many people. Few ...

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• 19 May

  Over 15,000 HK shops may shut down sans rent relief

  

  Bloomberg From luxury boutiques to mom and pop stores, Hong Kong’s retailers are hurting. Unless landlords can offer more relief, one in four could disappear by December if sales don’t improve, putting an end to the city’s reputation as a shopping hotspot. That’s the gloomy prediction of Hong Kong Retail Management Association Chairman Annie Yau Tse, who says the rent ...

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• 19 May

  Qantas says air fares could jump nine fold

  

  Bloomberg Qantas Airways Ltd said putting extra space between passengers on planes could lead to a big increase in airfares and discourage people from flying. “Social distancing on an aircraft isn’t practical,” Qantas Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce said in a briefing with reporters on Tuesday. If implemented, it could mean there would only be 22 people on a 128-seat ...

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