Know What's Happening in Energy
Know What's Happening in Energy
JPMorgan flags $1 trillion U.S. power‑grid upgrade spend amid aging infrastructure
The bank warns that the U.S. grid, averaging nearly 60 years old, faces a national‑security risk and projects roughly $1 trillion in upgrades between 2026 and 2035, part of a $5.8 trillion global spend. Rising AI‑driven data‑center demand could add 100 GW of peak load by 2030, intensifying the upgrade need.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Oil majors secure $164M Alaska lease package
South Korean conglomerate SK Group’s battery separator plant in Dąbrowa Górnicza, Poland, was named the second‑most impactful operational mega project in Europe for 2026. The €4.4 bn investment has created more than 1,200 jobs and strengthens Europe’s battery supply chain amid rising Chinese competition. SK Battery Materials Poland highlighted talent access from local universities and close cooperation with authorities to mitigate high electricity and labor costs. The award underscores the strategic importance of foreign direct investment in the region’s clean‑energy transition.
Chinese battery giant CATL is investing €7.34 bn to build a gigafactory in Debrecen, Hungary, the country’s largest greenfield project. The company has already assembled over 120,000 battery modules in a rented facility and aims to start lithium‑ion cell production in...
Smart Solar Technologies, a Turkish cleantech firm, announced a €122 million investment to build a solar cell and module factory in Stara Zagora, Bulgaria. The plant will target 1,500 MW of wafer, cell and module output and is expected to generate more than...
Australia’s clean‑energy push, highlighted by the Cheaper Home Batteries Program, has driven rapid rooftop solar adoption, yet renters—over one‑third of households—remain excluded. Solar Citizens and a coalition of 72 groups have campaigned for a solar‑for‑renters framework, testing public consensus through...
Mercedes‑Benz Trucks handed over its first eActros 600 to Chilean carrier Empresas Cavalieri, marking the model’s debut outside Europe and the first series‑production electric long‑haul truck in South America. The vehicle will serve the Santiago‑Viña del Mar beverage route for Compañía...
CarbonQuest, a Spokane‑based startup, is expanding its carbon‑capture technology from New York high‑rise boilers to gas‑fired engines that power compressors on Canadian pipelines. The company secured a $4.1 million grant‑backed contract with Tourmaline to install a containerized vacuum pressure swing absorption...
Estonia’s utility Utilitas has commissioned an 80 MW/1,100 MWh thermal energy storage (TES) plant in Tallinn, while Lithuania’s state‑owned Ignitis Group has confirmed a €130 million, 291 MW/582 MWh battery storage portfolio that will use Rolls‑Royce BESS modules and Nidec Conversion power‑conversion equipment. Both projects...
The episode examines escalating geopolitical risks to Europe’s energy security, focusing on rising US‑Iran tensions, Russia’s renewed attacks on Ukrainian energy assets, and shifting US interest in Greenland. Experts from Eurasia Group, Aurora Energy Research, and Montel analyze how these...
LNG demand in Europe is so strong that it's taking a shipment *FROM CHINA* ⚠️ An LNG tanker reloaded a shipment at a Chinese terminal and is heading to Europe (China is the world’s largest LNG Buyer) Europe's LNG imports have surged...
#Mission300 continues to make significant progress across #Africa. In Eastern #Chad, new #electricity access enables students to learn in classrooms that are both ventilated and well-lit, giving them the opportunity to continue learning after dark. 🔗https://t.co/QdI1hnVw0v https://t.co/Bzkzai5ClE
Ascott is shifting its sustainability focus from guest‑facing gestures to system‑level operational improvements, targeting cooling efficiency, refrigerant discipline, and maintenance quality. The 2024 CarbonClear Initiative standardises energy audits and sets property‑level targets, using utility data and sub‑metering for verification. These...
You cannot make this up. US administration is directing the Department of Defense to buy coal power and spending $175m to keep ageing coal plants running. Coal plants average 44 years old. Many are costly and prone to outages. Markets, not ideology...
Meanwhile in Russia’s Ukhta. The local refinery keeps getting hit by drones as we speak. 1,800 km away from the Ukrainan border. https://t.co/TZMDIrIIg6
President Donald Trump called the newly concluded India‑US trade deal historic, highlighting its potential to expand American energy exports, especially coal. The interim agreement slashes U.S. duties on Indian goods to a uniform 18% across textiles, apparel, chemicals and more,...
NEW ANALYSIS: China's CO2 has now been 'flat or falling' for 21 months * Down in 2025 * Still below Mar 2024 * Clean energy wave a key factor If this is China's peak (TBC) it's the climate story of the century so...
Pack it up, gas bulls. Winter is over Japan's temperature outlook for the next month 👇 https://t.co/0NTPCXmGD1
Adani Power has created a wholly‑owned subsidiary, Adani Atomic Energy Limited, with an initial ₹5 lakh investment to generate, transmit and distribute nuclear power. The move follows the passage of the SHANTI Act, which opens India’s nuclear sector to private players...
🇮🇳About 3.5% of total passenger cars sold in January 2026 in India were electric (these are actual cars and do not include two- and three-wheelers).
🚂If President Trump is serious about increasing coal exports dramatically, and if he is serious about US energy dominance, he will build oil pipelines and prohibit rail transportation of oil. This will provide the US coal industry with the help...
Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) is expanding beyond battery manufacturing into a nationwide battery‑swap network called Choco‑Swap, targeting 30,000 stations across China. Its subsidiary Era Electric has already built 1,000 stations by end‑2025 and plans to add 2,000 more in 2026,...
The final India Leadership Talks episode highlighted how virtual‑twin technology and model‑based engineering are moving from promise to practice across manufacturing, infrastructure and life sciences. Leaders from Godrej, KPMG and IndianOil Adani Ventures described a shift from basic digitalisation to...
NTPC’s shares have surged about 12 % in the last three months, outpacing the ET Power index, as the utility accelerates both thermal capacity additions and renewable growth through its NGEL subsidiary. The company now operates roughly 86 GW of installed capacity...
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) flagged that NLC India's Mine‑II in Neyveli operated without a valid environmental clearance, stemming from delayed revalidation. The audit also revealed severe land constraints, leaving only 46.19 hectares for active mining and an estimated...
I’ll be in Calgary in early March for a discussion hosted by the Canadian Heavy Oil Association about what recent developments in Venezuela mean for Canada’s oil industry. Join us! And drop me a line if you want to grab a...
The episode examines the latest U.S. weekly oil inventory data, highlighting how the lingering effects of a recent storm continue to distort supply figures. Analysts discuss the discrepancy between reported crude builds and actual market conditions, noting that refinery outages...
Despite CA having 2x the elec price as TX, Texans pay 28% more per cap for elec yearly because TX uses 2.7x the elec per cap as CA (vs 2.1x in 2001, so nothing to do with weather) even with...
HEY FRIENDS A rare treat: I'm talking about something not only good but so good that it makes the cynics and climate delayers look amusingly silly. Big grid batteries are pushing dirty, expensive fossil gas out of the power grid,...
VEIR, a superconducting power‑solutions firm founded in 2019, is targeting the growing power‑density gap between data‑center demand and legacy grid capacity. CEO Tim Heidel explains that existing transmission corridors are congested, creating long interconnection queues and curtailment risks. VEIR’s high‑temperature...
The Oil & Gas Journal (OGJ) offers a daily OGJ Crack Spread metric that quantifies the margin between crude oil input costs and refined product sales. This spread serves as a real‑time gauge of refinery profitability and market tightness. OGJ’s...
In this episode, Argus analysts Huijun Yao and Dinise Chng examine the rapid expansion of China’s green ammonia sector, highlighting the policy incentives, renewable‑energy integration and key projects slated for 2026‑2027. They detail which wind and solar farms will power...
The Oil & Gas Journal released a data set detailing U.S. crude oil imports broken down by country of origin. The report highlights the top supplying nations, shifts in import volumes over the past year, and emerging trends such as...
AI adoption is now common in North American electric utilities, with over 80% reporting some use of the technology. Yet many pilots stall because they are treated as side projects rather than core operations. The article stresses that embedding AI...
Aggreko has installed rooftop solar systems at two U.S. service centers—a 100‑kW array in St. Louis that meets about 40 % of the site’s electricity and an 87.3‑kW array in Bridgeport covering roughly 64 % of its power needs. The installations cut...
SolarEdge Technologies announced a partnership with grid‑software firm WeaveGrid to bring its residential battery systems into the utility‑focused Distribution‑Integrated System Capacity Orchestration (DISCO) platform. DISCO, originally built for large‑scale EV charging management, will now coordinate both electric vehicles and home...
The National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR), formerly NREL, announced a second major workforce reduction this year, cutting 134 employees. The layoffs follow a prior round of 114 cuts nine months earlier and are attributed to adjusted funding levels and...
![[Episode #269] – Trump’s War on the Energy Transition](/cdn-cgi/image/width=1200,quality=75,format=auto,fit=cover/https://cdn.xenetwork.org/ets/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/powerpress/ETS-PodcastArtwork-full.png)
In this episode, host and guest Ari Peskoe dissect President Trump’s aggressive rollback of the U.S. energy transition during his second term, detailing canceled projects, forced extensions of fossil‑fuel plants, and the weaponization of federal agencies against renewables. Peskoe explains how...
Intellirent has launched a new regional service center in Phoenix, Arizona, slated to begin operations on February 23, 2026. The facility is positioned to serve power, utility, industrial and infrastructure customers with faster access to electrical testing equipment and local...
London Mining Network is hosting an interactive workshop titled "Unjust Energy Transition? Challenging the Critical Mineral Rush" on Feb 22, 2026 in London. The event critiques the global surge in critical mineral extraction—lithium, copper, etc.—as a cornerstone of the green...
The episode focuses on Venezuela, with a deep dive into its energy sector and the geopolitical implications for U.S. policy in Latin America. It also touches on related developments in Cuba, Argentina, and the strategic role of El Paso as a...
The European Investment Bank is injecting €60 million into Solas Capital’s Sustainable Energy Fund II to launch a new financing platform that will support energy‑efficiency projects for SMEs across the EU. The platform is designed to mobilize nearly €400 million of total capital,...
The commercial sector is now the largest electricity consumer in Ohio, driven by data center expansions. Commercial electricity sales surpassed residential sales for the first time on a twelve-month moving average basis in August 2025 and now account for 35%...
Most people don’t know this: Heat pumps REDUCE gas consumption even if running 100% on electricity from a gas fired power plant. More here in my piece for @CarbonBrief 👇 https://t.co/rKlRE0ug1S https://t.co/DTnKDp9lZp
OIL MARKET: President Trump says he told Israeli Primer Minister Netanyahu that his preference is to cut a deal with Iran. “I insisted that negotiations with Iran continue to see whether or not a deal can be consummated.” https://t.co/VhkfL7QBHF
CHART OF THE DAY: If anything characterised January was oil outages: Kazakhstan, Venezuela, and the US (due to weather), plus several others. In total, it adds to nearly 3m b/d, highest in about 18 months, according to the @EIAgov https://t.co/Gb7hmQGvLw
A reminder: ICE vehicles waste a whopping 80% of energy in their fuel. EVs are propelled by entirely different mechanisms. Energy enters the vehicle as electricity, which directly powers the drivetrain making it 3-4x more efficient. https://t.co/bvBDqWFEwj
President Trump today will unveil plans to use government funding and Pentagon purchases to sustain coal-fired power plants across the US. https://t.co/jQpTFHYb4v
Pleasure to meet with Colombian Ambassador Luis Fernando Medina at IEA HQ in the lead-up to next week's @IEA Ministerial in Paris We discussed the big step forward Colombia is about to take after its strong progress on the road to...
Many got on the make-clean-energy-cheap bandwagon in 2008 and before. But @TheBTI would always claim that most attention had to go to nuclear (which of course did not get cheaper) and belittled solar & wind. No solar champions at all....
Great discussion with Brazilian Ambassador Sarquis ahead of next week's @IEA Ministerial in Paris in which 🇧🇷 Energy Minister @asilveiramg will take part Looking forward to announcing a new phase in the IEA-🇧🇷 relationship following Brazil's request to become an IEA...
🇺🇸U.S. ethanol production in the first week of February popped right back up to the pre-arctic blast levels, totaling 1.11M bpd, a February best. U.S. temperatures have been unseasonably mild this week, and that should largely continue through the rest of...
