California Presses Forward on Offshore Wind
California is advancing a $4.7 billion offshore wind initiative at the Port of Long Beach despite a federal pullback on renewable project funding. The Pier Wind project will create a 400‑acre terminal to position, store, and assemble some of the world’s largest floating wind turbines, which will be towed to lease areas 20 miles off Morro and Humboldt bays. The state’s clean‑energy plan targets 25 GW of offshore wind by 2045, relying on floating technology to overcome the Pacific’s deep waters. By investing in port and grid readiness, California aims to stay ahead of federal uncertainty.
Umoe MEGCs, Type 4 Tanks Advance Finnish Green H2 Project
Connova Deutschland GmbH has manufactured Type 4 composite pressure‑vessel tanks for the EU‑funded NH3Craft project, a key step toward ammonia‑powered zero‑emission shipping. The tanks store liquid ammonia at 18 bar, holding about 680 kg per cubic metre, roughly 70% of the gravimetric energy...
JA Solar, Gold Stone Energy Claim World’s Highest Efficiency for Silicon Solar Cells with 28.2%-efficient Back Contact Device
Chinese PV firms JA Solar and Gold Stone Energy have set a new world record for single‑junction silicon solar cell efficiency, achieving 28.2% conversion in a hybrid back‑contact (HBC) device. The result, certified by TÜV Rheinland, surpasses the previous 28.13%...
WEI Calls for Faster Offshore Wind Rollout
Wind Energy Ireland (WEI) launched its Offshore Wind Action Plan 2026 at a Dublin conference attended by over 400 delegates, urging a faster rollout of offshore wind to secure Irish energy independence. The plan outlines 18 concrete actions for the next...
South Africa’s bPOWERd Expands Into Nigeria with Solar Battery Rental Hubs
South African clean‑energy startup bPOWERd has entered Nigeria, rolling out a solar‑battery‑rental service across seven sites in Lagos using Mobil service stations as swapping and charging hubs. Customers pay a refundable $10.96 deposit and rent 300‑Wh or 1,000‑Wh batteries for...
Why Hasn’t Oil Hit $150?
Oil prices have risen to just over $100 a barrel three months after the Strait of Hormuz was fully closed, far short of the $150 many expected. The restraint is due to unusually high global inventories, floating storage, and OPEC’s...
Four Died, Economic Losses Mount After Sumatra Blackout
A massive blackout swept across almost all of Sumatra on May 22, 2026, leaving the island in darkness for several days. At least four people died and three were hospitalized after carbon‑monoxide poisoning from a gasoline generator used during the...
Shifting From Fossil Fuels Will Fail without Funding for African Industry and Energy Infrastructure
African leaders warned that the shift to renewable energy will falter without substantial financing for clean‑energy infrastructure, industrialisation and local mineral processing. At the April 2026 Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels in Colombia, they highlighted a $2.5 trillion climate‑finance...
BloombergNEF Ups BESS Forecast as Renewables Add Resilience From Fossil Fuel Price Shocks
BloombergNEF’s New Energy Outlook 2026 raises its battery‑storage forecast dramatically, projecting 3.8 terawatts of BESS capacity by 2050 – a 17‑fold jump from 2025. The report highlights a surge in data‑centre electricity use, which could lift global power‑sector emissions by 6 %...
Markets Rally on Iran Deal Hopes as Oil Crashes to $95
Markets jumped on optimism that the United States and Iran are nearing a framework to end hostilities in the Strait of Hormuz. Brent crude dropped more than 4.5% to $95 a barrel, erasing the geopolitical supply premium and prompting a...
250MW/1,000MWh Ontario BESS Begins Commercial Operations, Potential Expansion Ahead
Ameresco and Atura Power’s joint venture has placed the 250 MW/1,000 MWh Napanee battery energy storage system into commercial operation in Ontario, coming in on budget and five weeks early. Valued at roughly US$435 million, the BESS stores excess nuclear generation and dispatches...
Oil Prices Fall Below $100 a Barrel on Hopes of Iran Peace Deal
Brent crude futures dropped 6% to $97.28 a barrel, slipping below the $100 mark for the first time in two weeks. The decline was driven by growing optimism that the United States and Iran are nearing a peace agreement to...
Green Light for Japanese Floating Wind Foundation
Obayashi Corporation secured an Approval in Principle from ClassNK for the world’s first steel‑concrete hybrid TLP floating offshore wind support structure. The hybrid design, developed under a NEDO‑funded project, promises roughly a 25% reduction in construction costs compared with traditional...
TNB Remains Resilient, Focuses on Stable Supply & Value for the Rakyat
Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) posted RM1.1 billion (≈$240 million) earnings in 1Q FY2026, driven by strong electricity sales and a cost‑reflective RP4 tariff. The utility invested RM1.0 billion (≈$220 million) in grid modernisation, achieving zero system minutes and a SAIDI of 11.72 minutes. Corporate...
ONGC On-Boards BP Subsidiary as Technical Services Provider to Enhance Production From Western Offshore
India's state‑run oil giant ONGC has appointed BP Exploration Services India (BPXS) as the technical services provider for all western offshore fields except Mumbai High. The ten‑year contract targets a 10.8% rise in crude output—from 46.25 mt to 51.26 mt—and a 31.5%...
NTPC Begins Site Studies in Four States for Nuclear Power Projects
NTPC Limited has launched site‑selection studies in Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh as the first step toward a 30 GW nuclear build‑out. The effort is part of India’s ambition to reach 100 GW of nuclear capacity by 2047 and complements...
EU Awards €400 Million to 65 Industrial Heat Projects in Auction
The European Commission has awarded €400 million ($465.7 million) in grants to 65 industrial heat decarbonisation projects across ten EU countries, marking the first Innovation Fund heat auction. The projects, spanning heat pumps, solar thermal, resistance and dielectric heating, target energy‑intensive sectors...
Heating Is Ireland’s Biggest Energy Challenge and Biggest Climate Opportunity
The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland released its National Comprehensive Heating and Cooling Assessment, revealing that heating consumes over one‑third of the nation’s energy and generates roughly a quarter of its greenhouse‑gas emissions. About 90% of heat today comes from...
ENOC Fuels the Future: A New Milestone for SAF Distribution in the Middle East
ENOC Group has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Abu Dhabi‑based Allied Biofuels Holding to explore the offtake and distribution of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) and electro‑synthetic SAF (e‑SAF) sourced from a new production facility in Uzbekistan. The partners will...
Chevron's Leviathan Partners to Supply Gas to Dalia Power Plants in Israel
Chevron's Leviathan partners NewMed Energy and Ratio Energies have signed a 20‑year agreement to supply up to 1.7 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year to Dalia Energy's two planned 850 MW combined‑cycle power plants in Ashdod and Tzafit. The deal,...
Vietnam Strengthens Power System Management and Energy Saving Measures Amid Rising Electricity Demand
Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade warned that electricity demand is surging, with total generation hitting 18.97 billion kWh by 22 May 2026 – an 8% rise over the same period last year. Peak consumption set a new record of 1.152 billion kWh on 15 May,...
Cape Town Pioneers Pooled Wheeling of Renewable Electricity
Cape Town completed South Africa’s first pooled wheeling of renewable electricity, linking the 4.5 MW Boston hydroelectric plant to five Growthpoint properties via Eskom’s grid. The arrangement, orchestrated by Etana Energy, matches supply and demand across a portfolio, preserving municipal use‑of‑system...
Anaergia Lands C$58 Million RNG Project for U.S. Agricultural Facility
Anaergia Inc. announced that its subsidiary secured a C$58 million (≈ $43 million USD) contract with Neogenyx Fuels to install turnkey anaerobic digestion and manure‑handling systems at a large U.S. agricultural site. The plant will produce more than 4,400 standard cubic feet per...
China Solar Exports Hit All-Time Record in March as Africa, Asia Demand Jumps
China exported a record 68 GW of solar components in March 2026, a 49% increase over the previous export high set in August 2025. The surge was driven by soaring demand in Africa and Asia, with Nigeria’s imports jumping 519% and India purchasing...
Network Says New Community Battery Will Deliver Cheaper Bills to Locals From Storage as a Service Scheme
Ausgrid, New South Wales' largest electricity distributor, has commissioned a 5 MW community battery in Long Jetty as part of its Energy Storage as a Service (ESaaS) programme. The shared asset will absorb daytime solar generation and discharge during evening peaks,...
Musk’s AI Ambitions Run on Fossil Fuels Despite Tesla’s Clean Energy Legacy
Elon Musk’s AI venture xAI is financing its data centers with natural‑gas turbines, spending $2.8 billion despite Tesla’s clean‑energy brand. The company bought $697 million worth of Tesla Megapacks for storage but has not purchased solar panels. Musk proposes space‑based solar power...
RWE Lands Power Deal for 1.1GW Oz Giant
RWE Renewable Europe & Australia secured a Capacity Investment Scheme contract for its 1,100 MW Theodore on‑shore wind project in Central Queensland. The deal underwrites a AU$3 billion (~US$2 billion) investment, sets a revenue floor and ceiling, and enables up to 170 turbines...
AI Weather Forecasting Boosts Energy Trading at Spire
Spire Global is extending its AI weather forecasting suite for energy traders, adding intraday to 45‑day outlooks via the Cirrus platform. The new AI‑S2S model, a 200‑member generative ensemble, outperforms ECMWF sub‑seasonal forecasts by 14.2% in the three‑to‑six‑week window. High‑resolution...
Pollution From Coal Plants Can Reduce Solar Generation by over 5%
A UK‑led research team used satellite data on 140,000 solar sites to measure how aerosols from coal‑fired power plants cut solar output. In 2023, aerosols reduced global photovoltaic generation by 5.8%, equivalent to about 111 TWh of electricity. China accounted for...
Transition Finance Needs ‘Realism’, Not Reliance on Private Capital Alone, Says Prudential Chair
Prudential chair Shriti Vadera warned that relying solely on private capital will not close the climate‑financing gap for emerging economies. She highlighted that emerging markets need roughly $1.3 trillion a year in transition finance, yet only about $200 billion currently flows into...
Strait of Hormuz Disruption Boost Bunkering Business at Cochin Port
The West Asian crisis and reduced traffic through the Strait of Hormuz have redirected bunkering demand to India’s Cochin Port. Bunker fuel deliveries rose to 4.63 lakh tonnes in FY 26, a 31% jump from FY 25, with February and March volumes exceeding 50,000 tonnes...
Gazprom Starts Production at Chona Fields in Eastern Siberia
Gazprom has placed onstream a new oil cluster in the Chona River basin of Eastern Siberia, targeting up to 2 million tons of oil per year for the Eastern Siberia‑Pacific Ocean pipeline. The development, spanning three blocks, holds more than 1.3 billion...
Kyodo News Digest: May 25, 2026
A Japanese oil tanker operated by Idemitsu Kosan delivered 2 million barrels of crude—about 80% of Japan's daily demand—after successfully navigating the Strait of Hormuz, the first such shipment since the Iran‑Israel conflict began. Toyota announced an 83,000‑vehicle cut to overseas...
Tailoring Surface Chemistry for Robust and Ambient‐Stable Sodium Layered Oxide Cathodes
Researchers introduced a synergistic niobium‑titanium (Nb‑Ti) surface modification for Na2/3Mn2/3Cu1/3O2 layered cathodes, creating a robust defense barrier that curtails irreversible oxygen redox and transition‑metal dissolution. Multimodal characterizations and theoretical calculations confirm that the Nb‑Ti layer stabilizes the lattice, raises degradation...
Australia’s Amplitude to Buy 50pc of Artisan Gas Field
Amplitude Energy announced a A$58.3 million ($41.8 million) purchase of Beach Energy's operatorship and a 50% stake in the offshore Artisan gas field in Victoria. Israeli OG Energy will acquire the remaining 10% of Beach's holding, creating a 50‑50 joint venture with...
Mechanistic Insights Into In‐Phase SrTiO3(110)/ZnIn2S4(102) S‐Scheme Heterojunctions for Multifunctional Hydrogen Evolution
Researchers engineered an in‑phase SrTiO3(110)/ZnIn2S4(102) facet‑rich heterojunction that aligns oxide and sulfide interfaces for superior charge separation via an S‑scheme pathway. The optimized 7.5 wt.% ZnIn2S4‑SrTiO3 (7.5ZIS) composite delivers a ten‑fold increase in photochemical hydrogen evolution, achieving a 35.7% apparent quantum...
Copper‐Activated Dynamic Lattice Adaptation and Bond Reinforcement for Enhanced Sodium Storage of Prussian Blue Analogs Cathode
Researchers introduced Cu2+ ions into a Prussian blue analog (PBA) cathode, creating a dynamically adaptable lattice that cuts the Na+ migration energy barrier. The Cu‑N coordination bonds reinforce the metal‑ligand framework, delivering markedly better rate capability and cycling stability. The...
Eskom Turned the Lights Back on – Now Finish the Reforms
Eskom has delivered a full year without load‑shedding, marking a dramatic reversal from the 300‑day crisis three years ago. The utility’s generation recovery plan boosted plant performance, cutting unplanned maintenance and saving roughly R9 billion ($474 million) in diesel costs. Private‑sector generation...
Energy Infrastructure Damaged in Missile Attack on Russia's Belgorod Region, Local Authorities Say
On May 25, a missile and drone barrage struck Russia’s Belgorod region, killing one person and injuring another while crippling power and water services. The attack also hit the city of Belgorod and coincided with separate drone strikes in the...
State Says Households Should Get Paid up to 33c/kWh for Rooftop Solar Exported Into Evening Peak
New South Wales’ regulator IPART announced time‑of‑use (ToU) export tariffs that can pay solar households with batteries up to 33 c/kWh during the evening peak, while the all‑day flat feed‑in tariff falls to 3.4‑6.5 c/kWh. The higher evening rates aim to capture...
Queensland Launches Tender for 400MW of Gas-Fired Generation in Central Queensland
The Queensland Government has opened a tender for private firms to deliver 400 MW of gas‑fired generation in Central Queensland by 2032. Managed by Queensland Investment Corporation, the project seeks to add dispatchable capacity that can fill gaps when renewable output...
Contact Energy Switches on 200MWh Battery Storage System in New Zealand
Contact Energy has switched on a 100 MW/200 MWh grid‑scale battery at the Glenbrook steel site, using 56 Tesla Megapack 2XL units that can respond in 0.2 seconds. The system stores excess hydro, geothermal and wind power and can discharge for up to two...
US-Iran Talks Progress, Oil Falls as Talks Inch Towards Deal
U.S. and Iranian delegations in Vienna reported concrete progress on a nuclear agreement, narrowing gaps on uranium enrichment limits and verification protocols. The diplomatic thaw prompted a swift decline in global oil prices, with Brent crude slipping to roughly $78...
Vessels Carrying Middle East Oil, LNG Exit Hormuz, Head for Pakistan, China
A LNG tanker, Fuwairit, exited the Strait of Hormuz on May 25 bound for Pakistan, while the VLCC Eagle Verona, carrying nearly two million barrels of Iraqi crude, left on May 23 for China after a three‑month delay. The departures come amid...
Hybrid Texas Power Plant Blends the Best of Gas and Nuclear
Blue Energy, together with GE Vernova, is proposing a 2.5‑GW hybrid power plant in Texas that pairs a Hitachi BWRX‑300 small modular nuclear reactor with two GE 7HA.02 gas turbines. The design uses offshore‑wind‑style monopiles as containment vessels, allowing passive...
European Gas Storage Can’t Survive 3 More Months of Hormuz
Europe’s gas storage sits at only 35‑37% of capacity, far short of the 50% seasonal norm and the EU’s 80‑90% winter target. A prolonged 1‑3‑month disruption in Hormuz shipping could push Dutch TTF prices to €90/MWh (about $98/MWh), forcing industrial...
Oil Prices Sink on Signs of U.S.-Iran Deal
Oil prices fell about $5 per barrel on Sunday as tentative outlines of a U.S.–Iran deal emerged, easing fears over the Strait of Hormuz blockage. Brent crude slipped to $98.76, a 4.6% drop from Friday, while the conflict continues to...
Bangladesh Offers Sweetened Terms in Offshore Tender
Bangladesh has opened an international tender for 26 offshore oil and gas blocks in the Bay of Bengal, revising its Production Sharing Contract to make terms more attractive. The new model reduces exploration‑phase relinquishment to 20% of acreage and cuts...
Baghdad Accelerates Efforts to Revive Crude Exports
Iraq is accelerating talks with foreign oil firms to restart idle fields and open new export routes as the Strait of Hormuz remains closed. Prime Minister Ali al‑Zaidi ordered contingency plans, focusing on diversifying corridors through Turkey’s Ceyhan port and...
Innomotics Drives Electrification of Industrial Heat Processes with Industrial Heat Pump Solutions
Industrial heat pumps are emerging as a cornerstone of decarbonizing process heat, and Innomotics is supplying the motor and drive technology that makes them viable at scale. The German supplier’s solutions power the world’s largest heat pump at BASF, a...