The U.K. government is to relax planning rules to make the development of large battery storage systems easier. In an announcement Tuesday, authorities said secondary legislation would be introduced to get rid of “barriers for storage projects above 50 MW (megawatts) in England and 350 MW in Wales.”  In simple terms, the change will be […]

More than 120 years after it first dabbled in electric delivery vehicles, Royal Mail has confirmed it will test the London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC)’s new zero emissions model Royal Mail is set to dispatch a new type of electric vehicle (EV) from later this month, as the company steps up efforts to curb the […]

Nebraska-based Tenaska is finding growing success developing renewables projects for other big investors. Capital Dynamics, the Swiss asset manager that is now a heavyweight solar investor, will partner with energy developer Tenaska on a 4.8-gigawatt solar portfolio in the Midwest and the Southeast, the companies announced Wednesday. The two will work together on developing 24 solar projects expected to […]

Court approves Invenergy’s purchase of $2.3 billion transmission project, which would carry 4 gigawatts of Midwest wind power to PJM’s grid. The Grain Belt Express, one of the biggest U.S. proposed transmission projects designed to carry Midwest wind power to eastern markets, is one step closer to completion after winning key court and policy battles in Missouri.  […]

US utilities FirstEnergy and National Grid have partnered with Opower Utilities to improve customer engagement and satisfaction through digital home energy reports. The utilities are sending new home energy reports to help millions of households save money and reduce their carbon footprint through dynamic new experiences.  The new digital home energy reports make it easy […]

One of the immediate impacts of the coronavirus crisis was a fall in global energy use. While demand will likely rebound to previous levels, the overall energy mix is changing. Renewables are playing a bigger role as traditional sources such as coal become increasingly uneconomic. This trend was already in place when the pandemic hit, […]

JV will see developer and investor collaborate on PPA-backed solar projects across England and Wales. Green Investment Group (GIG) and Enso Energy have formed a joint venture to build a 1GW pipeline of battery-backed solar projects across the UK. Macquarie-owned investment banking giant GIG has revealed today it is working with the British renewables developer […]

Construction work on the second offshore wind farm in the U.S. has been completed, with its two turbines installed and plans for a much larger project continuing to take shape.   In an announcement Monday, Dominion Energy said that the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind pilot project — a two-turbine, 12-megawatt (MW) facility  — had been “built safely and […]

US utilities are increasingly viewing electric vehicles (EVs) as a critical building block of their distributed energy resource (DER) plans, helping to smooth electricity demand while lowering costs for customers, according to a new study released by market intelligence firm Northeast Group. As such, utilities are expanding their ‘managed charging’ programme offerings that help shift […]

Sofia offshore wind farm off UK coast in North Sea is set to have 100 262-metre tall turbines after developer Innogy signed a deal with turbine manufacturer Siemens Gamesa. A wind farm planned in UK waters in the central North Sea is set to be the first in Europe to boast a new generation of […]

May was a big month for solar power announcements in Africa and Chinese investment in African renewables has increased despite continuing focus on coal, writes energy finance analyst Simon Nicholas from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA). Algeria endorsed a huge 4GW, five-year solar plan that will install ten-times the nation’s current solar […]

Wind power project developers were buoyed in April by the news that Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) had submitted Official Letter no. 2491/BCT-DL (“MOIT Proposal”) to the government, proposing to extend Vietnam’s existing Wind FIT (discussed in more detail below) until December 31, 2023. In addition, the MOIT Proposal recommends that the MOIT […]

Are Europe’s oil majors finally ready to supersize their low-carbon businesses? For BP, some drilling projects just don’t make sense anymore. The European oil major said this week that it will write down as much as $17.5 billion from its oil and gas portfolio while baking in a new carbon price forecast of $100 per ton by […]