CNBC/18-08-2020 GLASGOW: A hydroelectric pumped storage facility housed in a hollowed-out Scottish mountain is to benefit from a £1 million ($1.32 million) upgrade to improve its efficiency. Drax Group’s Cruachan Power Station, also known as the “Hollow Mountain,” has a capacity of 440 megawatts and is able to provide power to over 90,000 homes. Its […]

Bloomberg/21-08-2020 LONDON: Botswana and Namibia are set to sign an agreement to develop solar projects of as much as 5,000 megawatts through installations built across their mostly flat, sunny landscapes. The southern African nations are working with U.S. government initiative, Power Africa, to help structure the deal, Namibian Mines and Energy Minister Tom Alweendo said […]

CNBC/18-08-2020 GLASGOW: A hydroelectric pumped storage facility housed in a hollowed-out Scottish mountain is to benefit from a £1 million ($1.32 million) upgrade to improve its efficiency. Drax Group’s Cruachan Power Station, also known as the “Hollow Mountain,” has a capacity of 440 megawatts and is able to provide power to over 90,000 homes. Its […]

Bloomberg/21-08-2020 LONDON: Botswana and Namibia are set to sign an agreement to develop solar projects of as much as 5,000 megawatts through installations built across their mostly flat, sunny landscapes. The southern African nations are working with U.S. government initiative, Power Africa, to help structure the deal, Namibian Mines and Energy Minister Tom Alweendo said […]

CNBC/19-08-2020 ABU DHABI: Unit 1 of the UAE’s Barakah plant — the Arab world’s first nuclear energy plant — has connected to the national power grid, in a historic moment enabling it to provide cleaner electricity to millions of residents and help reduce the oil-rich country’s reliance on fossil fuels. “This is a major milestone, […]

Reuters/21-08-2020 ISTANBUL: Turkey announced its biggest natural gas discovery, a 320 billion cubic metre (11.3 trillion cubic feet) Black Sea field which President Tayyip Erdogan said was part of even bigger reserves and could come on-stream as soon as 2023. If the gas can be commercially extracted, the discovery could transform Turkey’s dependence on Russia, […]

Reuters/18-08-2020 MADRID: China’s state-owned energy and infrastructure giant China Three Gorges (CTG) has agreed to buy 13 Spanish solar plants built by Madrid-based renewables firm X-Elio, marking its entry into the Spanish energy sector, X-Elio said. The expansion into Spain follows CTG’s purchase of a 23% stake in Portugal’s largest utility EDP-Energias de Portugal, which […]

Reuters/18-08-2020 Gaza’s lone power plant shut down, less than a week after Israel suspended fuel shipments to the Palestinian enclave over the launching of incendiary balloons that have caused brush fires in southern Israel. Gaza, run by Hamas Islamists, relies on Israel for most of its energy needs. Its population of two million currently receives […]

Reuters/13-08-2020 LONDON: Wind turbines and solar panels produced a record 10% of the world’s electricity in the first half of 2020 as coal-power declined, but steeper change is needed to meet targets set under the 2015 Paris climate agreement, a report said. Scientist say huge cuts to greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector are […]

Reuters/28-07-2020 BEIJING: China’s first dedicated environmental fund, which will invest in green projects and firms, has already raised 88 billion yuan ($12.59 billion) in its first phase, an environment ministry official said at a recent briefing. The National Green Development Fund will mainly be used to invest in national strategic programmes such as the green […]

Reuters/29-07-2020   AMSTERDAM: A consortium led by Royal Dutch Shell has won a zero-subsidy tender to build a 750-megawatt (MW) wind farm in the North Sea off the coast of the Netherlands, the country’s economic affairs ministry said. The consortium, which also includes Mitsubishi-owned energy company ENECO, will build the Hollandse Kust – Noord project, […]

Energy Update/14-07-2020 BEJING: Dongfang Electric Corporation (DEC) sent off the prototype 10 MW offshore anti-typhoon wind turbine from its factory to the project site at the end of June. The height of the installed unit is about 115 metres above sea level. The 10 MW wind turbine, with a rotor diameter of 185 metres, can […]