Friday, 17 July 2026

The Baltic Power offshore wind farm fed electricity to Poland's national grid for the first time, with a first turbine now generating power as the 1.2 GW project enters phased commissioning, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

Additional turbines will undergo start-up and testing over the coming weeks, and their output will also flow to the national grid, the outlet reported.

Crews have installed 54 of the 76 planned turbines offshore, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital. Construction is due to finish this autumn.

ORLEN and Northland Power are building the project as a joint venture, the outlet reported. All inter-array and export cables, totalling 350 km, are laid, and both offshore substations are in place.

When fully operational, the farm will run 76 turbines rated at 15 MW each, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital. Annual output is put at about 4 TWh, equivalent to around 3% of Poland's current electricity demand.

The site spans 130 sq km and sits about 23 km offshore near Choczewo and Łeba. Its power is expected to cut carbon dioxide emissions by up to 2.8 million tonnes a year against conventional generation, the outlet reported.

ORLEN CEO Ireneusz Fąfara said the company's investment program in Poland's energy sector could reach as much as PLN 380 billion in total spending.

Regulators in Spain have put two battery projects out for public comment that would attach 100 MW/400 MWh of storage to the Solaben ST1 and Solaben ST6 hybrid plants at Logrosán, Cáceres, which combine concentrated solar power (CSP) and photovoltaic (PV) generation, according to ESS News.

The design splits evenly across the two sites. Each carries a 50 MW battery with 200 MWh of usable storage, drawn from 225 MWh of installed capacity, according to ESS News.

Equipment plans call for 36 Hithium Power lithium-ion containers of 6.25 MWh apiece, or equivalents, wired to 15 inverters and spread over eight medium-voltage transformer stations, ESS News reported.

Output will stay constrained even as the batteries add power. The shared transformer holds the hybrid plants to 62.5 MW, below the 50 MW each battery can deliver, while grid access rights hold at 104.99 MW, ESS News reported.

Cost estimates land close together: EUR 21.21 million (USD 24.2 million) to build the Solaben ST1 unit and EUR 22.03 million for Solaben ST6, according to ESS News.

The host site is the Solaben complex, four 50 MW parabolic trough CSP plants raised between 2012 and 2013, first built by Abengoa and now held within Cox, ESS News reported.

Comment stays open for 15 working days, according to ESS News.

Ampera Inc says it has finished making the first full-scale nuclear reactor module by 3D printing, according to World Nuclear News. The company showed its first module unit, which houses the core and pressure vessel, on July 1 at its innovation site in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

More than 100 people turned out for the reveal, among them local officials, business figures and staff, World Nuclear News reported.

The core uses a spherical monolithic gyroid design, printed from silicon carbide, and is built to run up to 30 years without refuelling, according to World Nuclear News. Ampera's systems are expected to deliver up to 30 MWe, with larger configurations planned.

Brian Matthews, Ampera's founder and chief executive, called the core and pressure vessel a base for factory-built nuclear modules.

The company took an earlier regulatory step in February, when it wrote to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to signal its intent to open the pre-application process for its factory-made, containerised microreactor.

Ampera followed in April with an agreement alongside Monaco-based Scorpio Tankers Inc to develop and commercialise advanced microreactors for marine, shipping and other maritime uses.

Leeward Renewable Energy (LRE) laid out details of its 725-MW solar power fleet in Oklahoma during a recent celebration, according to Power Magazine.

The fleet represents a $1.5 billion investment, according to Power Magazine.

The Oklahoma solar fleet supports Google's operations in the state, according to Power Magazine.

Xiaomi confirmed that Sky Nomad is a new product series under Xiaomi EV rather than a standalone sub-brand, according to Electrek. The first model in the series is a full-size SUV codenamed Kunlun N3 that measures more than 5.3 meters long, Electrek reported.

The SUV pairs a battery pack larger than 70 kWh with a gasoline engine used purely as a generator, according to Electrek. The battery delivers 400 to 500 km of electric-only range, and the engine extends total range past 1,500 km.

Pricing for the Sky Nomad SUV is expected to start as low as 200,000 yuan, about USD 29,400, according to Electrek. That would undercut the Li Auto L9 and Aito M9, which both sit above 250,000 yuan.

The series arrives after China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology cleared Xiaomi to build extended-range vehicles at its Beijing plant on June 10, Electrek reported.

Xiaomi aims to deliver 550,000 vehicles in 2026, about 34% above the roughly 410,000 it delivered in 2025, according to Electrek. Xiaomi EV delivered 185,055 vehicles in the first half of 2026, about 34% of that annual goal.

US electric vehicle sales reached 247,226 units in Q2, up 14.7% from the first quarter, according to Kelley Blue Book. More than 463,000 EVs were sold in the country in the first half of 2026.

Tesla held 50.5% of the US EV market and remained the clear leader by a wide margin, according to Electrek, even as its sales fell about 10% from a year earlier. The Tesla Model 3 placed second with 66,616 units, with sales slipping 34%.

Outside Tesla, the Hyundai IONIQ 5 was the best-selling EV in the US over the first half of 2026, with 20,730 units sold, according to Electrek.

EV sales are still recovering after the USD 7,500 federal tax credit expired last September, according to Electrek. Toyota confirmed this week that it is delaying production of the 2027 Highlander BEV, its first three-row electric SUV.

Petrobras has completed its acquisition of a 75% operated stake in exploration Block 3 offshore São Tomé and Príncipe, according to Offshore Magazine.

The remaining interests are held by Oranto with 15% and the National Petroleum Agency of São Tomé and Príncipe with 10%, Offshore Magazine reported.

Petrobras first announced in mid-April that it had signed an agreement to acquire an interest and assume operatorship of Block 3 from Oranto Petroleum Ltd, according to Offshore Magazine.

The block sits in the São Tomé and Príncipe Exclusive Economic Zone in the Gulf of Guinea. The production sharing contract reportedly runs for a 28-year term, according to Offshore Magazine.

Petrobras did not disclose a timeline for future exploration activities on Block 3, nor did it provide details on planned seismic, drilling, or subsurface evaluation work.

The IEA predicts global oil demand of 103.5 million barrels per day in 2026, down 1 percent from the prior year, according to its monthly oil report cited by Inside Climate News.

The agency projects a rebound the following year, with demand growing to 105.5 million barrels per day in 2027, an increase of 2 percent from 2026.

Inside Climate News reported that shipments in the Strait of Hormuz dropped almost to zero in February under a military blockade and have been slow to resume as the conflict continues.

The IEA said renewed exchanges of fire in the Gulf highlight the risks of not reaching a lasting peace agreement, which it called a must for normalization in oil markets.

Samantha Gross of Brookings said the events of the past few months in Iran are likely to hasten a secular decrease in oil demand, according to Inside Climate News.

BYD has revealed a longer version of its Seagull electric car starting at 69,800 yuan, or about $10,000, according to Electrek. That price makes it BYD's smallest and most affordable electric car in China.

The new model appeared in the latest batch of new energy vehicles approved for sale by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), Electrek reported.

The redesigned Seagull measures 4,205 mm in length, 1,810 mm in width and 1,570 mm in height, with a 2,650 mm wheelbase, according to Electrek. That is considerably longer than the current Seagull, which measures 3,780 mm.

BYD also fitted a more powerful drivetrain. The new Seagull carries a 95 kW (127 hp) electric motor, up from the 55 kW (75 hp) motor in the current model, per Electrek.

The current Seagull is offered with two battery options, according to Electrek. The 30.08 kWh pack delivers a CLTC range of up to 305 km (190 miles), while the 38.88 kWh pack reaches up to 405 km (251 miles).

BYD launched the 2026 Seagull in China in May, equipped with a roof-mounted LiDAR that Electrek described as a first in its class.

Abroad, the vehicle is sold as the Dolphin Surf. The electric hatch starts at GBP 18,675 ($25,000) in the United Kingdom and EUR 22,990 ($26,000) in Europe, according to Electrek.

Philadelphia recorded its first-ever three-day stretch of temperatures of at least 101 degrees during the World Cup weekend, according to Inside Climate News.

Medics treated 18 people at the France-Paraguay match and at the FIFA Fan Festival in Fairmount Park on July 4, the city reported, with five more transported to nearby hospitals. More than 68,000 spectators attended the France-Paraguay game at Lincoln Financial Field, according to Inside Climate News.

Seven people died from heat-related causes in the city during the first week of July, according to the Philadelphia Health Department.

The city declared a heat health emergency on July 1, deploying sprinklers, water stations, cooling centers and a hotline for heat-related concerns. It opened more than 50 cooling centers for the emergency, many staying open through the evening.

The broader heat dome over the Northeast that caused the streak would have been "virtually impossible" without global warming, according to the scientific group World Weather Attribution.

Vedanta Oil & Gas has reaffirmed a production target of 500,000 boed, according to World Oil. The company, formerly known as Cairn Oil & Gas, is pressing for expanded oil and gas exploration in India.

India imports nearly 90% of its oil and gas requirements despite an estimated 300 billion boe of hydrocarbon resource potential, according to Vedanta. Vedanta Chairman Anil Agarwal said energy independence is a strategic economic imperative for India.

The company operates one of India's largest private upstream portfolios, according to World Oil. It holds interests in 44 onshore and offshore blocks covering nearly 47,000 sq km across Rajasthan, Gujarat, Assam and Andhra Pradesh.

Aesen and Topline Group have set up a joint venture, Aesen Topline Offshore Corp., to run offshore logistics, maritime support and project management work in the Philippines, according to World Oil. The company will serve offshore energy jobs, marine construction and infrastructure builds.

Aesen group chief executive Darren Ang described the Philippines as a leading regional growth market for offshore energy and marine infrastructure, according to World Oil.

The two partners said they expect rising investment in offshore energy, port infrastructure and coastal developments to lift long-term demand for marine support services in the country.

Two oil supertankers run by a single operator appeared to move through the Strait of Hormuz on a U.S.-protected route this week, even as fighting resumed in the region, according to World Oil.

Both vessels are very large crude carriers operated by Kyklades Maritime Corp, based in Piraeus, Greece, World Oil reported.

Tanker traffic across the strait has dropped over the past 24 hours after the U.S. and Iran exchanged missile and drone strikes, according to World Oil.

Several vessels taking the Omani route have been attacked by Iran in recent days, with Tehran pushing to confine shipping to a northerly path through its own waters, World Oil reported.

U.S. Central Command said U.S. forces had assisted in moving 380 MMbbl through the strait since early May, according to World Oil.

Measured from a May 1 start, that volume works out to a flow rate of 5.4 MMbpd, rising to well over 6 MMbpd once Iranian flows are counted, according to World Oil.

Holtec Nuclear Corporation publicly filed a Form S-1 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a proposed initial public offering of its Class A common stock, according to a GlobeNewswire release from Holtec.

The company intends to list its Class A common stock on The Nasdaq Stock Market and Nasdaq Texas under the symbol HNUC.

J.P. Morgan, Guggenheim Securities, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and BofA Securities are acting as joint lead book-running managers for the proposed offering, according to Holtec.

Holtec said it owns and develops the SMR-300 advanced small modular reactor, which features passive safety systems. The company expects the first two units to be deployed at the company-owned Palisades site in Michigan.

Holtec is also refurbishing the Palisades nuclear power plant, which the company said would be the first commercial nuclear reactor in the United States to be repowered after a permanent shutdown.

Holtec's business profile includes ownership of nearly 220 granted patents, three U.S.-based manufacturing facilities for nuclear fabrication, and operations on five continents, according to the company. It has provided products and services to more than 150 nuclear reactors worldwide.

The Trump administration finalized a decision to eliminate long-standing regulatory language on habitat protections for endangered species in the United States, according to CleanTechnica.

The decision followed a proposed rulemaking and public comment period. More than 150,000 Americans spoke out against the changes during that period, CleanTechnica reported.

UNIGRID has shipped the first units of its Na+Casa residential sodium-ion battery, with the initial systems now installed in homes across Europe, according to Electrek.

The California-based company expects US installations by the end of 2026, pending North American certification requirements for sodium-ion batteries, Electrek reported.

The Na+Casa stores 9.25 kWh of electricity and is compatible with most existing hybrid inverters, according to Electrek, making it suitable for both new solar installations and retrofits. UNIGRID says the battery is designed to last 25 years, roughly the lifespan of a rooftop solar system.

Per Electrek, the battery is designed to operate in temperatures ranging from -40F to 140F (-40C to 60C).

UNIGRID currently produces enough battery cells to supply 200 MWh of storage per year, according to Electrek. The company plans to raise annual production to 2 GWh in 2027 through manufacturing partnerships in China, South Korea, and Japan.

UNIGRID CEO and co-founder Darren H. S. Tan said Na+Casa moves NCO sodium-ion from a promising technology to a tangible residential storage product, giving installers an alternative to lithium-ion.

Offshore oil and gas operators now run drones across a wide range of jobs, from flare-stack inspections and structural surveys to pipeline monitoring, environmental programs and post-storm damage checks, according to Offshore Magazine.

DaCoda Bartels, chief operating officer of FlyGuys, told Offshore Magazine that offshore drone activity has climbed sharply while policy has lagged behind that growth.

The economics explain the uptake. Drones are the cheapest tool available for checking flare stacks, risers and structural members, and for surveying pipelines, said Gabe Arrington, a nonresident fellow at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University.

Detection is where those same aircraft turn into a security gap. Brett Velicovich, co-founder and president of Powerus, told Offshore Magazine that small drones skimming low over the water can stay hard to spot until they are close, unless detection systems are tuned for maritime conditions.

Reported drone sightings near offshore oil and gas facilities in the North Sea and other regions have pushed operators and regulators to pay closer attention, Offshore Magazine reported.

Tony Weber, CEO of the Federal Automotive Industry lobby group, has acknowledged that Australia is going through a paradigm shift in its car market, according to CleanTechnica.

Weber, long sceptical of electric vehicles, told CleanTechnica the Australian automotive market has shifted on its axis during the first months of 2026.

U.S.-assembled solar modules sold at a median $0.30 per watt through the second quarter of 2026, holding flat, according to Anza data published on July 9, 2026.

The supply chain platform draws from 55 modules across 19 suppliers, and pegged the interquartile range for the segment at $0.280/W to $0.325/W.

TOPCon technology dominates the tracked set, with 49 of the 55 modules using it against 6 running Mono PERC, pv magazine reported. Tier-1 designation covers 45 of the modules, and 32 clear Foreign Entity of Concern (FEOC) compliance checks.

Compliance stakes rise soon. The FEOC content threshold climbs to 45% for solar projects beginning January 1, 2027, according to pv magazine.

Manufacturers have restructured ownership to stay under the FEOC line. JinkoSolar offloaded a 75.1% stake in its Jacksonville, Florida facility to private equity firm FH Capital for $192 million, holding onto a 24.9% minority position to fall below the ownership threshold. JA Solar handed 100% equity of its 2 GW plant in Phoenix, Arizona to Corning Incorporated in April 2025, pv magazine reported.

Trade action is also pressing on the segment. American Manufacturers for Energy Resilience filed an anti-dumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) petition on June 18, 2026 targeting solar cells and modules from South Korea. The coalition brings together Heliene USA, SEG Manufacturing, and Canadian Solar's Jeffersonville PV Cells subsidiary.

Anza maps out when buyers would feel the cost. Its timeline puts countervailing duties in September 2026 and anti-dumping duties in a window from late November 2026 to mid-January 2027, should the U.S. authorities advance the case.

Bloom Energy and Ballard Power Systems are pursuing different approaches to how hydrogen fuel cells will power the future economy, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

Bloom Energy is deploying solid oxide fuel cells for AI data centers as a near-term hydrogen infrastructure play, according to Hydrogen Fuel News. The company is marketing its high-temperature solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC).

Ballard Power's PEM systems await broader hydrogen adoption and policy support, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

BHEL and thyssenkrupp nucera have agreed to manufacture alkaline water electrolysers in India to support green hydrogen production under the National Green Hydrogen Mission, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

The deal aims to accelerate green hydrogen production and foster local supply chains, Hydrogen Fuel News reported.

The collaboration was announced at the headquarters of Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited in New Delhi.

Researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Gdansk University of Technology and the Polish Academy of Sciences studied the value of purifying key components from end-of-life solar panels for reuse in new solar panel manufacturing, according to pv magazine.

The team dismantled twelve modules made by German, Chinese, South Korean and US manufacturers, sampling the aluminium frame, glass and solar cell for compositional analysis, pv magazine reported.

Silver accounts for up to 47% of a panel's recoverable value, according to the researchers, who warned that falling silver content in newer panels could cut future recycling revenue.

Laminate analysis showed high crosslinked ethylene-vinyl acetate with low crystallinity levels below 17%, indicating continued protective function even in end-of-life panels, per pv magazine.

The study found antimony levels in solar panel glass can exceed threshold limits. As a result, recyclers may require special license and monitoring processes to handle antimony-contained glass safely, according to pv magazine.

Crushing or milling panels is likely to contaminate the glass with silver and copper, the researchers warned, reducing its value and potentially making the largest component of the panel non-recyclable.

The researchers noted that federal-level policy on photovoltaic recycling in Australia is absent, pv magazine reported.

Antarctica's west coast was missing a chunk of sea ice the size of France in June, according to Inside Climate News, which cited scientists' findings.

Ted Scambos attributed the shortfall to a strong wind pattern pushing warm air from the South Pacific into the western peninsula area of Antarctica, which is preventing ice from forming. He said the lack of ice along the coast is extremely unusual in the last 50 years or so of Antarctic record-keeping.

Despite the coastal loss, Scambos said Antarctica's total ice mass has stayed close to balanced for the last few years. He said extra accumulation south of South Africa has mostly offset losses elsewhere on the continent.

On the Thwaites Glacier, Scambos said ice loss is already underway and that models show a commitment to losing the ice. He characterized the situation as a doomed century or two rather than a doomsday.

Operators at the Siberian Chemical Combine have commissioned a full-scale control room simulator for the lead-cooled fast neutron BREST-OD-300 reactor, letting crews train ahead of the unit's physical startup, according to World Nuclear News. The training rig sits at the site's education and information centre in Seversk, Tomsk Oblast, Russia.

The 300 MWe reactor is designated the main facility of the Pilot Demonstration Energy Complex on the combine's grounds, which fall under Rosatom's TVEL fuel division, World Nuclear News reported. Reactor construction started in June 2021.

Evgeny Adamov, scientific director of the Breakthrough project, said the reactor's design left no known equivalent simulators elsewhere, and described the rig as a technical tool for staff training and licensing. The build was carried out by JSC VNIIAES, part of Rosatom's electric power division, which has produced more than 40 simulators for Russian-designed power units.

The prototype main circulation pump is designed to move 11 tonnes of molten lead each second at temperatures above 420 degrees Celsius. A larger 1,200 MWe (2,800 MWt) design, the BR-1200, is slated to follow if the 300 MWe (700 MWt) unit proves out.

PJM reached an all-time peak load estimated at 168,158 MW between 5 and 6 p.m. on July 2, according to preliminary figures from PJM Inside Lines that factor in demand response programs. That surpassed the grid operator's previous record of 165,563 MW, set on August 2, 2006.

The record came as the PJM region observed its hottest-ever RTO average air temperature of 97 degrees on July 2, according to PJM Inside Lines.

Paul Dajewski, PJM's Sr. Manager for Dispatch, told stakeholders that the record load approached PJM's 90/10 seasonal forecast of 169,128 MW.

Forced generation outages ran between 18,100 MW and 19,400 MW from July 2 to July 4, according to PJM Inside Lines. Those figures exceeded the 12,800 MW average outage rate for the top 10 summer peak days of the last three years.

Demand response helped hold the line. PJM estimated preliminary demand response performance of about 6,113 MW on July 2 and 5,037 MW on July 3, according to PJM Inside Lines.

PJM requested and received a Department of Energy 202c emergency order granting temporary relief from environmental permit restrictions for generating units. The operator estimates about 3.25 GW of generation ran beyond environmental permit limitations under the order. Both 202c orders were effective July 1 and extended through July 6.

On the evening of July 2, PJM issued an Emergency Use of Backup Generator Warning for the BGE, PEPCO and Dominion transmission zones as transmission constraints and generation outages posed challenges, according to PJM Inside Lines. The warning notifies large load customers to prepare to switch to backup generation within 15 minutes. The follow-on Action requiring the switch was not needed and was never issued.

Carbon Recycling International and Tianying Group have delivered the world's largest e-methanol reactor to China's Liaoyuan project, according to Hydrogen Fuel News. The reactor supports the Liaoyuan eMethanol Project in Jilin Province, China.

The project aims to produce 170,000 tonnes per year of renewable methanol from green hydrogen and captured CO2, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

The main goal is to showcase large-scale power-to-liquid technology to meet demand for low-carbon fuels in challenging industries, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

Midwest Environmental Advocates filed a lawsuit on behalf of Sierra Club Wisconsin challenging a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources decision to issue permits for a data center campus in Port Washington, according to CleanTechnica. The suit contests the regulator's move to permit the project without fully evaluating its environmental consequences.

CleanTechnica reported that the lawsuit follows emails obtained through a public records request.

Researchers from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and Universidad de Cádiz are using dark fermentation to co-process brewery wastewater and municipal sludge, generating green hydrogen and volatile fatty acids, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

The teams pair the process with predictive modelling for scale-up and frame it as a circular economy approach, Hydrogen Fuel News reported.

Hydrogen Fuel News described the dark fermentation approach as a lab-scale proof-of-concept.

Syntholene Energy Corp.'s geothermally integrated solid oxide electrolyzer cell (SOEC) demo plant in Husavik, Iceland, produced its first 500 kg of green hydrogen at 99.9% purity, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

The company claims the site is the world's first geothermally integrated high-temperature electrolysis plant in northern Iceland, per the same report.

At the Husavik Power Station, the plant combines geothermal heat with renewable electricity to power the SOEC units, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

Tesla's main account said Cybercab employee rides at Giga Texas will begin soon, Electrek reported.

The company's Robotaxi account posted a July 10 clip showing a gold Cybercab moving on its own across the outbound lot at Gigafactory Texas, according to Electrek. The vehicle had butterfly doors raised and carried no steering wheel or pedals.

Electrek counted more than 100 finished Cybercabs parked in that same outbound lot.

The rides pitch arrives while Tesla's supervised robotaxi service in Austin logs a higher crash frequency than human drivers, Electrek reported. That fleet records about one crash every 57,000 miles, roughly four times the human benchmark of one per 229,000 miles.

The Austin service still uses Model Y cars staffed with safety monitors, and city officials sized it at about 50 vehicles a year after launch, Electrek reported.

Tesla has acknowledged its driver-assistance software needs a ground-up rewrite before it can operate an unsupervised vehicle without anyone behind the wheel, according to Electrek.

A 2025 study estimates that more than 3 percent of the world's cropland, roughly 87 million hectares or 215 million acres, could be affected by saltwater intrusion, according to Inside Climate News.

Kate Tully, an associate professor of agroecology at the University of Maryland, described saltwater intrusion as the leading edge of climate change.

Tully and other researchers found that saltwater intrusion turned 20,000 acres of coastal farmland in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia into salt marshes between 2011 and 2017, according to Inside Climate News. The researchers put the estimated loss at $107.5 million per year in corn and $39.4 million in soybeans.

Researchers have recently counted more than 10 million dead trees in ghost forests along the U.S. Atlantic coast, where seawater intrusion has killed off woodlands, Inside Climate News reported.

The damage carries particular weight in Gambia, where agriculture accounts for a quarter of gross domestic product and 70 percent of employment, according to Inside Climate News.

Expander Energy has selected Plug Power's GenEco PEM electrolyzers for its Mackenzie Biofuel Project in British Columbia, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

The plant in northern British Columbia will convert forestry wood waste into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), renewable diesel, naphtha, and bio-wax using low-carbon electricity, Hydrogen Fuel News reported.

The memorandum of understanding pairs green hydrogen production with biomass-to-liquids synthesis, targeting a final investment decision by 2026 and commercial operation in 2029, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

TotalEnergies SE said Thursday it had divested its European portfolio of distributed solar power, giving up about 170 MW of capacity drawn mainly from rooftop installations, according to Rigzone.

The assets went to Amarenco and AMPYR Distributed Energy, Rigzone reported. They sit across Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom.

TotalEnergies said the sale is part of efforts to refocus its renewable development on large utility-scale solar and wind farms to benefit from economies of scale, according to Rigzone.

The company installed 8 GW of gross renewable capacity in the last twelve months, reaching 35 GW of gross capacity at end-March 2026, Rigzone reported. TotalEnergies aims to maintain that annual pace through 2030 to reach more than 75 GW.

AMPYR Distributed Energy said in its own announcement it had acquired 70 MW of the assets, spread across 17 sites in Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, the UK and the Iberian Peninsula, according to Rigzone. The purchase lifted AMPYR Distributed Energy's contracted capacity to 250 MW.

Onboard hydrogen-injection systems use electricity produced by the diesel engine to split water, then feed the resulting hydrogen or oxyhydrogen back into the same engine, according to CleanTechnica.

That setup can make a diesel exhaust plume look cleaner, but CleanTechnica argues the visible change is evidence about smoke, not about climate performance.

The US launched its heaviest assault on Iran in weeks on Sunday, while Iran struck Gulf nations and announced the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, according to Semafor Net Zero.

American military bases in Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Oman came under fire in retaliation for US attacks on southern Iran, Semafor reported.

The US insisted the Strait of Hormuz remained open despite Iran's announced closure, according to Semafor. The outlet said the flareup is set to weigh on energy and equity markets at the start of the week.

President Donald Trump said last week that the ceasefire was "over," Semafor reported.

Regional mediators were still working Sunday to shore up the truce and lobby for de-escalation, according to Semafor.

Squadron Energy has proposed the 558 megawatt Banandra wind project on 11,600 hectares of mostly grazing land south-east of Darlington Point, according to RenewEconomy.

The site sits just east of the newly created South West renewable energy zone (REZ), which RenewEconomy reports has already reached capacity. Rather than seek access inside the crowded zone, Squadron says its 90-turbine project will plug into the existing 330 kV line between Darlington Point and Wagga Wagga.

Access into the South-West REZ has been tight. RenewEconomy reports the zone has granted access rights to just four projects, three of them scaled down, because the new Project Energy Connect is rated at only 330 kV rather than the 500 kV that many developers say would have unlocked more capacity.

Community consultation on Banandra started in May, and Squadron lodged the state planning application and the EPBC referral at the start of July, according to RenewEconomy.

Red Eléctrica has finished expanding two 220 kV substations in the province of Toledo, at Calera y Chozas and Torrijos, the operator said.

The Calera y Chozas site gained two 220 kV bays. Torrijos also received two new bays, which will serve the railway corridor linking Castilla-La Mancha with Extremadura.

Red Eléctrica put roughly EUR 3 million into the work, which falls under the current Electricity Transmission Grid Plan.

Both projects qualify for European Union NextGenerationEU funding under the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, according to the operator.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani asked residents to set their air conditioners to 78 degrees Fahrenheit to protect the city's strained grid during a heat wave, according to Canary Media.

Canary Media reported that a historic heat dome affected the U.S. Midwest and Atlantic Coast earlier in the month.

Mamdani posted on X urging residents to ease demand and get through the heat together, according to Canary Media.

The UK government will not take forward a formal consumer engagement framework for consumer-led flexibility, choosing a lighter touch approach to intervention, according to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ).

DESNZ said the consultation feedback did not provide compelling evidence for medium-high levels of intervention in the current market-led engagement model. On that basis, the government said it will not introduce a formal consumer engagement framework at this time.

Instead, the government proposes a new consumer-led flexibility consumer engagement forum convened by Ofgem. DESNZ described this as one of a set of proportionate actions to support the market-led model.

The department also plans to work with consumer organisations over 2026 to consider expanding their information provision services on consumer-led flexibility.

The department received 62 responses to the consultation from a range of stakeholders. The consultation ran from 23 July 2025 to 19 September 2025.

The UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero published a July 2026 update to its Clean Flexibility Roadmap on 13 July 2026, according to the department. The roadmap was originally first published on 23 July 2025.

The department said the roadmap was developed by the government, Ofgem and NESO, alongside energy industry stakeholders and consumer groups. It commits named organisations to specific, timebound actions to unlock flexible electricity capacity.

According to the department, the July 2026 update covers progress to date and key metrics for measuring further progress in complex sectors, in particular consumer-led flexibility. The update also sets out new commitments from DESNZ, Ofgem and NESO.

The government describes flexibility as crucial for delivering its Clean Energy Superpower Mission to achieve clean power by 2030 and net zero by 2050.

Wind developers have run up $2 billion in extra costs since the Pentagon halted permitting, and they see the government's new rationale as another attempt to shut the industry down, according to Grist.

The onshore projects caught in the freeze total 44 gigawatts of capacity, according to Grist. That is four times what the offshore projects unwound through federal payouts would have produced.

Those offshore cancellations followed court losses over stop-work orders, Grist reported. To end more than 11 gigawatts of offshore wind, the Trump administration paid developers a combined $2.6 billion.

A coalition of renewable energy groups and wind companies took the Department of Defense to court in May over the onshore permitting pause, Grist reported. The coalition called the pause the most damaging new tactic in what it described as the administration's campaign against the industry.

Fifty-five Democratic representatives asked the Department of Defense in a May letter for a confidential briefing on why the delays were happening, according to Grist.

Pentagon lawyers responded in filings that the delays are a practical result of a review needed to guard against emerging threats, Grist reported.

The stakes tie to a construction deadline. Some projects may already have missed a July 4 cutoff to qualify for federal tax credits under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, according to Grist.

Spain-based Sunwafe is planning a 20 GW ingot and wafer factory, according to pv magazine.

The company has secured a site in northern Spain and a €200 million ($232.6 million) grant for the project, pv magazine reported.

Michael Pinto is the newly appointed chief executive of Sunwafe, according to pv magazine.

Sixty-seven people who survived Super Typhoon Rai filed suit against Shell at the Royal Courts of Justice in December 2025, telling the court that decades of the company's emissions deepened the disaster and seeking compensation for the harm, according to Grist.

The storm, called Odette where it made landfall, reached 10.6 million people across the Philippines, left more than 400 dead, and pushed 1.4 million out of their homes, Grist reported.

According to the plaintiffs, Shell understood as far back as the 1960s that a warming climate threatened exposed communities, and understood how its own operations sharpened that threat.

The Sabin Center for Climate Change Law counted 3,099 climate cases filed as of mid-2025, with close to two-thirds originating in the United States. Setting the United States aside, Europe holds the largest slice at 32%, while Asia and Africa trail at 6% and 2% respectively.

South Korea's Constitutional Court struck down parts of the country's Carbon Neutrality Act in 2024, finding they did not safeguard the rights of future generations, Grist reported.

Malaysian youths brought their own suit in April against the government over deforestation, pressing the court to hold the country to its promise of keeping forest cover at 50% or above.

Chery has started locally assembling its V23 electric SUV in Thailand, according to electrive. The move makes Thailand the second country in the ASEAN region after Indonesia where the automaker offers a locally assembled V23.

Chery has planned a total investment of about 5 billion baht, roughly EUR 131 million, and targets annual production capacity of 80,000 units by 2028 at its Thai plant, electrive reported. The company deepens its presence in a market where it first sold the retro-styled model as an import.

According to electrive, Chery launched the V23 in Thailand in September 2025 with prices from 699,900 baht to 889,900 baht, roughly EUR 18,300 to EUR 23,300. The automaker has sold more than 5,500 units in Thailand and is ready to handle monthly demand of more than 1,000 units, electrive reported.

The single-motor rear-wheel-drive V23 produces 100 kW and 180 Nm of torque, drawing on a 59.93 kWh battery pack, according to electrive. That setup accelerates the vehicle from 0 to 100 km/h in 11 seconds, reaches a top speed of 140 km/h, and travels 360 kilometres on a single charge under the NEDC standard.

JSW Motors plans to launch a rebadged version of the V23 in India in 2028 and will assemble it at an upcoming factory in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Maharashtra, electrive reported.

Masdar has signed BYD Energy Storage to deliver 11.275 GWh of batteries for an Abu Dhabi round-the-clock renewable plant that pairs solar generation with storage, ESS News reported.

The BYD order equips one storage station within the wider development, rated at 1,644 MW/11,275 MWh and built on the firm's Haohan battery system.

Masdar and Emirates Water and Electricity Co. (EWEC) are building the plant to a design of 5.2 GW of solar generation and 19 GWh of battery storage, according to ESS News. Commissioning is targeted for 2027.

Sungrow took a separate contract for the same development in May, covering 7.5 GWh of storage and 2.6 GW of photovoltaic inverter capacity, ESS News reported.

The two developers announced the round-the-clock project in January 2025, then broke ground on its first phase in October 2025. Masdar has called it the world's first large-scale round-the-clock gigascale renewable energy project.

Wood Mackenzie warned that a falling global fertility rate threatens long-term energy demand, projecting that global primary energy consumption will peak at 717 exajoules in 2035 before declining to 672 EJ by 2060, according to Rigzone.

The global fertility rate fell to 2.2 births per woman in 2025, close to the 2.1 replacement ratio needed to keep the population stable, Wood Mackenzie said. Its energy outlook has consumption rising eight percent from current levels to the 2035 peak, then easing over the following decades.

Electricity tells a different story within that trajectory. Wood Mackenzie projected electricity consumption will double to 71 petawatt-hours over the same period.

The demand picture rests on competing population paths. Wood Mackenzie said the UN currently projects global population will rise from 8.2 billion in 2025 to 10.0 billion in 2060. A low birth rate scenario in the UN's World Population Prospects 2024 report placed peak global population at 8.9 billion in 2053, falling to 7.0 billion in 2100.

Peter Martin, Head of Economics at Wood Mackenzie, pointed to China as evidence the slowdown is already outrunning forecasts. The country's fertility rate has fallen from 2.6 births per woman in 2007 to 2.2 today, and its population is already 9.6 million below the UN's 2024 forecast, Martin said.

South Africa's Department of Mineral Resources and Energy proposed that reserves cover 60 days of demand, about two-thirds of it as crude and the rest as oil products, in a draft policy document published July 9 for public consultation, according to Rigzone.

That volume would come to about 36 million barrels, based on US Energy Information Administration estimates that put South African demand at 600,000 barrels per day, Rigzone reported. Under the plan, licensed wholesalers and importers would be required to hold 21 days of inventory.

The country's stocks have run low. An official estimate in March put crude reserves at 8 million barrels, and the DMRE said South Africa now needs 10 million barrels to replenish stock that has been sold or rotated.

The government estimates the economy is exposed to 1 billion rand (USD 61 million) in losses for every day that fuel is unavailable, according to Rigzone.

The buildup would be the first since the 1970s, when the government last expanded emergency stocks under United Nations sanctions, a period that led to construction of the 45 million-barrel Saldanha Bay storage hub, Rigzone reported. Since then the government has wound down its strategic holdings. In 2015 it sold 10 million barrels when prices were at an eight-year low, a deal later found to be unlawful.

The proposal follows similar moves elsewhere on the continent. Morocco announced plans in June to invest USD 641 million to develop fuel-storage facilities, according to Rigzone.

DBI - Gastechnologisches Institut Freiberg's gas processing plant at Energiepark Bad Lauchstädt passed TÜV tightness tests, clearing the facility for industrial-scale purification, storage and transport of green hydrogen to a regional refinery, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

The park sits in Saxony-Anhalt, where DBI operates the hydrogen gas processing plant, Hydrogen Fuel News reported.

The facility will purify green hydrogen produced by a 30 MW Sunfire electrolyser, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

The electrolyser draws power from a nearby Terrawatt wind farm, Hydrogen Fuel News reported. Clean gas then passes through a salt cavern for storage and onto a revamped 25 km pipeline.

Avaada Electro Ltd has commissioned the first 3 GW phase of its 6 GW n-type TOPCon solar cell manufacturing facility in Butibori, Nagpur, India, according to pv magazine.

Vineet Mittal, chairman and whole-time director of Avaada Electro Ltd, said the 6 GW Butibori factory contributes to India's green industrial development and technology independence, pv magazine reported.

On the module side, the company operates 8.5 GW of n-type TOPCon glass-to-glass module manufacturing capacity across Nagpur and Dadri, according to pv magazine. It plans to add a further 5.1 GW, taking total module capacity to 13.6 GW.

Avaada is developing an additional 6 GW solar cell manufacturing line in Greater Noida, pv magazine reported. That line would raise its total solar cell production capacity to 12 GW.

The wider group's generation arm, Avaada Energy, holds a renewable portfolio exceeding 17.70 GW, according to pv magazine. That figure includes more than 7.20 GW of operational capacity and approximately 10.50 GW under construction.

United Solar has completed the $1.6 billion funding for its polysilicon factory in Oman's Sohar Free Zone, closing a $50 million equity investment from the International Finance Corporation, according to pv magazine.

The financing package includes $400 million in debt and working capital facilities from banks across the Middle East region, pv magazine reported. Oman's sovereign wealth fund, the Oman Investment Authority, contributed a $260 million investment.

The factory began operations earlier this year following a 22-month construction period, according to pv magazine. United Solar expects the plant to reach full capacity of 100,000 metric tonnes per year by the end of 2026, enough to meet demand for around 40 GW of PV modules.

The facility was built to serve demand for more diverse sources of polysilicon, pv magazine reported. Production of the material is highly concentrated in China and has been subject to concerns over forced labor in the Xinjiang region, which has led to import restrictions from the United States and Europe.

Market observers expect an announcement on the U.S. Section 232 polysilicon investigation, and resulting policy changes, to be made in August, according to pv magazine.

Austria registered 40,060 new battery-electric passenger cars in the first half of the year, 27 percent more than in the same period a year earlier, according to electrive. That total drew nearly level with petrol cars, which accounted for 40,509 new registrations over the same six months.

Pure electric cars reached a 24.3 percent share of all new passenger car registrations in the first six months, electrive reported. Petrol registrations were almost identical to the previous year's figure, leaving the two fuel types close to parity.

Momentum built through the period. In June, 8,993 new battery-electric cars were registered, a 44 percent increase compared with June 2025, according to electrive. That pushed the monthly battery-electric share above 26 percent for the first time, reaching 26.3 percent.

Manuela Lenk, Director General of Statistical Methods at Statistik Austria, said the upward trend in new passenger car registrations has persisted for a full year and gained further momentum in June 2026.

The overall passenger car market also expanded. Austria recorded 164,529 registrations in the first half, a 15 percent increase compared with the first half of 2025, electrive reported.

Tesla led the battery-electric market in the first half with a 10.6 percent share, according to electrive. Skoda followed at 10.5 percent, with BMW at 9.9 percent and BYD at 9.8 percent, leaving the top four separated by less than a percentage point.

The levelized cost of storage for a 100 MW, four-hour battery system has risen to roughly $210/MWh to $292/MWh, according to Lazard, which cited higher capital costs, supply chain constraints, and changing market conditions.

Storage costs have climbed about 27% on a $/MWh basis since 2020, according to Lazard, a rate the firm put at compound annual growth of about 4% to 6% depending on the metric.

Tariffs on lithium-ion battery imports are beginning to push costs higher, said Samuel Scroggins, managing director and head of renewables and sustainable infrastructure at Lazard. Restricted access to low-cost Chinese battery cells under Foreign Entity of Concern (FEOC) provisions is forcing the supply chain to reroute through other countries in Southeast Asia, with the increases passed on to offtakers, he said.

Unsubsidized utility-scale solar remains among the lowest-cost generation options, with an LCOE of roughly $40/MWh to $98/MWh, according to Lazard, up from $38/MWh to $78/MWh in 2025. Utility-scale solar LCOEs are up 18% from last year but remain 81% lower than in the report's first edition, Scroggins told ESS News.

Gas-fired combined-cycle generation (CCGT) is the lowest-cost dispatchable conventional technology in the report, with an LCOE of about $51/MWh to $129/MWh, according to Lazard, which said costs have risen on higher construction expenses and broader market pressures.

New nuclear generation carries an LCOE of roughly $175/MWh to $255/MWh, according to Lazard, which attributed the level to high capital requirements and lengthy development timelines.

Germany is proposing legislation that would make rental e-scooter operators such as Lime and Bolt directly liable for damages caused by their vehicles, according to Electrek.

Under the plan, strict liability would fall on rental operators as the registered owners of the scooters, Electrek reported. Riders would be presumed at fault unless they can demonstrate otherwise.

The proposal covers rental e-scooters and certain self-balancing vehicles, but not electric bicycles, according to Electrek.

The measure follows sharp growth in the fleet. The number of insured e-scooters in Germany grew from around 180,000 in 2020 to nearly one million by 2023, Electrek reported, citing local media. Over the same stretch, third-party damage claims climbed from roughly 1,150 to 5,000 annually.

Rental scooters are overrepresented in that claim volume. According to Electrek, rental scooters made up only about 20% of insured scooters in 2023 but were involved in approximately 40% of insurance claims.

Other cities have moved to remove shared scooters outright. Electrek reported that Paris voted to eliminate rental e-scooters in 2023, Madrid revoked operators' licenses in 2024, and Prague removed shared scooters earlier this year. Brussels is set to do the same in 2027.

Eni North Ganal has awarded OneSubsea a contract to deliver a steel tube umbilical system for the Kutei North Hub development offshore East Kalimantan in Indonesia, Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported.

The scope covers engineering, procurement and manufacture of 94.6 km of umbilical rated for water depths reaching 2,200 meters, according to the same report.

Total system weight will run to about 6,700 tonnes, with a design pressure of 10,000 psi.

One element of the order is a single continuous 30-km umbilical length of about 2,100 tonnes, which calls for specialised large-scale carousel capacity to build and store, per Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

Eni North Ganal sits under Searah, a joint venture pairing Eni and Petronas. OneSubsea itself is a joint venture backed by SLB, Aker Solutions and Subsea7.

Mads Hjelmeland, chief executive officer of SLB OneSubsea, tied the award to the company's manufacturing capacity for demanding deepwater work.

India's commercial and industrial (C&I) sector accounts for nearly 42% to 45% of the country's total electricity consumption, according to ESS News, yet it has been slow to adopt battery storage even as costs fall and government support expands.

Lithium-ion battery prices have declined by nearly 90% globally since 2010, ESS News reported, citing the International Energy Agency (IEA). Despite that drop, cost remains a barrier at the project level. A battery energy storage system (BESS) installation can account for 30% to 50% of the total project cost for a renewable energy system, depending on size and configuration, according to ESS News.

The C&I segment's weight in national demand makes its uptake decisions significant for the wider market. That segment represents close to 42% to 45% of electricity use across the country, per ESS News.

Policy measures are targeting the gap. India has announced a Viability Gap Funding (VGF) scheme worth INR 37.6 billion, or USD 393 million, to support 4,000 MWh of battery storage projects, ESS News reported. On the supply side, the Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme aims to establish 50 GWh of domestic manufacturing capacity, according to ESS News.

The storage push sits within a broader shift in the country's generation base. India has crossed 50% installed power capacity from non-fossil fuel sources, ahead of its 2030 target, and aims to reach 500 GW of non-fossil fuel capacity by the end of the decade, ESS News reported.

Nigeria pumped more crude last month than in any month for six years, its top oil regulator said, after the government tightened protection on pipeline infrastructure, according to Semafor Net Zero.

At 1.56 million barrels per day, the country's flows sit above the OPEC+ ceiling set for Africa's biggest producer, Semafor reported.

Counting condensates, June volumes hit 1.7 million, the fourth month running that average output has climbed, according to Semafor.

The higher barrels feed directly into state revenue, since crude sales bring in more than 90% of Nigeria's foreign exchange, Semafor reported. The government set its USD 50 billion budget this year against an output benchmark of 1.8 million barrels a day.

Theft along the pipeline network has cut into both volumes and receipts. A Senate committee last year put the country's oil theft losses at USD 300 billion, according to Semafor.

The Emirati government and cleared companies can now buy semiconductor processors, certain commercial satellites and military equipment, and dual-use goods tied to civil nuclear power without applying for US licenses, according to Semafor Net Zero. Washington has eased its export controls on United Arab Emirates purchases of its most advanced technologies.

No other state in the Middle East, Israel and Saudi Arabia included, holds the same access, Semafor reported.

The Department of Commerce tied the shift to the UAE's backing for the US war against Iran and to its position as America's largest Middle East trading partner, according to Semafor.

Semafor reported the UAE has pledged to invest more than USD 1 trillion in the US.

Earlier administrations had held back over the risk that guarded technologies, including those behind Nvidia's Blackwell chips, might reach China through Emirati access, Semafor reported.

Building three industrial zones under a master plan for the Maheshkhali and Matarbari coast in Bangladesh could uproot more than 770,000 residents, according to Mongabay. The Maheshkhali-Matarbari Integrated Development Initiative (MIDI) needs roughly 37,000 hectares to host the zones, among them an energy hub carrying 13 GW of new liquefied natural gas (LNG) and coal capacity, a deep-sea port with container and multipurpose terminals, and a special economic zone.

The program began in February 2024 and draws on backing from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Mongabay reported.

The first construction phase has already forced people off the land. An ActionAid study published in September 2020 found that the opening stage of the Matarbari coal power plant and deep seaport displaced around 20,000 people after 1,141 hectares were taken over, land that had served salt production, fish farming, and shrimp cultivation, Mongabay reported. The study counted roughly 90,000 people in Matarbari affected once the coal power plant, coal jetty, and deep seaport were combined.

Pledged support to residents fell short. "The authorities promised better jobs through training," said SM Abu Haider, chairman of Matarbari Union, citing sewing courses for women and vocational and computer training for men, adding that the promise "was not fulfilled".

Mongabay reported a separate maritime disaster among people leaving by sea. On April 14, 2026, a small vessel carrying about 250 people, including Bangladeshi nationals and Rohingya refugees, capsized in the Andaman Sea on a route to Malaysia, and rescuers recovered only nine.

Heerema Marine Contractors trimmed the North Atlantic transit time of its semi-submersible crane vessel Sleipnir by 2.5 days after a voyage optimization pilot with French ocean intelligence company Amphitrite, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

The pilot cut sailing distance by 240 nautical miles and lowered carbon dioxide emissions by up to 18%, according to OEDigital. The vessel held higher average sailing speeds without increasing fuel consumption during the crossing.

Sleipnir was sailing from Rotterdam to New York to install an offshore wind substation when the pilot ran, according to OEDigital. The vessel carries a lifting capacity of 20,000 metric tonnes.

On the return crossing, the system routed the vessel toward the Gulf Stream, where favorable ocean currents lifted its speed over ground to 14.6 knots, according to OEDigital.

Amphitrite's vessel-specific voyage optimization platform was trained on five years of operational data supplied by Heerema, according to OEDigital.

"Improving fleet efficiency is fundamental to our decarbonization strategy," said Alejandro Velez Isaza, Decarbonization Engineer at Heerema Marine Contractors.

Brazilian solar installer Alba Energia is pairing smart power controllers with Aneel's simultaneity rules to get around reverse power flow restrictions and build larger distributed solar arrays, according to pv magazine.

The approach rests on rules Aneel introduced in 2024 that allow reverse power flow assessments to be waived when specific technical requirements are met, pv magazine reported.

At the Guisolphi family property, the utility authorized only 7.5 kW of grid export, according to pv magazine. Alba Energia responded with a 37.2 kW plant fitted with a 23 kW inverter and a smart controller configured to hold grid injection to the authorized 7.5 kW.

The controller lets the array run larger than the export cap by keeping surplus generation behind the meter. According to Ribeiro, surplus energy converts into credits that the consumer unit can use for up to 60 months, sustaining savings during nighttime consumption or peak demand periods.

Alba Energia first ran into reverse power flow limitations in 2024, when local utility Santa Maria began carrying out simulation-based connection studies, pv magazine reported.

The simultaneity calculation that underpins the waiver draws on the previous 12 months of average consumption, according to pv magazine.

A research team from Morocco has designed a passive counterweight-and-pulley mooring system for floating photovoltaic (FPV) systems that tracks water-level changes and reduces platform motion, according to pv magazine.

The design automatically follows water-level shifts while improving platform stability, pv magazine reported.

Laboratory-scale testing and numerical simulations showed surge and sway motion reductions of up to 71.7% and 65.6% respectively, with 75% water-level tracking efficiency, according to pv magazine.

The laboratory floating platform measured 0.662 m by 0.382 m by 0.027 m and had a mass of 1.6 kg, supported by 11 floats, pv magazine reported.

The system was presented in a study published in Scientific Reports, according to pv magazine.

Vimag Labs won an Indian patent for an electric motor that runs without rare-earth magnets, relying on power electronics to create its magnetic field, according to Electrek.

The company closed a $5 million Series A, with Accel leading the round and Chakra Growth Fund and Thinkuvate joining as investors, Electrek reported. Chief executive and co-founder Manish Seth, who launched Vimag Labs in September 2025, said the patent reflects more than 87,600 engineering hours.

Vimag is aiming its motor at industrial systems rated between 200 kW and 600 kW, alongside robotics, defense, and cooling uses, according to Electrek.

Magnet-free designs sidestep a supply chain that sits largely in one country. The International Energy Agency reports that China handled roughly 91% of global rare-earth refining and separation and 94% of sintered permanent-magnet production in 2024.

That concentration has driven trade friction. China placed export controls on seven heavy rare-earth elements and associated magnets in April 2025, Electrek reported. On November 7, 2025, China paused its October de minimis expansion for one year under a wider trade truce.

Other magnet-free motor developers remain further from market. Valeo does not expect to commercialize its magnet-free 'iBEE' motor until 2028, according to Electrek.

Airport operator daa has installed a pantograph charging system to run 14 zero-emission shuttle buses operated by Aircoach, electrive reported. Electrive described the setup as the first such system in Ireland, letting the buses top up at scheduled stops along the route instead of depending only on depot charging.

Each vehicle holds up to 120 passengers per trip, and the fleet moves roughly 2.5 million passengers a year between the airport car parks and its terminals, according to electrive.

A grant of EUR 4.7 million from the European Commission covered part of the cost, routed through the Connecting Europe Facility - Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Facility, electrive reported. Aircoach put in EUR 11 million of its own toward the electric fleet.

daa estimates that swapping diesel buses for electric ones cuts more than 1,470 tonnes of CO2e each year.

The airport said 82 per cent of its light commercial fleet, spanning cars and vans, has already moved to low-emission vehicles.

Eni has awarded SLB's OneSubsea joint venture an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract covering Phase 3 of the Baleine deepwater development offshore Côte d'Ivoire, according to World Oil.

The subsea production system to be delivered under the deal will serve 13 wells, World Oil reported.

Subsea trees, umbilicals, manifolds, multiphase flowmeters and control systems fall within the EPC scope, which also runs through commissioning and life-of-field support, according to World Oil.

Mads Hjelmeland, chief executive officer of SLB OneSubsea, said Baleine Phase 3 "brings together scale and execution certainty."

World Oil described Baleine as the largest hydrocarbon discovery ever made in Côte d'Ivoire.

Renewable and storage developers will compete for grid access at the Beariz 400 kV node in Galicia after Spain's Ministry for the Ecological Transition cleared an auction that reserves all newly available capacity for those project types, according to ESS News.

ESS News reported that the resolution reached Spain's Official State Gazette (BOE) on July 8, closing off the earlier first-come, first-served route for new capacity at the node. Any capacity that opens up at Beariz will be allocated competitively.

Behind the decision sits a July 1 assessment by Spanish transmission system operator Red Electrica, which judged the Beariz node fit for a competitive allocation process on technical and regulatory grounds, according to ESS News.

The threshold matters here: a mainland node needs at least 100 MW of available capacity before Spain can open a competitive access procedure, ESS News reported.

Bidding falls under Article 18 of Royal Decree 1183/2020, which opens grid access at chosen transmission nodes to competition when demand runs high or fresh capacity appears, according to ESS News. The auction admits new renewable generation and storage projects.