Monday, 20 July 2026

Peak Energy, a Burlingame, California-based battery designer, has chosen Sacramento for the first sodium-ion grid storage manufacturing plant in the United States, according to Solar Builder.

The 183,000 square foot plant carries a corporate investment of about USD 71 million, Solar Builder reported, with output reaching up to 4 GWh of energy storage per year.

Over the next 18 months, the factory will add 239 jobs in California, according to Solar Builder. Counting both Sacramento and Burlingame, Peak Energy expects the new site to generate 348 net new jobs.

Demand is already lined up: Peak Energy says it holds more than 6 GWh of commitments from customers around the country. The company says its sodium-ion technology targets an energy cost reduction of up to 20% for those customers, and it says the batteries will hold a consistent uptime of 99% across their lifespan.

Supporting the construction is a USD 10.5 million CalCompetes tax credit, which Peak Energy received in May 2026, according to Solar Builder.

Sacramento serves as the state capital, and the company describes the Sacramento plant as the country's first facility built for sodium-ion cells at grid scale, per Solar Builder. The commitments already booked exceed the plant's planned annual output of up to 4 GWh.

Panama plans two capacity and energy tenders in 2027 that will admit battery storage systems, the first entry for storage in the country's tender program, according to ESS News.

National Energy Secretary Rodrigo Rodriguez Jaramillo set out the plan at the opening of Energyear Centroamerica 2026 in Panama City, ESS News reported, citing a National Energy Secretariat statement.

The framework is still under review. ESS News reported that required capacities and eligible technologies should be settled by November or December 2026.

Rodriguez pointed to an earlier long-term tender built to support the contracts market, which pulled in more than 70 bids and handed out nearly all the capacity and energy on offer.

That award carried a line item to switch liquid-fuel thermal plants over to natural gas, with operation targeted for July 2029, according to ESS News.

Transgrid will drop two synchronous condensers from its system strength plan and hand grid-forming batteries a larger share of the work as coal-fired generators leave the New South Wales network, according to pv magazine.

The earlier plan sought contracts for as much as 5 GW of grid-forming batteries paired with 10 synchronous condensers, meant to stand in for the stabilizing services long supplied by coal, gas and hydro, pv magazine reported.

The revised portfolio keeps synchronous condensers in the mix but trims them to eight units, according to pv magazine.

On top of the 5 GW named in the first plan, Transgrid now wants 900 MW of grid-forming batteries, preferably sited in the Sydney West region, to deliver minimum-level system strength, pv magazine reported.

Nine battery projects totaling 2 GW have already made Transgrid's shortlist to cover system strength, according to pv magazine.

Jason Krstanoski, Transgrid Executive General Manager of Network, tied the technology switch to "rapidly changing market conditions," citing the rising cost and slower availability of synchronous condensers and revised timelines for NSW coal retirements, pv magazine reported.

Krstanoski said the plan keeps hydro and gas as fallback support so minimum system strength holds if the batteries arrive late or fall short, pv magazine reported.

A six-week course that certifies oil and gas technicians for offshore wind maintenance is now available through ECITB-approved training providers, following two pilots, according to World Oil.

The Wind Turbine Maintenance Technician Cross Skill Programme was built by the Engineering Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB) with the Global Wind Organisation (GWO) and Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult. It admits qualified Instrument and Controls, Mechanical and Electrical technicians, adding the credentials they need to work across offshore oil and gas facilities and wind sites as demand moves between the two, World Oil reported.

Andrew Hockey, chief executive officer of the ECITB, described the course as a way to move qualified oil and gas technicians into wind and back again when maintenance work calls for it.

Training maps to GWO safety and technical standards, which cuts duplicate assessments for experienced offshore staff, and hands-on sessions run at ORE Catapult's Levenmouth offshore wind demonstration facility, according to World Oil.

Funding comes jointly from the UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and the Scottish Government through the Transition Training Fund.

Bloomberg counts nine or more commercial vessels hit since the U.S.-Iran truce broke down, five of them very large crude carriers. The International Maritime Organization has said the Strait of Hormuz is now too dangerous for normal commercial navigation.

Export activity through the Gulf slipped back after a short rebound. World Oil reported that satellite imagery caught just one tanker at berth at Saudi Arabia's main Gulf export terminals on Wednesday, following a brief pickup that ran from late June into early July.

"The loading pace has started to roll over," said Rory Johnston, founder of Commodity Context. He described a recovery that reversed almost as fast as it began, with conditions worsening across the board.

The strain falls hardest on Iraq, which ships nearly all its crude through the Basra Oil Terminal, according to World Oil. A renewed scarcity of available tankers there has slowed shipments and pushed the country into further production cuts.

Saudi Arabia carries more insulation than several of its neighbors, since it can route a large portion of its barrels to the Red Sea and skip the Strait of Hormuz entirely.

Tradewater has bought Colorado-based Carbon Shield, adding well-plugging and methane mitigation projects across Colorado and Wyoming, according to World Oil.

The buyer first moved into orphaned oil and gas wells in 2023, running projects in Illinois, Indiana and Kansas since then, World Oil reported. Those projects have kept more than 1.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent out of the atmosphere, the company said.

Chief Executive Kirsten Dueck said the deal lets the company "rapidly scale" its plugging work.

The company states a target of preventing more than 30 million metric tons of CO2-equivalent emissions by 2030.

Taylor Heffner, Carbon Shield's vice president of operations, moved to Tradewater under the deal.

More than 141,000 documented orphaned oil and gas wells sit across the country, with further undocumented wells thought to need remediation, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency cited by World Oil.

Volt has begun operating a charging hub at 2E Jalan Papan in Jurong that the company describes as Singapore's largest public electric bus charging site, according to electrive. The facility is set up to top up ComfortDelGro Bus electric vehicles that run routes across western Singapore.

Installed capacity at the site reaches 2.76 MW, enough to charge 46 EVs at the same time, electrive reported. The chargers come in two ratings, 120 kW and 360 kW, and Volt has not said how many of each it has deployed.

Construction is proceeding in phases. When the build is finished, the hub is designed to handle up to 70 EVs at once, though Volt has given no completion date, according to electrive.

Those figures trail what Volt outlined when it first announced the project in July 2024. The company then said the site would accommodate up to 80 electric buses simultaneously and carry five 360 kW ultra-fast chargers in its opening phase, electrive reported.

Volt runs close to 500 chargers at more than 150 locations around Singapore, and more than half are DC fast chargers, according to electrive.

Volt Executive Director Lim Yong Wei said the opening marks a step in the company's expansion of EV charging infrastructure.

The United States launched fresh strikes across Iran against more than 80 sites and scrapped a waiver that had permitted new sales of Iranian oil, according to Rigzone. The two moves added strain to the interim agreement signed on June 17, which set a 60-day path toward a permanent peace, Rigzone reported.

The strikes targeted Iranian air defenses, command and control networks, coastal radar installations and anti-ship missile assets, according to Rigzone. More than 60 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps small boats were also hit.

The US Treasury Department said it would bar new sales of Iranian oil after July 7, according to Rigzone. Ending the waiver stripped out an incentive designed to hold Tehran to a deal that requires reopening the strait.

Brent crude rose 3.4% to trade near USD 77 a barrel early Wednesday, Rigzone reported. That price sits well under the peak above USD 126 a barrel Brent touched in late April, two months into the military campaign against Iran, according to Rigzone.

Bob McNally, president of Rapidan Energy Group and a former White House official, told Rigzone the end of the waiver "is a signal to a complacent market that the ceasefire may not be as durable and solid as thought". "The market has some risk pricing to do," he said.

Commercial crude oil held outside the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in the United States shed 1.7 million barrels between the weeks ending July 3 and July 10, 2026, Rigzone reported, citing the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

That draw pulled inventories to 409.7 million barrels on July 10, from 411.4 million a week earlier. The same week a year prior, on July 11, 2025, the figure sat at 422.2 million barrels. The EIA put the current level roughly six percent under the five-year seasonal average.

The SPR itself thinned to 316.5 million barrels on July 10 from 319.5 million on July 3. Saxo Bank's Ole Hansen counted a further three million barrels drawn from the reserve, which he said brought the cumulative post-war release close to 100 million barrels.

Refiners leaned hard into the summer season. Crude inputs averaged 17.1 million barrels per day for the week ending July 10, up 99,000 barrels per day on the prior week, the EIA reported, with plants running at 96.2 percent of operable capacity.

Gasoline stocks fell 1.5 million barrels, and Hansen said Gulf Coast holdings hit their lowest since 2017, a sign he tied to regional tightness through the peak driving months.

Hansen also logged crude exports climbing to 3.7 million barrels per day, still under the one-year average of 4.2 million barrels per day and far short of the 6.4 million barrels per day record set in May.

A gas supplier in regional Victoria plans to close its network by the end of 2026, leaving 10 towns without a supply and pushing residents to swap out their gas appliances, according to RenewEconomy.

The closure lands on a lopsided funding base. Households and small businesses cover roughly 90 per cent of gas distribution network revenue while using a much smaller portion of the gas that flows through the pipes, RenewEconomy reports.

That gap grows each time a customer leaves. Current rules mean the cost of maintaining pipes after one household disconnects is passed to the neighbours still on the network, according to RenewEconomy.

Gas companies are seeking regulator approval to recoup their investments faster, which raises bills for the customers who remain, RenewEconomy reports.

Claire Ohk of Energy Consumers Australia says the cost of a declining gas industry should be split proportionately among network investors, governments, and consumers.

The group's Power Move report warned that leaving the gas network decline unmanaged is no longer viable, according to RenewEconomy.

TÜV Rheinland has certified Qcells' perovskite-silicon tandem solar technology as meeting reliability and safety standards from the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and UL Standards & Engagement (UL), according to pv magazine.

Qcells says the certification is the first to cover perovskite-silicon tandem technology under both IEC 61215 and UL 61215, pv magazine reported.

Production of the certified cells and modules ran on Qcells' tandem research pilot line in Bitterfeld-Wolfen, Germany, which used full-area M10 substrates, according to pv magazine.

A tandem cell of the same build hit 28.6% power conversion efficiency in December 2024, pv magazine reported. The result was independently verified by the CalLab at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE).

Modules made with the tandem technology cleared a series of IEC stress tests in May 2025, according to pv magazine. Those tests covered UV preconditioning at 15 kWh/m², 200 thermal cycles, 10 humidity-freeze cycles, and 1,000 hours of damp heat.

Qcells first set out its tandem plans in 2022, opening the R&D line in Thalheim with Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB), pv magazine reported.

Malaysia's Ministry of Energy Transition and Water Transformation opened the sixth round of its large-scale solar program, seeking 2.5 GW of solar paired with 1.25 GW of battery energy storage, according to ESS News.

The tender is split into two lots. ESS News reported that the first lot covers 2.2 GW of solar and 1.1 GW of battery energy storage (BESS) and is open to all developers. The second lot covers 300 MW of solar and 150 MW of BESS and is reserved for companies owned and controlled by indigenous people in the Malaysian peninsular, known as Bumiputera companies, according to ESS News.

The program is expected to draw private investment of up to MYR 15 billion (USD 3.6 billion) and create up to 20,000 jobs during project development and construction, ESS News reported. Projects awarded under the tender are expected to enter commercial operations no later than December 31, 2029.

Malaysia first introduced its large-scale solar tenders in 2016, and they have approved over 6 GW of solar to date, according to ESS News. That total includes almost 2 GW from the latest round last September.

The country's solar capacity surpassed 5.7 GW in 2025, with over 1.4 GW added that year, ESS News reported.

Xpanner has released the X1 Panel Lift, an excavator-based panel installation system built to address the shortage of skilled solar installation labor, according to pv magazine.

The system runs on a single excavator and removes the need for separate feeder equipment such as a compact track loader or forklift, pv magazine reported.

The X1 is powered by Mango, Xpanner's proprietary automation controller, and fuses data from LIDAR, vision, and GNSS sensors to build a live 3D model of the jobsite, according to pv magazine.

Rather than requiring heavy upfront capital expenditure, Xpanner is offering the X1 Panel Lift under an all-inclusive subscription that covers hardware, the X1 kit and license, Xpanner Connect software, and on-site field operations support, pv magazine reported.

Xpanner has opened a new demo yard in Aledo, Texas, and will exhibit at BuiltWorld's 2026 Construction Tech Conference, according to pv magazine.

The UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) published its annual report and accounts for 2025 to 2026 on 16 July 2026.

The report sets out the department's activities over the period 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026. DESNZ describes it as a report on the expenditure and performance of the department for that period.

The print-ready PDF of the report runs to 326 pages and 17.6 MB, according to DESNZ.

CPH2 suffered a destructive test failure of an experimental electrolyzer, according to CleanTechnica.

CleanTechnica reported that the failure exposed a mismatch between the product the company promoted and the business it was actually trying to operate.

The company had more than a decade of development, a public listing, and roughly GBP 50 million in disclosed financing before its 2026 failure, according to CleanTechnica.

Xpeng set a starting price of EUR 35,600 for the L03, according to electrive, placing it below the Tesla Model Y at EUR 39,990 and the Hyundai Ioniq 5 at EUR 41,900.

The L03 uses a 400-volt architecture rather than the 800-volt setup on the larger G6, electrive reported. Despite that, it reaches up to 236 kW charging power. That allows a 20 to 80 per cent charge in 18 minutes and a 10 to 80 per cent charge in 20 minutes, according to electrive.

First deliveries are scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter of 2026, electrive reported. Xpeng offers a seven-year or 160,000 km warranty on the vehicle and eight years on the battery.

On automation, Xpeng has tied the move to higher levels to a Europe-wide legal framework it does not expect before 1 January 2027, according to electrive. As a result, the L03 offers only Level 2+ in Germany.

Horse Powertrain unveiled the D20 Methanol range-extender powertrain at Auto China 2026, according to electrive. The drive unit is designed for range-extended electric vehicles.

The system delivers up to 105kW and combines a 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine, a generator, and power electronics in a package weighing 170kg, electrive reported. It was shown for the first time at the event.

The engine is built to run on 100 per cent methanol, according to electrive. A high-energy ignition system enables lean combustion and reliable cold starts at temperatures as low as minus 35 degrees Celsius.

Horse uses an axial flux generator design. According to electrive, that layout results in a 46 per cent shorter build length and a 63 per cent higher volumetric power density than comparable radial flux generators.

Horse states the electrical efficiency of the drive system at 96.4 per cent, with fuel-to-electricity efficiency of 47 per cent, electrive reported.

In laboratory tests, a 40kWh battery could be fully recharged using 19.6 litres of methanol, according to electrive.

Horse Powertrain is a joint venture between Renault and Geely that specialises in internal combustion engine technologies.

Natural Resources Canada announced over CAD 4.5 million in funding for the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Regional Electricity Cooperative's Electricity Distribution System Modernization Project, drawn from its Smart Renewables and Electrification Pathways Program (SREPs).

The project will support the deployment of up to 7,500 digital metering technologies, such as smart meters, to help cooperative members manage their energy use, according to Natural Resources Canada.

The Coopérative d'électricité de Saint-Jean-Baptiste serves 7,000 customers and 16 municipalities in the Montérégie and Estrie regions, according to Natural Resources Canada. It operates 437 kilometres of distribution lines across a service area of 469 square kilometres.

The SREPs program totals CAD 4.5 billion and is designed to reduce emissions and enable a more modern, reliable electricity grid system, according to Natural Resources Canada.

The federal government aims to double Canada's electricity grid by 2050 under Powering Canada Strong: A National Strategy for an Electrified Canadian Economy.

Wildfire smoke drifting into New England from the northern United States and Canada is complicating electricity demand forecasts, though it has not affected regional power system reliability, according to ISO New England.

The smoke has cut behind-the-meter solar production by up to 40% at times, ISO New England estimates. The haze has also lowered temperatures across the region, which the grid operator estimates were as much as 11 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than they would have been without the smoky conditions. Both effects change how much power consumers draw and how much rooftop solar feeds into the system, making load harder to predict.

ISO New England said it continues to manage the regional grid under normal operating conditions and does not anticipate this changing.

The region saw comparable smoky conditions in 2023, but the smoke concentration this week has so far exceeded that event, according to ISO New England.

The exposed lakebed of the Aral Sea pumped 748 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere between 1960 and 2022, three times Spain's annual emissions, according to a study published in the journal Science and reported by Grist.

The study was led by Rafael Marce, a research scientist at the Centre for Advanced Studies in Blanes, Spain. Grist reported that the sediment beneath drying salt lakes accumulates carbon, which escapes once the lakebed is exposed.

Much of the release happens quickly. About half of the carbon dioxide comes out in the first 15 years after a section of the lakebed is exposed, according to Marce. "At the beginning it goes pretty fast, then it slowly decays," he said.

The paper found that nearly a fifth of the emissions came from wind blowing sediment away, an aspect of drying that experts told Grist had not been adequately studied before.

The decline of the Aral Sea began in the 1960s, when the Soviet Union diverted water from the rivers that feed it to irrigate cotton crops, according to Grist.

The study also estimated how much carbon dioxide remains locked in the lakebed, putting the figure at about 605 million metric tons. Keeping that amount in the ground would be equivalent to about USD 18 billion worth of carbon credits, the paper estimates.

The Aral Sea is not the only drying salt lake studied for its emissions. A separate recent study found that Utah's Great Salt Lake is releasing over 4 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year, according to Grist.

Xpeng launched the L03 electric SUV-coupe in Europe this week at a starting price of EUR 34,990, undercutting the Tesla Model Y by roughly EUR 3,400 in Germany and by around USD 10,000 in Norway, according to Electrek.

The Chinese automaker unveiled the L03 at its Global Brand Event in Munich and opened orders across more than 60 markets at once, its biggest global launch to date, Electrek reported.

Electrek said Tesla's German configurator now lists the Model Y from EUR 38,970 after a price adjustment last month, leaving the L03 EUR 3,370 cheaper.

The pricing gap widens in Norway. Electrek reported that the country began phasing out its electric vehicle value-added tax (VAT) exemption this year, applying 25% VAT to any portion of a purchase price above 300,000 kroner. At 299,900 kroner, the L03 sits under that threshold by 100 kroner.

On specifications, Electrek said the L03 uses a 400-volt architecture, charges at up to 236 kW, and moves from 10% to 80% in 20 minutes.

A range-extender version, which Xpeng calls the L03 Power X, follows this fall from EUR 38,600 in Germany with a claimed total range of up to 1,000 km, according to Electrek.

The launch builds on rising volumes. Xpeng registered more than 4,600 vehicles in Europe in June, a fourth straight monthly record, Electrek reported, citing industry registration data.

In the United States, the Tesla Model Y Standard starts at USD 39,990 before a USD 1,390 destination fee, according to Electrek.

CleanTechnica published a piece arguing that battery-electric heavy trucks are the next chapter of China's transport transition after electric cars. The commentary is credited to Ray Wills and Peter Newman.

According to the article, if the electric car was the opening chapter of China's transport shift, battery-electric heavy trucks represent the next stage, now moving from promise to industrial reality.

The piece characterizes China's transport shift as occurring within what it calls the fastest energy transition in human history.

EnBW has dropped its hunt for an investor in residential battery storage maker Senec, unable to line up new backing, according to ESS News. The utility had opened the process in February to draw fresh capital into the Leipzig business.

No suitable buyer emerged, EnBW said, pointing to tougher market conditions.

Senec will keep taking orders for its SENEC.Home E4 and SENEC.Home P4 units until the end of August, with installations set to finish by Dec. 31, 2026, ESS News reported.

Beyond that, the company plans to halt development of new products and pull back from marketing what it already sells. It will also run a replacement program for older batteries hit by repeated fires.

Narrowing the operation to serve only current customers will mean job cuts, EnBW said, without giving a number.

Chinese solar firms are pulling back from the United States, with more than half of the clean-tech investments they announced since 2022 now canceled, paused, or delayed, according to Semafor Net Zero.

Semafor Net Zero tied the retreat to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed by President Donald Trump, which unwound Biden-era incentives that had drawn green investment into the country.

Two leading Chinese solar firms were added to a Pentagon blacklist, according to The Wire China.

The tightening rules could push Chinese manufacturers to scale back or exit US operations, one analyst told Semafor Net Zero, warning that "at some point, it will stop making financial sense".

MOIA has opened an autonomous ride-pooling trial across selected areas of Winterhude, Barmbek and Wandsbek, with a safety driver kept aboard and no fare charged during the launch phase, according to electrive.

The trial sits within the ALIKE project, backed by funding from the German Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport, electrive reported. Plans for the project call for up to ten autonomous ID. Buzz vehicles.

MOIA runs the service on its own technology platform, which ties together the ID. Buzz AD, Mobileye's automated driving system, fleet management and operational processes, according to electrive.

The company set out a wider deployment target in April, announcing a tie-up with US provider Beep to assemble a fleet of up to 5,000 autonomous shuttle vehicles for public transport across ten years, electrive reported.

Further pilots are in preparation across Germany, Norway and the USA, according to electrive.

Red Eléctrica will move seven high-voltage transformers from the Port of Bilbao to the Gatika converter station between July and October, running the operation mainly at night, according to Red Eléctrica REE. Each unit weighs 315 tonnes and stands 5 metres high, 4.7 metres wide and 10 metres long.

HITACHI Energy is handling transport as Red Eléctrica's contractor, first carrying the transformers by ship to the right bank of the Bilbao estuary, then completing the journey to the Gatika substation by road. Red Eléctrica said it will coordinate the relocation with the relevant authorities to keep traffic disruption to a minimum.

The transformers feed the Bay of Biscay interconnection, which will connect the electricity systems of the Iberian Peninsula and France through two 400 kV links. Those links run from Gatika to Cubnezais, near Bordeaux, on a route Red Eléctrica describes as entirely underground and submarine.

Once in service, the interconnection raises cross-border exchange capacity to 5,000 MW from 2,800 MW, according to Red Eléctrica.

Inelfe, jointly owned by Red Eléctrica and RTE, is developing the project. The European Commission has designated it a Project of Common Interest, with backing from CINEA and the European Investment Bank.

Macquarie strategists Vikas Dwivedi and Walt Chancellor told clients they expect the renewed US-Iran tension to prove short-lived, arguing that both governments face binding economic and political limits, according to Rigzone.

Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has clawed back most of its earlier losses, the bank said. The 7-day moving average of crude, condensate and clean products, spanning gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and naphtha, ran at about 54% of the level seen before the fighting, according to Rigzone. On that basis the shortfall against that earlier baseline had shrunk to eight million barrels per day.

The rebuild has drained inventory sitting on tankers. Floating storage in the Middle East Gulf, which had swelled to 150 million barrels, has since fallen below 10 million barrels, Macquarie said, according to Rigzone. Loadings inside the Strait climbed quickly over the same stretch.

J.P. Morgan analysts led by Natasha Kaneva read the flow data differently, telling Rigzone that fresh strikes between the two countries had cut Hormuz throughput sharply and undone a good part of the gains built up in recent weeks.

The same team named three unresolved risks for refining: how badly Middle Eastern refining plants have been hit after months of conflict, when a policy push revives Chinese refinery runs, and how fast Russia's refining system repairs damage from repeated Ukrainian drone attacks, according to Rigzone.

Crude gave back ground on the day, said Monte Safieddine of Capital.com, unwinding Wednesday's rally while holding a gain of more than 5% for the week, according to Rigzone.

Two contractors on the GranMorgu offshore project have agreed to trial wind-assisted kite traction on the tow of a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel bound for waters off Suriname, Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported. The STS joint venture, set up by SBM Offshore and Technip Energies, signed the deal with Beyond the Sea alongside TotalEnergies EP Suriname.

Under the agreement, the group plans to install and run Beyond the Sea's SeaKite 2400 system while the GranMorgu FPSO is towed from its Chinese construction yard to its operating site off Suriname, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

The trial is designed to cut towing time and fuel use, and to test whether kite-assisted propulsion works on large offshore vessels. The partners call it the first time such kite towing has been applied to an FPSO.

Chilean regulators are reviewing a 450 MW/3.6 GWh pumped hydro storage plant in the Atacama region after developer Central de Bombeo Atacama lodged its environmental impact assessment, according to ESS News. The developer pairs Chile's Susterra with France's Hyvity.

The design routes renewable power into a reversible pumped hydro system that can run at full output for eight hours, ESS News reported. Two artificial reservoirs, each holding about 4.8 million m³, sit at either end of pressure pipelines linked through a powerhouse.

Water comes from a closed loop fed by desalination rather than natural sources, according to ESS News. The developer expects to top up roughly 1,953 m³ each day to cover evaporation.

Discharge cycles put the plant's annual output at up to 1,314 GWh, per the environmental filing cited by ESS News.

A step-up substation and a 220 kV double-circuit line carry the power out over 151.3 meters, tying into an existing line that serves the Cerro Negro Norte mine and the Punta Totoralillo desalination plant, according to ESS News.

The developer set a 45-year operating life, with generation running through 2072 and decommissioning slated for April 2072 to June 2073, ESS News reported.

ReconAfrica reported that its Kavango West 1X well brought hydrocarbons to surface from the Elandshoek formation, which the company called the first hydrocarbons produced to surface onshore Namibia.

The formation's uppermost zone, measuring 47 metres, was flared across three flow tests, and the well stayed open to flow for roughly 24 hours combined, yielding natural gas and liquids at intermittent rates, according to ReconAfrica.

Pressure readings climbed across the sequence of tests. Ahead of the second flow test, ReconAfrica measured 2,300 psi through the 5-inch production casing, which it said points to hydrocarbon deliverability.

Attention now turns to the Huttenberg formation, where the company has logged net pay. Three Huttenberg zones cover 182 metres of reservoir section and contain 76 net metres of hydrocarbon pay identified from well logs.

ReconAfrica expects each Huttenberg zone to take up to about 10 days to test, and plans its next production update by late August. The well started testing on June 8, 2026.

On the well, ReconAfrica works with BW Energy at a 20% working interest and NAMCOR at a 10% carried working interest.

S&P Global expects U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) to rank as the country's second-largest net export industry by 2031, citing faster investment, wider export capacity and stronger global demand.

Feedgas demand tied to LNG will double to 36 Bcfd within five years as new export terminals start up, according to S&P Global. That figure sits 25% above the firm's earlier base-case projection.

The firm links the sharper outlook to the lifting of the U.S. LNG permitting pause in early 2025. Seven final investment decisions on new projects have followed, and S&P Global expects more to move ahead within the year.

"The profound growth of U.S. LNG is exceeding all expectations," said Daniel Yergin, vice chairman of S&P Global and chair of the study.

S&P Global estimates the supply chain will draw more than USD 1 trillion in investment through 2040. The firm puts the annual employment effect at about 555,000 jobs and the GDP contribution at USD 1.4 trillion.

Domestic bills stay modest under the forecast. S&P Global sees average residential natural gas costs rising roughly 1.6% between 2026 and 2031, with Henry Hub prices held down by ample domestic supply and a wide pipeline network.

Delay carries a cost abroad, the firm cautions. Holding back recently sanctioned export projects could tighten global markets by 2031 and push LNG prices in Europe and Asia up by as much as 50%, according to S&P Global.

Pipeline capacity remains the main brake on further domestic growth, S&P Global said, singling out the U.S. Northeast, where added takeaway capacity could ease seasonal price swings and firm up regional supply.

The Kia EV2 Long Range has reached buyers, carrying a 61 kWh battery rated for a WLTP driving range of 281 miles, according to Electrek.

Electrek reported that the Long Range pairs its 61 kWh battery with a 135 hp (99.5 kW) front-mounted motor, described as slightly detuned to squeeze out more efficiency.

In Germany and other European markets, the EV2 Air lists from EUR 33,490 (USD 38,300) with a WLTP range of 281 miles (453 km), Electrek reported. UK buyers pay from GBP 27,995 (USD 37,700) for the EV2 Air with the 61 kWh battery, before government incentives, according to Electrek.

A long-range EV2 GT-Line prototype covered 428 km (265 miles) at the NAF Summer El Prix, Electrek reported, matching 102% of its expected WLTP combined range figure.

Kia said in April the EV2 with the 42.2 kWh battery was in production in Slovakia, with the 61 kWh Long Range and the GT-Line following in June 2026, according to Electrek.

Chiltern Vital Group has signed a letter of intent with Cambridge Atomworks to consider building the prototype Odin microreactor at the Berkeley Green Science and Technology Park in Gloucestershire, England, according to World Nuclear News.

Cambridge Atomworks plans to have an operational prototype of the Odin microreactor by 2030, World Nuclear News reported.

World Nuclear News described the Odin unit as a low-pressure, molten-salt-cooled, solid-fuel fission reactor integrated with power conversion and heat rejection systems.

If approved, the Berkeley Green development would offer up to 600,000 square feet of new R&D, laboratory, office, manufacturing, and education facilities, and create up to 1,000 jobs, according to World Nuclear News.

Cambridge Atomworks CEO Ian Farnan said that once the physics demonstration campaign is complete, the objective is to use the Berkeley-based prototype as a training facility, noting there is currently no reactor training facility for this purpose in the UK.

Cambridge Atomworks was established in 2023, initially developing the Odin microreactor for US firm NANO Nuclear on an outsourced consulting basis before buying back the intellectual property, World Nuclear News reported.

Tesla shareholders have submitted nearly 300 questions for the company's July 22 earnings call through the Say Technologies platform, according to Electrek. The volume points to investor pressure over autonomy targets that the company has yet to hit.

The two most-supported questions on the shareholder Q&A portal each represent 4.8 million TSLA shares, Electrek reported, while the third-place question represents fewer than 975,000 shares. The gap shows where the largest blocks of investor interest are concentrated.

Much of the scrutiny centers on the robotaxi program. Tesla's Austin service, described by Electrek as its flagship, still operates with only about 20 vehicles more than a year after launch. In April, according to Electrek, Tesla softened its robotaxi expansion timeline for five announced cities, shifting from a firm "1H 2026" to a vaguer "preparations underway".

The autonomy questions carry hardware baggage. Musk has confirmed that Hardware 3 vehicles cannot deliver unsupervised full self-driving, according to Electrek, despite Tesla having sold those cars for years while promising they had everything needed for full autonomy.

The stakes are tied directly to Musk's compensation. The USD 1 trillion pay package that Tesla shareholders approved in November links his payout to an USD 8.5 trillion market cap and milestones that include 1 million robotaxis and 1 million Optimus bots, Electrek reported.

On the delivery side, Tesla posted its best-ever second quarter with 480,126 deliveries, according to Electrek.

Elsewhere in Musk's holdings, SpaceX absorbed xAI in a USD 1.25 trillion all-stock deal in February, Electrek reported.

According to Power Magazine, Pacific Fusion announced that a pulsed-power prototype designed and built at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has exceeded 3,000 shots under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with the company.

Pacific Fusion is headquartered in California, according to Power Magazine.

Pacific Fusion said on July 16 that the result marks a key milestone in the development of high-gain fusion, according to Power Magazine.

Australia's flagship solar PV recycling pilot was quietly suspended in May, with no indication of when it might restart, according to RenewEconomy.

The Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water (DCCEEW) paused the first stage after receiving a complaint about the pilot administrator procurement process, RenewEconomy reported.

The tender to find the pilot administrator closed on April 26, and three weeks later DCCEEW stopped the process, according to RenewEconomy.

The pilot carries funding of AUD 24.7 million and was announced in January alongside a Productivity Commission report on end-of-life solar panels, RenewEconomy reported.

Data from the pilot will be used to design a mandatory stewardship scheme, according to RenewEconomy.

The National Laboratory of the Rockies signed two new memorandums of understanding on May 19 to increase research and innovation in critical minerals, energy, and buildings in Alaska and the Arctic, according to CleanTechnica.

NLR Laboratory Director Jud Virden signed the partnership agreements at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference in Anchorage, CleanTechnica reported.

China's utility-scale batteries could have shifted an additional 23 TWh of clean electricity in 2025 if used to their full potential, according to analysis from Ember.

China now operates the world's largest battery energy storage fleet, according to CleanTechnica. The Ember analysis points to remaining headroom to extract more value from that fleet.

Solar and storage broke six records in the first half of 2026, according to a CleanTechnica article published on the industry's performance across the United States.

Electricity demand is rising and prices are climbing in the United States, CleanTechnica said, adding that the country needs more power quickly.

The outlet reported that the solar and storage industry is breaking records across the country, from California to Texas to the Midwest, at a pace CleanTechnica described as unimaginable a few years ago.

pv magazine spoke with Jake Morin, chief product officer at Nextpower, about the state of the art in agrivoltaics.

Across many regions, interest is growing in integrating solar installations into land already used for agriculture, according to pv magazine.

Lessons from early agrivoltaic projects in both livestock and crop farming are accumulating, pv magazine reported. Best practices are emerging, but each project requires an individual approach.

Honda will discontinue the Prologue after the 2026 model year, concluding sales of the vehicle later this year, according to electrive.

The Prologue entered the US market in March 2024 as Honda's first volume-production battery-electric vehicle for North America, electrive reported. The SUV is built on GM's Ultium platform at the Ramos Arizpe plant in Mexico, the same facility that produces the Chevrolet Equinox EV and Cadillac Optiq.

Honda delivered more than 80,000 Prologues between the 2024 launch and mid-2026, according to electrive. During the first half of 2026, Prologue sales fell 48 percent year-on-year. Around 100,000 vehicles reportedly remain available in dealer stock.

The decision follows Honda's move to end production of the Acura ZDX, another GM-based electric vehicle, in 2025, electrive reported.

Honda recently announced plans to launch 15 new hybrid models globally by 2030.

PJM Interconnection is poised to adopt a new process for securing power after concluding its latest capacity auction, according to Canary Media. The operator runs the country's biggest energy market, per Canary Media.

Canary Media reported that PJM's existing process for securing new energy cannot keep pace with electricity demand from data centers. The outlet framed the conclusion of the latest auction as fresh evidence of that gap.

The shift to a new process signals PJM's response to the strain, according to Canary Media.

Switching eligible households to induction cooking would recover its cost within around 1.7 years through avoided LPG subsidies, while replacing LPG with coal-based dimethyl ether (DME) would roughly triple the subsidy bill, according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).

IEEFA estimated that a one-time investment of IDR105 trillion (USD6 billion) to provide induction packages could pay back in about 1.7 years and generate nearly IDR200 trillion (USD11.7 billion) in savings over five years.

By contrast, fully replacing LPG with coal-based DME would require around IDR194 trillion (USD11.8 billion) in annual subsidies, IEEFA said. The subsidy burden of IDR22,730 per kilogram would run about 2.3 times the current LPG subsidy.

Subsidized 3kg LPG cylinders made up 92% of Indonesia's LPG consumption by volume in 2025, costing IDR87 trillion in subsidies, according to IEEFA.

The country consumed 9.24 million tonnes of LPG in 2025, with more than 80% imported as a finished product, IEEFA said. About 29% of imports came from the Middle East.

Household reliance on the fuel is deep. Indonesia's Central Statistics Agency (BPS) reported that 89.7% of households used LPG as their primary cooking fuel in 2025.

Prices for non-subsidized supply have already climbed. On 18 April 2026, Pertamina raised the price of non-subsidized 12kg LPG cylinders by 18.75%, to IDR228,000 from IDR192,000 per cylinder.

The fiscal pressure is widening. Indonesia's Finance Minister has committed an additional IDR100 trillion (USD5.9 billion) in energy subsidies in 2026, on top of the IDR381.3 trillion (USD22.5 billion) allocated in September 2025.

Three firms have agreed to work together on balance of plant operations and maintenance for South Korea's offshore wind sector, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital. OWC, Korea Leading Energy Management (KLEM) and OEG set out the arrangement in a memorandum of understanding.

KLEM is expected to act as main contractor for the balance of plant operations and maintenance work under the deal, Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported. OWC takes on technical assurance and asset management, and OEG covers marine, subsea and offshore operational services, the same report said.

Volvo Cars has started handing over its EX60 electric mid-size SUV to customers in Europe, according to electrive. Production of the model runs at the Torslanda plant, and the vehicle is now offered across the region.

The EX60 is the first Volvo model to use the SPA3 electric vehicle platform, which runs an 800-volt architecture, electrive reported.

The P12 AWD version tops the range with a 112 kWh battery, 500 kW of power and up to 810 kilometres of range, according to electrive. Peak charging reaches 370 kW, letting the all-wheel-drive versions move from 10 to 80 per cent in 18 to 19 minutes.

Volvo Cars put around ten billion Swedish kronor, roughly EUR 930 million, into the Torslanda site, electrive reported. The spending brought a modernised paint shop, an upgraded final assembly line, megacasting capability and on-site battery assembly.

EX60 pricing begins at USD 58,400 before delivery charges in its US market listing, according to electrive. It becomes the first Volvo there to fit a North American Charging Standard (NACS) connector as standard, opening direct use of Tesla's Supercharger network without an adapter.

Erik Severinson, Chief Commercial Officer at Volvo Cars, described the start of deliveries as a major point for the company and its buyers.

US all-electric vehicle sales reached 462,892 units in the first half of 2026, a drop of 23.8 percent against the same stretch a year earlier, according to Cox Automotive.

Quarterly numbers show the losses narrowing. First-quarter sales ran 27.3 percent below the prior year, and second-quarter sales trailed by 20.5 percent, according to Cox Automotive.

EVs held 6 percent of the market in the latest quarter, according to Cox Automotive. That is down from a peak of 11 percent last year, when buyers rushed to purchase before the tax credits lapsed.

Federal EV tax credits ended on Sept. 30 of the prior year, according to Cox Automotive's Stephanie Valdez Streaty. The credits covered up to $7,500 on a new car or light truck and $4,000 on a used vehicle, and had been set to run until 2032.

Tesla held its position atop the EV market even as sales dropped 10.9 percent, according to Cox Automotive.

Cox projects hybrid sales to rise 9 percent in 2026, outpacing the broader car and light-truck market, which it sees growing about 2 percent.

California has introduced a $3,500 credit for first-time EV buyers, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Solar module prices across Europe steadied in July 2026, and availability improved in most segments, according to pv magazine. The one hold-out was back-contact modules, which stayed short of the market.

For back-contact modules rated above 24% efficiency, buyers outpaced sellers and left gaps in the higher power classes, pv magazine reported. Volume production of these modules sits with just three Chinese suppliers, named by the outlet as AIKO, Longi and TCL.

pv magazine reported that TOPCon module prices have leveled and edged slightly lower, making another rise this year improbable.

Oxford PV's tandem modules run at efficiencies a little over 25% and aim for 27% next year, pv magazine reported. The outlet expects the first mass-market perovskite products to reach buyers by late 2027 or early 2028 at the latest.

First-half 2026 US sales of the Hyundai IONIQ 5 reached 20,730 units, a 9% gain over the roughly 19,000 sold in the same stretch a year earlier, according to Electrek.

Hyundai's steepest climb came from the IONIQ 9, which Electrek reported grew 380% through the first half of the year to 4,858 units sold. Hyundai builds both the IONIQ 5 and IONIQ 9 at its Metaplant America facility outside Savannah, Georgia.

Toyota's bZ trailed the IONIQ 5 over the same window at 17,553 units, per Electrek.

Several rival nameplates lost ground. Chevy Equinox EV sales at GM fell 62% in Q2 to 6,660, and reached 16,249 for the first half, a 41% drop from a year earlier, Electrek reported.

Ford moved 11,632 Mustang Mach-Es through June, down 47% year over year, while Honda Prologue deliveries slid 48% to 8,407 units, according to Electrek.

EA Analytics said Russian oil-processing rates have sunk to their weakest level in more than twenty years after the recent bombing of refineries.

The most recent hits struck the Afipsky refinery in southern Russia and the Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat plant near the Urals mountains, according to the statement cited by Rigzone. Gazprom PJSC, owner of the Salavat facility, runs it at 200,000 barrels a day.

Afipsky handles 180,000 barrels a day and has drawn repeated Ukrainian drone attacks, the last in early June.

Moscow halted vessel traffic on the Don-Azov Channel, the waterway tying the Sea of Azov to the Don River, Reuters reported Friday. The Kerch Strait, linking the Sea of Azov with the Black Sea, was also shut, Reuters said, after strikes earlier this month on Russian ships in the Sea of Azov.

Developers of the MTerra Solar project on Luzon have brought 1,373 MW of solar and 825 MW of battery storage online in its first phase, holding 3.3 GWh of capacity, according to pv magazine.

Operators fully energized 741 battery units during this stage, pv magazine reported. Export to the Luzon grid stays capped at 750 MW while works with the grid operator continue, according to Meralco PowerGen Corporation.

When finished, the plant will run 3.5 GW of solar paired with 4.5 GWh of storage across Nueva Ecija and Bulacan provinces on Luzon.

Ajay Mullangi, principal at Actis, attributed the pace of construction to how the project was structured and to a workforce that peaked above 10,000, according to pv magazine.

President Marcos said coal supplied 57% of the Philippines' power generation mix last year, against roughly 25% from renewables.

The energized solar already sits well above the 750 MW export limit, with 1,373 MW connected in the first phase alone. Meralco PowerGen Corporation said lifting that cap depends on outstanding grid works.

The 825 MW of storage brought online in the first phase covers 3.3 GWh, part of the 4.5 GWh the finished plant is designed to hold.

TotalEnergies told investors its oil trading profit should hold at the strong level booked in the first quarter, which the company tied to market turbulence from war in the Middle East, according to Rigzone.

The integrated liquefied natural gas (LNG) division, which contributes about one fifth of group results, is set for a sharp drop as European demand stays weak, Rigzone reported.

Shares in Total dropped as much as 2.5% during Thursday trading and later recovered part of the decline, lagging BP and Shell in the early session, according to Rigzone.

The company put the hit from the Iran conflict at roughly 210,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day, less than the range it had signaled a quarter earlier, per Rigzone.

Cash flow from the integrated power arm should climb, helped by an end-of-April purchase of a 50% stake in a sizable set of gas-fired plants in western Europe, according to Rigzone.

Downstream earnings and cash flow are set to rise as firmer refining margins reflect tighter fuel supplies out of the Middle East and Russia, Rigzone reported.

New South Wales has cleared Gloucester Coal, a subsidiary of Yancoal Australia, to build the AUD 1.8 billion Stratford Pumped Hydro and Solar Project, ESS News reported.

The scheme pairs a 300 MW pumped hydro storage system rated for 12 hours of long-duration output with a 320 MW solar farm that charges it, according to ESS News. The site lies 100 km northwest of Newcastle, on land that once operated as a coal mine.

When network capacity allows, the plant can deliver 400 MW across a nine-hour window, Yancoal Australia said.

Coal extraction at the site ended in 2024 once its 65 million metric tons of reserves ran dry, ESS News reported, and crews have begun rehabilitating the ground for the new use.

Planning and Public Spaces Minister Paul Scully described the approval as the first for a pumped hydro project in New South Wales in six years.

The state is running a parallel long-duration storage tender that opened in May 2026 under the New South Wales Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap, seeking 12 GWh of capacity, ESS News reported. Policy targets set storage at 16 GWh by 2030 and 28 GWh by 2034.

MAN Truck & Bus is putting EUR 1 billion into its Kraków plant in Poland, upgrading the site for output of trucks built on the TRATON Modular System, according to electrive.

Series assembly of the MAN eTGL begins at the site in mid-July, with the medium-duty eTGM to arrive later in the year, electrive reported. The move makes Kraków MAN's second electric truck plant, after Munich, where the heavy-duty eTGX and eTGS already roll off the line.

Across the eTGL, eTGM, eTGX and eTGS, the company's electric lineup will span gross vehicle weights from 12 to 50 tonnes, according to electrive.

New halls will lift the Kraków footprint from 130,000 to about 270,000 square metres, close to double the current area, electrive reported.

MAN signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Polish government, with Poland's Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance, Andrzej Domański, present, according to electrive.

Earlier in the year, the company reached a framework deal with the TIP Group for up to 1,800 trucks over three years, electrive reported. Those deliveries reach 18 European countries and mix battery-electric and diesel models.

Seven in 10 Americans oppose building AI data centers in their communities, citing higher utility bills, pollution, noise and the loss of green space, according to polling reported by The Conversation Energy.

The country already hosts more than 3,000 data centers, with another 1,500 in development, according to a Pew Research Center analysis cited by The Conversation Energy. In 2024, those facilities accounted for more than 4% of total U.S. electricity use.

The power lines and infrastructure needed to serve that load can bring land seizure into play. Under the takings clause of the Fifth Amendment, the government may take private land without consent if the seizure is for public use and the owner receives just compensation, The Conversation Energy reported.

The reach of public use expanded in the 2005 Kelo v. City of New London decision, in which the U.S. Supreme Court held that economic development qualified, allowing New London, Connecticut, to seize homes for private development around a Pfizer facility. The backlash that followed pushed 45 states to enact eminent domain reform laws.

State courts have set their own limits. The supreme courts of Michigan, Ohio and Oklahoma have prohibited seizing private property to hand it to another private party purely for economic development, according to The Conversation Energy.

Courts have also policed whether a seizure serves local users. In 1984, the Mississippi Supreme Court rejected a power company's condemnation action because the transmission line would have run from Mississippi into Louisiana without benefiting any Mississippi customers, The Conversation Energy reported.

The EIA now sees U.S. crude oil output, including lease condensate, averaging 13.78 million barrels per day in 2026, according to Rigzone's account of the July Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO). That forecast pushes the projection closer to 14 million barrels per day.

The July figure marks an upward revision. The June STEO had projected 2026 output at 13.72 million barrels per day, Rigzone reported.

For 2027, the EIA projects U.S. crude oil production will average 14.03 million barrels per day, according to the same STEO.

U.S. crude oil production has never averaged 14 million barrels per day or above, either annually or monthly, according to EIA figures cited by Rigzone. The highest average monthly U.S. field production was recorded in April 2026 at 13.934 million barrels per day.

The EIA expects the Federal Gulf of America to contribute 1.99 million barrels per day to 2026 U.S. crude oil production, with Alaska adding 0.45 million barrels per day, Rigzone reported.

Separately, the Energy Institute's statistical review put U.S. oil production at 21.065 million barrels per day in 2025, a 3.9 percent year-on-year increase.

Sonnedix has acquired a 260 MW battery energy storage system (BESS) portfolio in Tuscania, Italy, from developer Sphera Energy, according to ESS News. The purchase raises Sonnedix's total BESS portfolio to about 2.8 GW, the company said.

The portfolio comprises two adjacent standalone BESS projects, one rated 160 MW and the other 100 MW, both with four-hour duration, according to Sonnedix.

Axel Thiemann, chief executive of Sonnedix, said batteries allow the company to store power it is already generating and deploy it when needed most.

The deal builds on an Italian footprint that passed 1 GW of operating capacity following a March 2026 acquisition of six photovoltaic (PV) plants in Lazio backed by long-term power purchase agreements, according to ESS News. Sonnedix has also used project financing for its Italian pipeline, securing a EUR 260 million (USD 297.4 million) green loan in 2023.

Sonnedix operates in nine countries with a total portfolio of 11 GW spanning solar, wind and storage assets, according to ESS News.

Sphera Energy, launched in 2023, has separately secured authorization for two 100 MW BESS projects in Tuscany, part of a broader wave of Italian battery storage approvals in 2026, according to ESS News.

Spain's government published 36 renewable energy project announcements in June covering solar, wind, hybrid and battery storage at various stages of the permitting process, according to ESS News. The notices represent about 1.76 GW of photovoltaic (PV) capacity and roughly 1 GW of battery storage power.

Battery storage was one of the largest categories, with 14 projects totaling about 1 GW of power, ESS News reported. The largest battery proposal was RIC Energy's 176.4 MW Tagus 2 hybrid battery project in Toledo.

Enel Green Power applied to add three 38.5 MW battery storage systems to existing solar plants at Navalvillar, Castilblanco and Valdecaballero in Badajoz, according to ESS News.

Most of the June battery projects are designed to hybridize existing solar arrays or wind farms, using existing grid connection rights and evacuation infrastructure, ESS News reported.

South Korea's Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment has launched a tender covering approximately 1 GW of new solar capacity, according to pv magazine.

The tender offers winning bidders a fixed-price contract with a bid ceiling of KRW 147,686 per kWh, pv magazine reported. That ceiling is around 5% lower than last year's 1 GW solar tender.

Per pv magazine, this is the final year of bidding before a reform of the Renewable Energy Supply Obligation (RPS) system, which the solar tenders fall under, to replace it with capacity-based government auctions.

Since launching in 2017, South Korea's fixed-price tender system has selected over 10 GW of solar capacity, according to pv magazine.

South Korea's cumulative solar capacity reached 30,346 MW by the end of 2025, according to figures from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) cited by pv magazine, a 3.6 GW increase on the figure reported at the end of 2024.

The ministry and the Korea Energy Agency plan to hold an online video briefing session on the tender on July 21, pv magazine reported.

Tesla will open its first location in Latvia on August 21 as a pop-up store at the Spice shopping center in Riga, according to Electrek, which reported the announcement on Friday. The move opens a market where Tesla vehicles already sell without any official presence.

The Model 3 already leads Latvia's electric vehicle registrations at 1,212 units, per Electrek, despite Tesla having no prior official operations in the country. In Latvia, the Model 3 starts at EUR 30,990 for the rear-wheel-drive version and reaches EUR 48,990 for the Performance trim, excluding 21% VAT, according to Electrek.

Battery-electric vehicles held about 7% of Latvia's market through the first eleven months of 2025, with sales up 27% year-over-year, Electrek reported.

Tesla is also launching in Uruguay, where it will sell the Model 3 and Model Y directly, with units shipped from Gigafactory Shanghai, according to Electrek. The company named Joaquin Lizarralde as country manager for both Argentina and Uruguay in late June, treating the region as a single operational zone, Electrek reported.

Uruguay generated 99% of its electricity from renewables in 2024, making it the most renewables-powered market Tesla sells in anywhere, according to Electrek. EVs made up roughly 20% of Uruguay's vehicle market in 2025 and climbed to 29% by April 2026, per Electrek, one of the highest adoption rates in the Americas.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy named Sergii Koretskyi, chief executive of state-run energy company NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy, as the country's next prime minister, according to Rigzone. The bill submitted to parliament sets Koretskyi to succeed Yuliia Svyrydenko.

Lawmakers confirmed his approval on Thursday in a vote of 289 to 1, with seven abstaining, Rigzone reported.

Zelenskyy had considered candidates with energy-sector experience for the role to avoid a repeat of last winter's hardships, when Russian airstrikes severely crippled infrastructure and disrupted electricity, heating and water supplies during an exceptionally cold season, according to Rigzone.

Ukraine's power and heating infrastructure remains vulnerable to Russian ballistic-missile strikes amid low supplies of interceptors.

Naftogaz is responsible for importing, producing and storing Ukraine's natural gas, Rigzone reported. While the country has faced major disruptions to electricity supplies during every wartime winter, it has avoided gas shortages during Koretskyi's tenure at the state-run company.

Koretskyi, 48, previously worked with private oil companies and ran state-owned oil producer Ukrnafta, according to Rigzone. He has no political experience or ties to any party.

ConocoPhillips will acquire 42% of BP's stake in a venture redeveloping Iraq's Kirkuk oil fields, according to a BP statement reported by Rigzone.

The development and production contract covers an initial phase of more than 3 billion barrels of oil equivalent from Kirkuk, Rigzone reported.

The deal marks a return to Iraq for ConocoPhillips, which left the country more than a decade ago, according to Rigzone.

Financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed in Friday's company announcements, Rigzone said. The agreement is to be signed as part of Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaidi's trip to the US this week.

Al-Zaidi's US visit is also expected to bring a Chevron signing on Friday that will advance the company's negotiations about investing in large oil fields and a pipeline to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, according to Rigzone.

Only 415 of more than 1,500 projects and programmes seeking to transition from the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) to the new carbon market under Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement won host government approval by the 30 June deadline, according to Climate Home News.

China and India, which host two-thirds of all applicants, declined to back any of their old UN carbon credit projects seeking to sell offsets under the new market, according to Climate Home News. That refusal drove a cull of nearly three-quarters of the applicant pool.

UN estimates cited by Climate Home News found that if all transitioning projects had been successful, they could have flooded the market with more than 900 million credits generated with largely outdated rules.

Brazil approved 92 projects during the extension window, giving it the largest number of activities still able to sell credits under the new mechanism, according to Climate Home News. All of its approvals came during that window.

The extension itself was agreed at COP30 in Belém, where countries pushed the approval deadline back six months to the end of June after requests from many developing countries, according to Climate Home News.

Injy Johnstone of the Max Planck Institute said the lack of transition is the biggest contribution Article 6 has made to climate yet, according to Climate Home News.

Mozambique granted approval on the deadline day itself to a project supporting the Ressano Garcia gas plant, according to Climate Home News. That project could still profit from the new market following the government's decision.

Unirac acquired the assets of Terrasmart from Gibraltar Industries for a reported USD 5 million, according to Solar Builder.

Unirac CEO Peter Lorenz called the acquisition a natural extension of the company's distributed generation (DG) platform, Solar Builder reported.

Terrasmart president Ed McKiernan has joined Unirac alongside other key members of the Terrasmart team, according to Solar Builder.

The Terrasmart brand has served the ground-mount, tracker, and canopy segments of the DG market across the United States, Solar Builder reported.

Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP served as lead legal counsel and Koley Jessen served as legal counsel to Unirac, according to Solar Builder. Perella Weinberg Partners LP served as financial advisor to Gibraltar Industries, and Polsinelli PC served as its legal counsel.

Battery-electric vehicles outsold gasoline cars in Germany in June, according to Electrek. BEVs recorded 84,057 sales, narrowly ahead of conventional hybrids at 83,315.

Gasoline cars sold 60,796 units, diesel 33,862, and plug-in hybrids 32,212, Electrek reported.

BEVs took a 28.4% market share, the largest of any powertrain, according to Electrek. Plug-in hybrids added another 10.9%, bringing the plug-in total to 39.3%.

The rise in BEV sales cut the average CO2 emissions of new cars in Germany by 13.6% year over year, Electrek reported.

Despite the sales lead, BEVs and PHEVs combined account for about 6% of the total installed base of cars on Germany's roads, according to Electrek.

Tesla has entered Uruguay and lowered prices in Chile as it extends its push across South America, according to CleanTechnica.

The brand arrived in the Colombian market seven months ago, CleanTechnica reported. Tesla launched the Model 3 below USD 30,000 and the Model Y below USD 32,500 in Colombia, according to CleanTechnica.

The Uruguay arrival and the Chile price cuts form the latest steps in that regional expansion.

France's nuclear safety authority ASNR published an opinion on 13 July 2026 concluding that newcleo's safety provisions for its planned French MOX fuel facility are satisfactory at this stage. According to the company, the opinion covers all the safety features newcleo proposed for the facility.

newcleo submitted a safety approach dossier to the French nuclear safety authority for the planned MOX fuel fabrication facility in December 2024.

CEO and founder Stefano Buono said newcleo welcomes the ASNR's positive opinion and credited France 2030 with accelerating its technology development and attracting private investment. Buono said the opinion reflects years of work by the teams developing the MOX fuel facilities.

The General Secretariat for Investments (SGPI) concluded that newcleo has reached a stage of development that exceeds the scope of the France 2030 program, according to the company. The conclusion followed a detailed evaluation of newcleo's application for Phase 2 of the program.

newcleo is conducting a three-month public debate on its proposed French lead-cooled fast reactor (LFR) and MOX fuel facility projects, becoming the first private developer of an innovative reactor technology to complete this stage in France, according to the company.

On May 27, 2026, newcleo announced a definitive agreement for a business combination with NewHold Investment Corp. III that values newcleo at a pre-money equity value of approximately USD 2.4 billion and is expected to provide up to USD 429 million in gross proceeds, according to the company. The transaction, upon closing, would result in newcleo becoming a U.S.-listed public company.

newcleo has raised approximately USD 780 million in private funding and has more than 900 employees across Europe and the United States.

The 2026 Partner Forum brought together industry, academia, government, and researchers to discuss U.S. critical mineral supply issues and modern mining, according to CleanTechnica.

CleanTechnica reported that the referenced site sits in one of the western-most points of West Texas, about 85 miles east of El Paso County.