Monday, 27 July 2026

Ukraine attacked an Iranian commercial ship in the Caspian Sea, according to Semafor Net Zero.

The two governments gave conflicting accounts of the vessel and the intent behind the strike. Iran accused Ukraine of trying to expand its war with Russia, Semafor Net Zero reported. Ukraine said the ship carried military cargo bound for Iran.

Ukraine also accused Russia of assisting Iran with satellite surveillance of US bases, per the same Semafor Net Zero report.

Alcoa will take over South32's controlling interest in the Worsley alumina refinery and the integrated Boddington bauxite mine in Western Australia under a global transaction worth up to US$5.6 billion (AU$8.1 billion), according to IEEFA.

The transfer reshapes Alcoa's position across the Australian supply chain. Subject to shareholder and regulator approval, its approximate share of Australian bauxite production rises from 30% to 50%, and its alumina share from 40% to 60%, together with control of all related interests in Western Australia, IEEFA reported.

With those assets comes an energy problem that South32 has been carrying. Coal supplies 40% of the energy mix at Worsley, a site that draws minimal grid electricity, according to IEEFA.

That fuel profile puts the refinery seventh on the emissions ranking under Australia's Safeguard Mechanism, which covers Scope 1 emissions only, at 3.2 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent a year, IEEFA said. The coal must be gone by 2031, matching Western Australia's revised coal exit date.

Compliance has already required paper offsets rather than physical abatement. South32 surrendered more than 130,000 combined offsets and credits to meet Worsley's FY2024-25 Safeguard baseline, according to IEEFA.

Industry analyst Wood Mackenzie said the transaction "removes a significant decarbonisation burden" for South32. The obligation does not disappear with the change of owner; it moves onto Alcoa's balance sheet, alongside the enlarged bauxite and alumina positions it is buying.

Quinbrook is seeking planning approval for large solar farms intended to supply electricity to Australia's move into silicon production for photovoltaic manufacturing, according to RenewEconomy.

The silicon-making centre sits at Lansdown and runs on solar power, RenewEconomy reported.

The approval request ties generation capacity directly to an industrial offtaker rather than to merchant market exposure, with the solar farms positioned to feed the silicon facility. Silicon is the base input for PV cells, placing the project upstream of solar panel manufacturing itself.

IEEFA analysts want India to build out domestic manufacturing capacity in green hydrogen and solar components, alongside electric vehicles, batteries and electrolysers, and say a strong green industrial policy is the way to get there.

The track record is split. Under the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI), solar cell and module output climbed quickly, according to IEEFA. Batteries and electrolysers stalled, with the analysts pointing to thin supply chains, missing skills, and failures of coordination between the parties involved.

IEEFA also argues that India can skip the subsidy race, saying its policy does not have to be sized against the clean technology support programmes run by China, the European Union (EU), and, until recently, the US.

IEEFA recommends structural measures rather than larger subsidies. First among them: specialised green manufacturing parks, developed jointly with private companies and brought forward faster than current planning allows.

Two domestic capability gaps get separate treatment in the same recommendation set. IEEFA calls for spending on specialised technical skills, and for quality-assurance and certification infrastructure that buyers will trust.

The fourth recommendation turns India's market size into a negotiating asset. IEEFA says India should require enforceable, milestone-based technology transfer inside joint ventures as the price of access to its domestic demand.

Russia's nuclear regulator Rostekhnadzor has issued site licences for the first two proposed units at the new Kola Nuclear Power Plant, according to World Nuclear News.

The chosen site sits about 10 kilometres south of the existing plant, on the shores of Lake Imandra in Russia's Murmansk Region, and meets the regulator's requirements, World Nuclear News reported.

Rosatom's eventual plan covers four new units at Kola II, built around the VVER-S, a 600 MWe water-cooled reactor still under development, with the first two scheduled for construction between 2027 and 2037, according to World Nuclear News.

Fuel cycle economics are part of the case for the design. Rosatom says that if the proposed VVER-S reactors can run on a full load of mixed oxide (MOX) fuel, its use of natural uranium will fall by 50%.

The replacement rationale is generational. The four existing Kola units are VVER-440 reactors rated at 411 MWe, connected to the grid between 1973 and 1984, and the new build is intended to take over from them, World Nuclear News reported.

Hazer Group Ltd and KBR have completed a standardized Process Design Package for the Hazer Process, a blueprint sized for turquoise hydrogen plants of 30,000 tonnes per annum, according to Hydrogen Fuel News. The package opens the technology to global licensing.

The Hazer Process applies methane pyrolysis, splitting natural gas into hydrogen and solid graphitic carbon rather than releasing CO2, Hydrogen Fuel News reported. The solid carbon output is what separates turquoise hydrogen from the gray route, where the carbon leaves as gas.

Hydrogen Fuel News said the standardized engineering blueprint is aimed at licensing into steel, ammonia, and methanol production. Those three industries are among the largest existing consumers of hydrogen as a feedstock, which makes a licensable, repeatable plant design the commercial lever rather than a bespoke one-off build.

Standardizing the design at a single capacity point is the mechanism here: a fixed 30,000 tpa configuration removes front-end engineering from each deployment and lets a licensee take the same package to multiple sites.

Bloom Energy shares climbed about 15-16% in a single session after JPMorgan analyst Mark Strouse lifted his price target on the fuel cell maker to USD 346 from USD 267, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

Strouse tied the revision to ramping demand from artificial intelligence data centers and to tax incentives supporting Bloom Energy's solid oxide fuel cells and hydrogen products, Hydrogen Fuel News reported.

The reset in the target marks a wider gap between the analyst's valuation and the prior mark, with the increase carried entirely by the demand and incentive arguments Strouse cited rather than any disclosed order or contract.

Solid oxide fuel cells run on natural gas or hydrogen and generate power on site, a configuration that puts them in direct competition for data center load that would otherwise queue for grid interconnection.

ARENA has pledged up to A$32 million to HAMR Energy for a biomass-to-fuel chain that pairs forestry residues with green hydrogen, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

The plant is planned for Australia's Green Triangle region, where HAMR Energy intends to run a 200 MW+ electrolyser to supply hydrogen at scale, Hydrogen Fuel News reported.

Output is expected to reach 300,000 t of renewable methanol and 140 million L of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) each year, per the same report.

The design links two feedstock streams into one conversion route: forestry residues on the carbon side, electrolytic hydrogen on the energy side. Methanol and SAF are the two products drawn from that combination.

ARENA's commitment is capped rather than fixed, structured as a maximum of A$32 million.

Meeting the EU's renewables targets would save twice as much gas as Qatar could supply to the bloc by 2030, according to IEEFA.

Heat pumps, solar and wind together could cut EU gas demand by around a quarter by 2030 if installation targets are met, IEEFA said. The institute estimates those same technologies already trimmed EU gas demand in 2024 by roughly two-thirds of the volume of Qatari liquefied natural gas the bloc imported that year.

The recent record is substantial. IEEFA puts the reduction in EU gas demand between 2021 and 2024 at approximately 78.5 billion cubic metres, a 20% decline. Renewables and heat pump deployment, alongside gas demand reduction policies, were significant drivers of that fall, according to the institute.

The cuts were spread across every consuming sector. IEEFA reports that over the same period EU households reduced gas use by 24%, industry by 20%, commercial and public services by 19%, and electricity and heat generation by 18%.

Demand destruction has not stopped the bloc buying more seaborne cargoes. EU LNG imports rose 84% between 2021 and 2025, hitting a record high, IEEFA said.

The policy frame dates to the European Commission's REPowerEU Plan, launched in May 2022 to end EU dependence on Russian energy imports through lower energy consumption, wider use of renewables and alternative supply sources, according to IEEFA.

Galp Energia now expects full-year EBITDA of around EUR 4 billion, up from a prior outlook of more than EUR 2.6 billion, Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported. Second-quarter adjusted net profit at the Portuguese company rose 45%.

On an adjusted basis, net income for April to June came in at EUR 540 million, against EUR 373 million in the same stretch a year earlier. In dollar terms that is USD 616 million.

Offshore crude in Brazil did the heavy lifting. Segment EBITDA there climbed 73% to EUR 700 million. Galp tied the gain to the Bacalhau field, where a floating production, storage and offloading vessel began operating and ramped up output, and to firmer average Brent prices.

Output followed. The company's entitlement share from its Brazilian projects reached 127,000 barrels per day, a 12% increase against the prior year.

Refining came in second among contributors, with EBITDA up 43% at EUR 458 million. Margins in that business widened to USD 16.8 per barrel from USD 6.1 twelve months earlier.

The board will put a 10% dividend increase for 2026 to shareholders at next year's annual meeting, lifting the payout to EUR 0.70 per share.

Co-CEO Maria Joao Carioca, in a statement, credited asset quality and operational delivery "even in a highly volatile environment".

Saipem has secured two contracts from Eni with a combined value of USD 910 million, covering subsea work on the Baleine Phase 3 development off Ivory Coast and an expansion of biofuel production capacity at Enilive's Venice biorefinery in Italy, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

The offshore scope requires Saipem to engineer, fabricate, transport and install roughly 50 km of rigid pipelines plus associated subsea infrastructure, in water depths reaching 1,300 metres, the outlet reported. Offshore Engineer OEDigital said the work is expected to run about three years and will use the FDS and Shen Da construction vessels.

The award follows the final investment decision taken by Eni and its partners on Baleine Phase 3 in May.

Once complete, the development is expected to lift total field output to around 150,000 barrels of oil per day and 200 million cubic feet of gas per day, with the entire gas volume directed to Ivory Coast's domestic market, according to the same report.

Production will run through a new floating production, storage and offloading vessel supplied by Altera Infrastructure on a 15-year charter, Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported. The unit can produce 90,000 barrels of oil per day, process 160 million cubic feet of gas per day and store 1.4 million barrels of crude.

Eni operates Baleine with a 37.25% interest. Vitol holds 30%, Petroci 22.75% and Socar 10%, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

The Western Australian government has awarded State Significant Project status to the proposed Browse to North West Shelf Project, giving the Woodside-led Browse Joint Venture priority government support as the offshore gas development moves through approvals, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

The designation sits at the top of the state's Lead Agency Framework, the highest level of prioritization available, Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported. It is intended to coordinate support across government as the project reaches regulatory and development milestones.

Under the plan, gas from the Browse offshore fields would be piped to the existing Karratha Gas Plant for processing. That would extend the operating life of the North West Shelf facilities while supporting domestic gas supply and liquefied natural gas exports.

An independent economic assessment cited by Woodside put lifetime national gross domestic product from the project at around USD 98 billion (AUD 141 billion), according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital. The same assessment estimated approximately USD 39.1 billion (AUD 56 billion) in taxes and royalties, including about USD 13.8 billion (AUD 19.8 billion) in petroleum resource rent tax.

Woodside said the development targets Australia's largest undeveloped offshore gas resource. The company said it has the potential to support thousands of jobs, widen procurement opportunities for Western Australian businesses and deliver long-term economic benefits to communities in the Pilbara and Kimberley regions.

Australian network operator AusNet has signed an AUD 300 million (USD 210 million) contract with South Korea's Hyosung Heavy Industries covering up to 45 power transformers for the energy network in the state of Victoria, according to pv magazine.

Under the agreement, Hyosung will deliver the 45 transmission transformers, which step voltage up or down across the grid, along with reactors and other critical power equipment over the next five years, pv magazine reported.

AusNet CEO David Smales framed the contract as a hedge against tight equipment markets. "This agreement locks in access to globally scarce equipment, giving us greater certainty to deliver critical projects," Smales said.

The procurement runs against Victoria's generation targets. The state has set renewable energy generation and storage targets that include 65% renewable generation by 2030 and 95% by 2035, according to pv magazine. Reaching those shares depends on transmission capacity built and energised ahead of new generation, and transformers sit on the critical path for that work.

Large power transformers are among the longest-lead items in transmission construction, and multi-year framework contracts of the kind AusNet has signed are one of the few tools a network operator has to fix delivery slots in advance. The five-year supply window ties the equipment schedule to the period between Victoria's two renewable milestones.

Australia is putting AU$30 million into 14 projects intended to make its electricity networks smarter and more flexible, with vehicle-to-grid and smart EV charging among the eligible technologies, according to electrive.

The money comes from the Grid Enhancing Technologies (GET) Grant Program, administered by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW), electrive reported.

Grants are awarded competitively, with a ceiling of AU$5 million per project. The programme window runs from 2025-26 to 2028-29, according to electrive.

On the electromobility side, electrive named Jet Charge as a recipient for its project 'Realising Network Benefits from Vehicle-to-Grid'. Charge Hub Australia also secured funding, for a project titled 'From Anxiety to Access: Designing Dynamic Pricing that Customers Will Want'.

The 14 projects are spread across six states and territories: Victoria, NSW, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory, per electrive.

Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen said the GET grants will support more renewables in the system, put downward pressure on energy bills, and build a stronger, more resilient grid, electrive reported.

The UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero published a policy paper on 27 July 2026 setting out an updated scheme design for bill discounts aimed at households closest to new and significantly upgraded electricity transmission infrastructure.

The department said the scheme applies to England, Scotland and Wales.

According to the paper, the government's position covers eligibility, scheme administration, payment arrangements, compliance and funding.

Schwarz Group has temporarily dropped fully electric cars from its company car list in Germany, according to electrive. The retreat is limited to the German fleet.

The company points to a volatile market environment and shifting regulatory frameworks as the reasons behind the move, electrive reported.

Resale values are the sharper pressure point. According to Welt, the measure is primarily driven by what used electric cars fetch on the second-hand market, because Schwarz Group does not lease its company cars but buys them outright and sells them later. That purchasing model leaves the residual value risk on the buyer's balance sheet rather than with a leasing provider, so any softening in used EV prices lands directly on the fleet owner.

Outside Germany, the policy does not apply. In other European countries, Schwarz Group plans to keep adding new electric vehicles to its fleet, electrive reported. The split treatment isolates the German used-car market as the specific constraint rather than the technology itself.

The company describes the German exclusion as temporary.

The Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) has started connecting the 20 MW Los Tecales photovoltaic plant to Costa Rica's national electricity system, according to pv magazine.

The plant sits in the canton of Nandayure in Guanacaste province and was developed by Solar Generation Sur SA, pv magazine reported.

Los Tecales is one of five private photovoltaic projects that ICE awarded in April 2024, a group totalling 86 MW of installed capacity, according to the same report.

All five projects were awarded at an energy purchase price of USD 0.05626/kWh, per pv magazine.

Seatrium Offshore Renewable Services has started building a new operations hub in Lowestoft to widen its offshore wind capabilities and serve a growing pipeline of renewable energy projects across Europe, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

The site is being set up to serve work already contracted. Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported that the hub will support delivery of four TenneT 2 GW offshore converter platform projects in the Netherlands and Germany. It will also support RWE's Sofia offshore wind farm.

The operations hub is intended to expand the company's offshore wind capabilities and back a growing pipeline of renewable energy projects across Europe.

Colin Yaxley, Managing Director of Seatrium Offshore Renewable Services, said demand for specialist offshore renewable services continues to grow across Europe and that the investment ensures the company is well positioned to support customers wherever they are delivering projects.

Kuwait has agreed to a long-term lease of its oil pipeline network in a USD 16 billion transaction with Blackstone, Brookfield and KKR, according to Semafor Net Zero. Semafor Net Zero described the deal as the largest foreign investment in Kuwait's history.

Under the terms reported by Semafor Net Zero, the three investors take a 49% stake in a joint venture with Kuwait Oil Company. The joint venture holds a 20.5-year lease on the pipelines and leases them back to the state oil company.

That sale-and-leaseback design is not new to the region. Semafor Net Zero reported the structure mirrors one used by Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia to raise money from their oil infrastructure.

Blackstone is also opening an office in Kuwait, according to Semafor Net Zero.

The pipeline lease follows a recent USD 6 billion bond raise by Kuwait, which Semafor Net Zero said is trying to attract more Wall Street firms and foreign investors.

The UK government said it will support residents of 97 evacuated homes in Coalsnaughton after the Mining Remediation Authority confirmed that recent ground movement is linked to historic coal mining, according to UK DESNZ.

The Mining Remediation Authority takes over management of the incident response, UK DESNZ said in its July 27 announcement, with the stated priority of ensuring the safety and wellbeing of every resident.

Costs already carried by the Scottish Government and Clackmannanshire Council for the response will be reimbursed where they fall under the Mining Remediation Authority's remit, according to the same announcement.

The conclusion rests on an eight-week investigation by the Mining Remediation Authority, opened after reports of ground movement in the Coalsnaughton area led to evacuations in May, UK DESNZ said.

Where damage is most serious, residents may be offered the option for the government to purchase their property at its full market value prior to the incident, according to UK DESNZ, along with additional support to relocate if required.

"No one will be left to shoulder the burden alone," said Energy Minister Michael Shanks, adding that the UK government would work side by side with the Scottish Government and Clackmannanshire Council on support for affected households.

Croatia's first energy community has begun operating, drawing power from a rooftop solar plant on a volunteer fire brigade building in Špičkovina, a settlement near Zabok in the county of Krapina-Zagorje, northern Croatia, according to pv magazine.

The rooftop array currently measures 32 kW, with plans to double it to 64 kW, pv magazine reported.

Seventeen members share the output. They include volunteer firefighters, local residents, one micro-enterprise and the volunteer fire department itself, DVD Špičkovina, according to pv magazine.

The project was implemented by the North-West Croatia Regional Energy and Climate Agency (REGEA). The City of Zabok co-financed around half of the investment, and the members covered the other half, pv magazine reported.

Energy sharing is the newest element of Croatian energy legislation. Croatia's distribution system operator, HEP ODS, introduced the mechanism at the start of April this year, according to pv magazine.

Three energy communities are officially registered in Croatia, RES Croatia said, and the Špičkovina community is the first to begin operations, pv magazine reported.

The scheme arrives as national solar deployment climbs. Croatia's cumulative solar capacity passed the 1 GW threshold last year and exceeded 1.2 GW by the end of the year, according to pv magazine. Against that base, the Špičkovina installation is a test of the sharing rules rather than a volume addition: it establishes whether HEP ODS metering and settlement can allocate output from a single small rooftop across seventeen separate accounts.

LG Energy Solution wants the US International Trade Commission to shut out imports of products built around five battery technology patents it says are being infringed, and has separately sued Chinese cell maker EVE Energy in US federal court, ESS News reported.

The federal complaint was lodged on July 21 with the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas by the South Korean producer, according to the same report.

Cylindrical cell designs, among them tabless architectures, account for four of the disputed patents. The fifth covers separator technology.

Power-tool makers appear alongside the cell manufacturer as defendants. Bosch, Koki Holdings and Chervon-related entities are accused of importing or selling goods that contain EVE cells, ESS News reported.

EVE Energy set out its position in a July 24 announcement to a China stock exchange, saying no formal legal documents had reached it from the Texas court or the ITC. After reviewing the technologies and patent claims internally, the company said it "has not infringed any of the patents asserted by the other party".

EVE said its own filings run to more than 17,000 patent applications worldwide, over 3,000 of them covering cylindrical batteries.

Tulip Innovation runs the lithium-ion licensing program that pools patents held by LG Energy Solution and Panasonic Energy, a portfolio it puts at more than 5,000 patents drawn from over 1,500 patent families, per ESS News.

Fusion developer Thea Energy has been selected for a USD 20 million award under the Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) SCALEUP program to expand its magnet manufacturing lines, according to a GlobeNewswire release.

The program, formally Seeding Critical Advances for Leading Energy technologies with Untapped Potential, sits within the US Department of Energy (DOE). Thea Energy said the money will back what it describes as the first domestic production line of modular high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets, alongside expanded test capabilities.

The magnets are planar shaping coils. Thea Energy said it will use approximately 300 of them in Eos, its first large-scale integrated stellarator system.

The federal award follows a USD 100 million Series B capital raise by the company, according to the same release.

Thea Energy spun out of Princeton University and the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory in 2022 to commercialize the stellarator. The stellarator is a magnetic confinement design that relies on shaped external coils rather than a large driven plasma current, which places the burden of performance on magnet geometry and manufacturing tolerance. Building roughly 300 coils to a repeatable specification is a production problem before it is a physics problem, which is what the SCALEUP money targets.

HTS magnet supply has become a constraint shared across privately funded fusion programs, since the same conductor and winding capacity serves multiple developers. A dedicated domestic line for modular HTS magnets addresses that bottleneck at the component level rather than the reactor level.

The African Development Bank has approved a EUR 100 million loan for Chinese battery cell manufacturer and Volkswagen partner Gotion High-Tech, backing the cell factory the company plans to build in Morocco, electrive reported.

The site is the Rabat-Salé-Kénitra Free Trade Zone, and according to electrive the plant will be the first integrated battery production facility in Africa.

Gotion is planning an initial annual capacity of 10 GWh for lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells and packs destined for electric vehicles, electrive reported, with a long-term target of 100 GWh.

The loan follows an investment agreement Gotion signed with the Moroccan government in 2024 for the battery cell factory.

Beyond its own commitment, the African Development Bank intends to mobilise additional money from financial partners for the project, with a figure of up to EUR 141 million under discussion, according to electrive.

Zenobe has bought sdp energie, a developer headquartered in Bavaria, giving the United Kingdom's largest owner and operator of transmission-connected battery energy storage system (BESS) assets a foothold in the German storage market, ESS News reported.

The acquired developer has taken roughly 700 MWh of BESS to ready-to-build status across 23 projects, according to ESS News.

Zenobe runs 3.3 GWh of BESS in operation or under construction in the United Kingdom, ESS News reported.

The timing tracks a change in German ancillary services procurement. Germany launched a new procurement mechanism for inertia in January 2026, which ESS News said creates new revenue opportunities for transmission-connected BESS. Inertia is the resistance of rotating generators to frequency change, a service that thins out as synchronous plants retire and one that grid-scale batteries can now bid into.

The buyer does not intend to stop at one developer. Zenobe plans to acquire further transmission-scale projects and is recruiting staff in Germany, according to ESS News.

The pipeline Zenobe has picked up is small next to its home-market fleet: 700 MWh of ready-to-build projects against 3.3 GWh operating or in construction. Ready-to-build status matters more than the megawatt-hour count here, because permitted and grid-connected projects are the constraint in transmission-scale storage, not equipment supply. Buying a developer that has cleared that stage 23 times is a shortcut into a market where Zenobe has no operating assets.

Average wholesale electricity prices in Australia's National Electricity Market fell 47 per cent year-on-year in the June quarter to $74/MWh, according to RenewEconomy. That was the lowest June quarter average since 2020 across a market covering the eastern states and South Australia.

RenewEconomy reported that AEMO credits the drop to a record seasonal renewables share of 42.1 per cent in the main grid.

Gas-powered generation took the sharpest hit on the supply side. According to RenewEconomy, gas output plunged 30 per cent to its lowest June quarter average since 2003.

Coal held up better, with generation down 5 per cent over the same quarter, RenewEconomy reported.

Sir Ian Wood, the industrialist who built a family-owned Aberdeen marine business into the global engineering company Wood Group and helped shape the modern North Sea oil and gas industry, has died at 84, according to World Oil. He died peacefully at his home in Aberdeen on July 26.

By the time he stepped down as chairman in 2012, the company employed more than 42,000 people across over 50 countries and had joined the FTSE 100 Index, World Oil reported.

One of the defining moments of his career came after the 1988 Piper Alpha disaster. Of the 167 workers who lost their lives, 39 were Wood Group employees, according to World Oil.

His influence on the regulatory structure of the UK Continental Shelf came through the independent Wood Review, commissioned by the UK government in 2013. Its recommendations directly resulted in the creation of the North Sea Transition Authority, World Oil reported.

Wood received a knighthood in 1994 for services to the offshore oil and gas industry.

Bulgaria and the United States have declared a common commitment to the new nuclear capacity planned at Kozloduy, describing the project as a strategic priority in bilateral cooperation, according to World Nuclear News.

The declaration followed a meeting between the board of the Kozloduy new build company and representatives of the US embassy. World Nuclear News reported that the discussion centred on progress at units 7 and 8, the next stages of implementation, and the possibilities for financing from US export banks.

Both reactors are Westinghouse AP1000 designs. The target is for unit 7 to be operational in 2035, with unit 8 following in 2037, according to World Nuclear News.

Combined capacity of the pair would reach 2,300 MWe, exceeding the 1,760 MWe of the four closed units at the site, per the same report.

The embassy meeting came a week after Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev met representatives of Westinghouse, World Nuclear News reported.

Engineering work on the project is already contracted. Hyundai Engineering & Construction, Westinghouse and Kozloduy NPP-New Build signed an engineering contract for the new capacity in November 2024, according to World Nuclear News.

Chevron has won a one-year extension to the initial exploration period on the AREA OFF-1 block offshore Uruguay, according to Offshore Magazine. The extension was granted by ANCAP.

The additional year allows further 3D seismic acquisition and evaluation work to support a future drilling decision, Offshore Magazine reported.

AREA OFF-1 covers 14,557 sq km in Uruguay's Punta del Este Basin, per Offshore Magazine. Chevron operates the license with a 60% interest, with Sintana Energy holding the remaining 40%.

The partners are advancing the 3D seismic program ahead of any commitment to drill, according to Offshore Magazine.

European Union offshore wind commissioning dropped to 1 GW in 2025 from 1.7 GW the previous year, according to Offshore Magazine. Only France and Germany brought new offshore capacity online across the bloc during the year.

The grid queue dwarfs what is being built. WindEurope reported on June 30, 2026 that more than 500 GW of European wind capacity was still waiting for grid connection approval, Offshore Magazine said.

Government ambition points in the opposite direction to the build rate. Under the Investment Pact for the North Seas agreed in January 2026, nine European governments committed to installing 15 GW of offshore wind a year between 2031 and 2040, with USD 1.2 trillion in mobilized finance behind the target, according to Offshore Magazine.

Onshore permitting shows what administrative change can do. Germany permitted 21 GW of new onshore wind in 2025 by applying the "overriding public interest" principle more fully, Offshore Magazine reported. That single-country onshore figure is 21 times the entire EU offshore total commissioned in the same year.

The gap between the pact's 15 GW annual pace and last year's 1 GW of EU offshore commissioning is the measure of the delivery problem, and the 500 GW connection backlog sits between the two.

The European Commission has opened a non-binding infrastructure testing round under the EU Hydrogen Mechanism, aimed at measuring market interest in planned hydrogen pipelines and storage sites, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

Hydrogen Fuel News reported that the exercise is intended to guide future investment decisions rather than commit participants to volumes or capacity.

Transmission System Operators (TSOs), Hydrogen Network Operators (HNOs), and developers are invited to signal demand for pipeline and storage projects already in the works, per the same report.

The program sits on the EU Energy and Raw Materials Platform and runs with the backing of the European Hydrogen Bank, Hydrogen Fuel News said.

Hyundai Motor Group is creating a new offering called AllDayEnergy that bundles smart charging, vehicle-to-grid, and vehicle-to-home services, according to electrive.

The brand covers three application areas: V1G smart charging, V2G grid feed-in, and V2H household supply. electrive reports the offering will begin with smart charging in the UK before extending to other countries.

Official market launch is scheduled for the second half of 2026, delivered first through the Kia app in the UK, with planned expansion into continental Europe, the USA, and Korea, per electrive.

Woong Tae Hwang, Vice President and Head of the EV Energy Strategy Group at Hyundai Motor Group, said the service will keep expanding globally, "allowing customers to seamlessly optimize their energy usage, reduce their energy costs, and contribute to grid sustainability".

A large-scale V2G trial is already running in South Korea's special administrative region of Jeju, electrive reported.

German battery manufacturer Varta has filed for self-administered insolvency with the Stuttgart District Court, and the proceedings cover its solar-storage and energy management business, according to ESS News.

The filing extends to the parent company, Varta AG, and all subsidiaries with one exception: Varta Consumer Batteries, the household battery and power bank arm, stays outside the proceedings, ESS News reported. Varta Storage, which bundles the group's solar storage and energy management system business, is inside them.

ESS News reported that Varta pointed to a structural financing gap behind the move. The company attributed the filing to significantly deteriorating market conditions, weaker demand, and adverse currency effects, alongside the decision by a key customer to end its business relationship. That customer is Apple, which sourced batteries from Varta for its headphones.

Varta currently employs around 3,300 people, according to ESS News.

The Stuttgart District Court appointed Stuttgart-based lawyer Tobias Wahl as supervisor of the self-administered insolvency proceedings. Self-administration leaves existing management in control of day-to-day operations under that supervision, distinguishing it from a standard insolvency administration.

The carve-out of the consumer batteries unit sets the boundary of the restructuring: the household products business continues outside the case, while the storage and energy management operations are exposed to whatever outcome the proceedings produce.

BYD has confirmed a CLTC range of 1,008 km on a single charge for the Great Han, its new flagship electric sedan, according to Electrek.

The car goes public at the Chengdu Motor Show, which runs from August 21 to August 30, 2026, Electrek reported. Lu Tian, general manager of BYD's Dynasty series, said the Great Han will be revealed at the show next month.

Two powertrains are planned. Electrek reported that the single rear-mounted motor version delivers 370 kW (496 hp), while the all-wheel-drive dual-motor model produces a combined 570 kW (764 hp).

Charging is where BYD is pushing hardest. The sedan uses the company's Blade Battery 2.0 paired with its Flash Charging system, which according to Electrek recharges the pack from 10% to 70% in five minutes using 1,500 kW technology.

The combination of the quoted range figure and the five-minute charge window places the Great Han at the top of BYD's Dynasty lineup, the series Lu Tian manages.

Brent crude dropped more than 9% intraday on Monday before stabilizing around USD 90 per barrel, according to World Oil, as traders unwound part of the geopolitical risk premium built up this month.

World Oil reported that oil prices fell sharply as concerns over supply disruptions in the Middle East and the Black Sea eased.

West Texas Intermediate also declined after the U.S. paused military strikes against Iran following nearly two weeks of attacks, according to the same report.

Sentiment improved further after crude loadings resumed at the Caspian Pipeline Consortium terminal on Russia's Black Sea coast, which World Oil described as a critical export outlet for Kazakh oil.

The selloff did not erase the month's gains. Crude futures remain up roughly 20% this month, according to World Oil.