Wednesday, 29 July 2026

Expand Energy reported second quarter 2026 net income of $522 million, or $2.19 per fully diluted share, according to the company's results release distributed by GlobeNewswire.

Net cash provided by operating activities reached $1,096 million in the quarter, which the company attributed to continued operational execution, alongside adjusted EBITDAX of $1,183 million.

Net production came in at approximately 7.48 Bcfe/d, of which 92% was natural gas, and Expand Energy reaffirmed full-year 2026 guidance of 7.4 to 7.6 Bcfe/d.

The company closed the quarter with total debt of $3.7 billion, down roughly $1.3 billion from year-end, a reduction it tied to a senior note redemption in April 2026.

Buybacks accelerated. Expand Energy repurchased about $530 million of common stock during the second quarter, taking year-to-date repurchases to approximately $850 million, equal to 4% of shares outstanding. The company also announced an additional buyback authorization of about $1 billion, which it said would facilitate continued opportunistic share repurchases.

Separately, Expand Energy announced the acquisition of Twin Eagle Holdings, N.A. LLC, a deal the company described as creating North America's leading integrated natural gas company.

Shareholders will receive a quarterly base dividend of $0.575 per share, payable on September 3, 2026 to holders of record at the close of business on August 13, 2026.

Two oilfield service contractors trimmed their 2026 expectations on the same day, each pointing to the Middle East conflict as a drag on results, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

Saipem, the Italian oil and gas contractor, revised down its guidance for 2026 core earnings to absorb extra costs tied to the Middle East crisis, Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported. The company also attributed part of the cut to the de-consolidation of its shallow-water drilling business, which it recently sold.

Baker Hughes told investors it expects annual global spending by oil and gas producers to decline modestly in 2026, per the same outlet. Growth in Latin America, offshore Africa, and North America land will be offset by lower spending in Europe and the Middle East, the company said.

The conflict lands directly on Baker Hughes' industrial and energy technology segment. According to Offshore Engineer OEDigital, the company warned that IET is expected to take a 1%-2% revenue hit from disruptions caused by the conflict.

That guidance sits below the sell side. Baker Hughes forecast third-quarter IET revenue of USD 3.17 billion to USD 3.47 billion, against analyst expectations of USD 3.79 billion, based on data compiled by LSEG and reported by Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

The order book tells a different story. IET orders doubled year-over-year to a record USD 7.1 billion, Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported. The gap between record bookings and softer near-term revenue guidance is the shape of the problem: work is being won faster than it can be converted through disrupted supply and delivery routes.

For Saipem, the earnings revision carries a second, structural component. Selling the shallow-water drilling unit removes its contribution from the full-year estimate, a change unrelated to conflict costs but folded into the same downgrade.

Chile could install between 27 GW and 58 GW of new photovoltaic capacity over the next 30 years, according to pv magazine's report on the preliminary version of the Ministry of Energy's Long-Term Energy Planning document (PELP) 2028-2032.

The modelling starts from an installed base of 12,015 MW of solar capacity, a figure that covers both utility-scale plants and small distributed generation facilities, pv magazine reported.

Onshore wind carries a narrower range in the same document: an expansion of between 16 GW and 27 GW, according to pv magazine.

Storage anchors the dispatch side of the model. Per pv magazine, the plan uses 4,078 MW of battery energy storage systems (BESS) installed or under construction by the end of 2026 as its starting point, with an average storage duration of 4.3 hours.

The consequence of that build-out, as reported by pv magazine, is a system in which at least 83% of annual electricity generation comes from solar photovoltaic or wind power towards the end of the projected timeframe.

Demand is the widest variable in the exercise. The scenarios span national energy demand growth of between 4.1% and 47.8% across the analyzed period, according to pv magazine. That spread is what separates the 27 GW solar case from the 58 GW one.

Data centres appear as a distinct load line. pv magazine reported that the document puts data centre capacity at 198 MW in 2024, rising to roughly 594 MW in 2030 and 900 MW in 2057. Against a solar addition measured in tens of gigawatts, that load is small in absolute terms, but it is one of the few demand categories the plan tracks separately over the full horizon.

The ranges rather than point estimates are the substance here. A planning document that treats solar additions as a factor-of-two question, and wind as a factor-of-nearly-two question, is telling procurement and transmission planners that the capacity mix follows the demand assumption rather than setting it. The 4.3-hour average duration on the existing storage fleet, per pv magazine, sets the reference point against which any further shifting of midday solar output into evening hours would be measured.

Wind and solar farms in Germany generated more electricity than fossil-fuelled plants for the first time ever last year, according to Carbon Brief. The two technologies produced 225 TWh, or 44% of the national total, against 217 TWh, or 43%, from fossil fuels, Carbon Brief reported.

The margin is narrow, but it inverts the ranking that has defined the German power system since the grid was built. Coal and gas plants are now the second-largest block in the mix rather than the first, on Carbon Brief's figures.

The shift is not confined to one national market. Carbon Brief said wind and solar also overtook fossil-fuel generation across the EU as a whole for the first time in the same year.

Berlin's build-out targets are steeper still. Carbon Brief reported that Germany is aiming for 115 GW of onshore wind capacity by 2030, and that permitting hit a record 20.8 GW of new capacity in the year the crossover occurred. Approvals at that pace matter more than installed additions in a country where consenting delays, not turbine supply, have set the ceiling.

The wider policy goal is an 80% renewables share of electricity consumption by 2030, according to Carbon Brief, on the way to a power system the government describes as "largely climate neutral".

Full decarbonisation of the electricity sector is tied to the exit from coal, which carries an official deadline of "no later than" 2038, Carbon Brief said. That end date leaves the remaining fossil share to be squeezed out over a period longer than the one covering the renewables target.

The political framing is contested. Carbon Brief reported that Chancellor Friedrich Merz described the country's nuclear phaseout as a "strategic mistake". His verdict sits awkwardly beside the generation data, which shows wind and solar closing the gap left by retired reactors and displacing thermal output at the same time.

What the numbers do not settle is durability. A gap of one percentage point between the two blocks, on Carbon Brief's accounting, can be reopened by a low-wind year or a cold winter that lifts gas burn. The record permitting volume is the clearer signal of where the mix is headed.

ExxonMobil has filed a notice of dispute under an energy treaty targeting the European Union's carbon capture and storage requirements, according to Inside Climate News.

The filing puts the company in conflict with an EU climate rule built around carbon capture and storage, a technology ExxonMobil has itself promoted as a way to address global warming, Inside Climate News reported.

Inside Climate News described the move as the oil company striking back against the rule through the corporate arbitration system.

The U.S. Department of Energy has picked Utah, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Idaho as initial contenders to host Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses, according to Power Magazine.

The campuses are structured as voluntary federal-state partnerships, Power Magazine reported, and are designed to co-locate fuel fabrication, enrichment, spent fuel reprocessing and waste disposition within integrated, full-cycle nuclear ecosystems.

U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright signed non-binding memorandums of understanding with the states, according to Power Magazine. The MOUs carry no binding commitment, leaving the five states as finalists rather than confirmed hosts.

Bundling enrichment and fuel fabrication alongside reprocessing and waste disposition at a single site is the defining feature of the campus concept as described by Power Magazine, which places back-end steps that are typically separated by geography and by regulatory track inside one footprint.

Crude prices dropped to their lowest level in a week on Tuesday as the US-Iran conflict entered an uneasy lull, according to Semafor Net Zero.

The pause is fragile. Semafor Net Zero reported that the US said it had thwarted an attempted surprise missile attack from Iran. The two sides also gave contradictory accounts of diplomacy: Washington said "good talks" were underway, while Tehran denied any talks were taking place at all.

Iran has attached a price to reopening shipping. Tehran proposed a temporary arrangement that would hand it greater control over transit routes, and warned it would keep Hormuz closed if Muscat rejected the plan, per Semafor Net Zero.

The closure has already rerouted physical barrels. Saudi Arabia has been forced to use alternative routes to move its crude, including the costlier Suez Canal detour, according to Semafor Net Zero. Longer voyages raise freight and delivery times on cargoes that would normally clear Hormuz directly, a cost that lands on shippers and buyers rather than on the flat price alone.

That split between a softening screen price and a still-disrupted supply chain defines the current market. Traders marked crude down on the absence of new strikes, even as the transit dispute stayed unresolved and Iran kept the closure threat on the table.

True EV, the distributor chosen to sell Xpeng vehicles in Australia, has gone into administration after less than two years of operation, according to CleanTechnica.

The collapse leaves the carmaker's Australian sales channel unsettled. CleanTechnica reports that the G6 is the only Xpeng model currently on sale in the country.

The cost gap that makes CSIRO's least-ambitious decarbonisation pathway look cheapest largely disappears when different fuel prices are used, according to IEEFA. Re-running CSIRO's published model with AEMO Slower Growth gas and coal prices produced an electricity system cost of $128.5/MWh for the NoProgressToNetZero scenario, just $2.3/MWh below WeakNetZero at $130.8/MWh, down from a prior gap of $6.6/MWh.

The GenCost 2025-26 report added modelling this year estimating the cost of various electricity generation mixes in 2050 across five scenarios, IEEFA said. One outcome was that electricity system costs could be 5% lower in NoProgressToNetZero than in the next-least-ambitious scenario.

That label overstates how little changes under the scenario. NoProgressToNetZero still reaches 70% renewables, 19% gas and 11% coal by 2050, which IEEFA describes as a substantial transition from today.

IEEFA also points to CSIRO's own finding on where abatement is cheapest: electricity sector emissions reduction costs a third to a half of the cost of emissions reduction elsewhere in the economy, making weak or no progress in the power sector an inefficient route to net zero.

On how much weight to place on the 2050 numbers, GenCost itself advises that where its scenario results differ from the Integrated System Plan, the ISP should be given greater weight.

Kazakhstan has restarted crude oil shipments through the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) after the Black Sea terminal near Novorossiysk came back online following a shutdown of roughly a week, Oil & Gas Journal reported.

The terminal began taking crude from producers again and loading tankers on July 27, according to Oil & Gas Journal.

The outage followed Ukrainian drone strikes on tankers and terminal infrastructure between July 17 and July 20, the publication reported.

The export halt forced deep production cuts. Oil and condensate output fell from about 2 million b/d to roughly 1 million b/d at the low point of the shutdown, according to Oil & Gas Journal.

That exposure reflects how narrow Kazakhstan's export routing is. CPC handles more than 80% of the country's crude exports, per Oil & Gas Journal, leaving little alternative capacity when the Black Sea loading point stops.

Vista Energy SAB de CV has filed to bring its USD 5.8 billion Bandurria Norte shale oil development into Argentina's Large Investment Incentive Regime (RIGI), according to Oil & Gas Journal. The project targets peak output of 50,000 boe/d.

The acreage covers 26,500 acres in the oil window of Vaca Muerta and holds no producing wells at present, Oil & Gas Journal reported. Vista's development plan calls for drilling and completing 332 horizontal wells.

Surface work is on the same scale. The company intends to build a 40,000-b/d oil treatment plant, a gas compression plant, gathering systems, pipelines and associated infrastructure dedicated to the block, according to Oil & Gas Journal.

Bandurria Norte sits inside a wider volume ramp. Vista plans to lift production to 208,000 boe/d in 2028 and 250,000 boe/d in 2030, per Oil & Gas Journal. Against that trajectory, the new block's 50,000 boe/d peak is a material single-asset contribution.

Current output gives the baseline. Vista averaged 156,000 boe/d in the second quarter of 2026, up 16% from the preceding quarter and more than 30% higher than a year earlier, Oil & Gas Journal reported.

Evacuation capacity is the other half of the equation. The Vaca Muerta Oil Sur (VMOS) pipeline is designed for an initial 550,000 b/d and can be expanded to 700,000 b/d, with start-up scheduled for the first half of 2027, according to Oil & Gas Journal.

That timing matters for a greenfield block with no wells on production today. The 332-well program and the treatment plant would come online into a system whose main southern crude artery is not yet running.

RIGI inclusion is the pending variable. Vista has applied; approval has not been granted.

Chinese solar factories can now supply roughly double global demand for solar products, according to analysis by the research firm Rhodium Group cited by Grist. The manufacturers behind that capacity remain in the red: Grist reported $1.5 billion in announced losses for the first quarter of 2026, extending roughly three years of continuous unprofitability.

The build-out traces back to a policy choice. China designated solar a strategic industry in 2010, prompting massive public investment, Grist reported.

On the demand side of the electricity system, the direction of travel is the opposite. Carbon emissions from the U.S. power sector rose 4 percent last year, outpacing the 2 percent increase in economy-wide emissions, according to a U.S. Energy Information Administration report described by Grist.

The EIA attributes the power sector increase to a 13 percent rise in coal generation, partially driven by the proliferation of large-scale data centers.

Virginia, home to the world's largest AI cluster, saw one of the sharpest moves. Utilities there almost doubled coal generation to serve the state's growing clusters of data centers, according to Grist.

That load growth is not finished. Data centers could account for more than 10 percent of U.S. electricity usage by 2030, Grist reported.

Northern Lights has taken delivery of its fourth dedicated liquefied CO2 carrier, completing the vessel fleet for the first phase of its carbon capture and storage transport and storage business, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

The ship, Northern Purpose, arrived in Norway after handover from Dalian Shipbuilding Offshore Company, joining Northern Pioneer, Northern Pathfinder and Northern Phoenix on CO2 transport duty for customers across Europe, the outlet reported.

"With the arrival of Northern Purpose, we have completed the vessel fleet required for Phase 1 operations," said Tim Heijn, Managing Director of Northern Lights JV, describing the step as securing reliable and flexible CO2 transport and storage services for European customers.

The transport chain ends at an onshore receiving terminal in western Norway, from which the liquefied CO2 moves by pipeline to a reservoir 2,600 meters below the seabed for permanent storage, per Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

Injection for permanent storage started in August 2025 under Norway's Longship full-scale CCS project.

The joint venture is owned by Equinor, TotalEnergies and Shell, and operates what Offshore Engineer OEDigital describes as the world's largest dedicated fleet for commercial CO2 transport. Capacity expansion is planned under Phase 2, with larger CO2 carriers to be introduced from 2028.

Allseas has been awarded a contract by Western LNG to install the subsea section of the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission (PRGT) pipeline serving the planned Ksi Lisims LNG export project in northwest Canada, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

The scope covers roughly 50 kilometers of 36-inch and 48-inch concrete-weight coated pipeline, connecting the onshore transmission system to a planned floating LNG facility on Pearse Island, Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported.

That stretch is the last piece of the 700-kilometre PRGT system, which is set to move Canadian natural gas to the planned export terminal, according to the same report.

Work will be executed by the pipelay vessels Solitaire and Sandpiper, operating from the shoreline out to water depths of about 450 meters, Offshore Engineer OEDigital said.

Offshore installation is scheduled for 2029.

Geraldton Airport in Western Australia's Midwest region can now run independently of the grid on renewable power after commissioning an integrated solar and battery energy storage system costing AUD 6 million (USD 4.18 million), according to ESS News.

The hybrid plant pairs an 842 kW solar array with a 2 MWh battery energy storage system, ESS News reported. It was designed, built and commissioned by Perth-headquartered off-grid energy specialist UON.

Since commissioning, the microgrid has enabled 88 days of operation powered entirely by renewables, according to ESS News.

A AUD 2 million grant from the Commonwealth Government's Disaster Ready Fund covered part of the project cost. The airport operator described the microgrid as a win for the region on multiple levels.

The resilience case rests on the control layer. UON's proprietary Smart energy management system handles grid-parallel operation and automatically islands the airport from the Western Power network if instability occurs, maintaining power throughout and reconnecting once stability returns, according to the company.

BYD has begun selling the Racco, an electric kei car, in Japan, according to electrive. The company says it is the first kei car designed by an overseas automaker.

Three configurations are on offer, priced at 2.145 million yen, 2.398 million yen and 2.497 million yen, electrive reported. Each qualifies for a government subsidy of 150,000 yen.

Battery choice separates the entry car from the two upper trims. The 200 configuration carries a 22.40 kWh LFP pack rated at 210 kilometres of range, while the 300 Plus and 300 Premium use a 35.84 kWh LFP pack rated at 320 kilometres, according to electrive. Both packs use cell-to-body construction.

Drivetrain output is identical across the line-up. Every Racco runs a permanent magnet synchronous motor rated at 47 kW and 160 Nm of torque, electrive reported.

Production sits outside Japan. BYD builds the model in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, China.

The car first appeared at the 2025 Japan Mobility Show in October of last year, and BYD has said it has no plans to sell the Racco in markets outside Japan.

Sales of the Racco are now under way.

Hyundai is recalling roughly 40,000 units of its battery-electric Inster compact car worldwide over a potential fire risk, electrive reported. About 14,610 of the affected vehicles are in Germany.

The German Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) has issued an official recall under reference number 16829R, according to electrive.

At issue is a possible internal defect in the central three-way valve of the Inster's thermal management system. Per electrive, the fault may allow coolant to leak over time; if that coolant reaches nearby electrical components, it could trigger a short circuit and, in the worst case, cause a vehicle fire.

The action covers Inster cars built between 14 February 2024 and 14 April 2026, electrive reported.

Saudi Arabia and the US carried out joint attacks on Iranian-backed militias in southern Iraq, according to Semafor Net Zero. The militias had targeted Saudi oil facilities with drones.

Semafor Net Zero reported that this was the first time Riyadh has acknowledged direct involvement in the war.

Oil prices, which had fallen during the lull in fighting, jumped 3.7% after news of the missile attack, according to Semafor Net Zero.

The missile attack was a ballistic strike by Tehran on US forces in Jordan, described by Semafor Net Zero as a surprise and as the first assault since Friday.

Iran also rejected an Omani proposal to share transit routes through the Strait of Hormuz, Semafor Net Zero reported.

Bids for assets in BP's West Nile Delta gas development off Egypt are due by the end of the week, according to three sources familiar with the sale process cited by Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

The same sources named Energean, Carlyle Group, Dragon Oil and Artemis Energy among the groups expected to submit offers.

BP is trying to make its portfolio less complex while lowering debt and costs, Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported.

The company accounts for roughly 60% of Egyptian natural gas output, produced through East Nile Delta joint ventures and West Nile Delta fields it operates itself, according to the report.

BP's Egyptian gas output reached 518 million cubic feet per day last year, roughly 40% below the 2024 level and nearly 60% below 2023, Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported.

Cumulative BP investment in Egypt exceeds USD 35 billion across six decades, per the same report.

Distribution system operator Liander has started a smart charging trial covering around 12,000 public charging points in the Dutch province of Gelderland, paying EV drivers to shift sessions to grid-friendly hours, electrive reported.

The field trial runs until January 2027, according to electrive. Liander is running it with technology provider Deftpower, charge point operators Vattenfall and Allego, and e-mobility service providers ANWB and Athlon.

Drivers who take part receive a financial reward averaging 10 per cent of their charging costs, paid out or credited directly through the app, electrive reported. That routes the incentive through the same interface used to start the session rather than through the charge point operator's tariff.

The distribution channel is the reason the pilot can reach scale. According to electrive, 97 per cent of all public charging sessions are initiated via the eMSPs' charging cards and apps, which makes those platforms the natural route to expand the scheme.

The regulatory backdrop sharpens the case for software over steel. Since July 2026, Dutch grid operators have no longer received automatic priority for new grid connections in congested regions, electrive reported, increasing the importance of software-based solutions to ease pressure on the electricity grid. Charging demand that can be moved in time is one of the few levers available to an operator that cannot jump the connection queue.

Hongqi says its new ultra-fast charging battery went from 10 to 70 per cent charge in under four minutes during tests, according to electrive.

The cell reaches a peak charging rate of 12C, meaning it accepts current at up to twelve times its nominal capacity, electrive reported.

The performance testing was carried out at 25 degrees Celsius alongside Lishen Battery and China Automotive New Energy Battery Technology, according to electrive.

On the cell side, a carbon-swelling coating and bulk doping cut internal resistance by 15% against conventional cells built on the same chemistry, electrive reported.

Thermal management is handled by a liquid cooling system that holds the temperature spread across the pack to no more than three degrees Celsius while charging, according to electrive.

For comparison, electrive cited BYD's new generation Blade Battery, which needs roughly five minutes to move from 10% to 70% and about nine minutes to reach 97% from 10%.

A lithium sulfate processing plant built at a cost of USD 400 million has begun full operations just outside Harare, Semafor Net Zero reported, giving Zimbabwe its first facility for converting mined lithium into a processed product.

The plant was opened by China's Prospect Lithium Zimbabwe (PLZ), according to Semafor Net Zero, which described the investment as part of efforts by African governments to capture more of the added value in mining industries.

The facility reached full operation months after the government froze exports of raw minerals, a step taken ahead of a complete ban next year, Semafor Net Zero reported.

Zimbabwe is Africa's leading producer of lithium, the outlet said, describing the metal as a key ingredient in rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles.

PLZ intends to go one step further along the value chain. The company is planning a local lithium carbonate plant, the next point in the processing sequence, according to Semafor Net Zero.

Singapore-based Keppel Ltd. will move up to 10 legacy offshore rigs off its balance sheet through a newly created private investment vehicle, the Keppel Offshore Fund (KOF), according to World Oil.

The first tranche covers six operational rigs, which KOF will buy from Keppel in 2026 for roughly S$1.2 billion, or USD 925 million, World Oil reported.

Four further rigs are earmarked for completion and possible transfer to the fund between 2027 and 2028, subject to certain conditions. Should those four rigs move across, the structure could yield an additional USD 988 million in cash proceeds, according to World Oil.

Keppel also gains fee-earning scale from the arrangement. Funds under management will rise by approximately S$3.9 billion, or USD 3.0 billion, World Oil reported.

Keppel CEO Loh Chin Hua said the transaction establishes a pathway to monetize the company's legacy rig assets while keeping exposure to the offshore drilling market through Keppel's own investment in the fund.

Three legacy rigs sit outside the current deal. Keppel said it is still weighing monetization options for those units.

World Oil described the divestment as reflecting strengthening fundamentals in the global offshore drilling market.

The FCC Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau added foreign-produced power inverters to its Covered List, halting equipment authorizations for unapproved foreign models with immediate effect on national security and hacking grounds, according to pv magazine.

To enforce the measure, the bureau applies the domestic end product test set out in the federal Buy American Standard, pv magazine reported. The test turns on the place of assembly rather than who owns the brand, which separates suppliers that engineer hardware in one country and build it in another.

Domestic manufacturers hold seven percent of the U.S. solar inverter market, per Department of Energy data cited by pv magazine, leaving a 93% share supplied from elsewhere.

Developers plan to bring more than 58,000 MW of new solar and storage onto the grid over the next year, pv magazine reported. Those projects need authorized inverters to convert direct current output and respond to grid signals, so the authorization channel now sits between queued capacity and the network.

An emergency Conditional Approval process run by the Department of Defense or the Department of Homeland Security is the single exemption route open to foreign-produced inverters, according to pv magazine.

The restriction cuts against an earlier federal technical review. A Department of Energy analysis from January 2026 examined 30 Chinese inverters and turned up no evidence of malicious hardware, and the bureau's action effectively overrides that finding, pv magazine reported. The Covered List addition proceeded on national security and hacking concerns.

Brand ownership offers no shelter under the assembly-based reading of the Buy American Standard, and the 93% of the market not served by domestic factories sits outside the authorization path unless the Department of Defense or the Department of Homeland Security grants Conditional Approval.

China installed 72.07 GW of new solar capacity in the first half of 2026, down about 66% from 212.21 GW a year earlier, according to pv magazine.

CPIA has kept its full-year forecast for China at 180 GW to 240 GW of new solar capacity, against around 315 GW in 2025, pv magazine reported. Even the top of that range would leave 2026 as the first year of declining annual installations in China since 2019.

The manufacturing chain contracted alongside the domestic market, though unevenly. Polysilicon output came to 538,000 tonnes in the first six months, a fall of 9.8% year on year, per pv magazine. Wafer production slipped 7.3% to 293 GW over the same period.

Further downstream the drops were steeper. Cell production fell 21.9% to 260.7 GW and module output was down 35.1% to 201.3 GW, according to pv magazine.

Prices tracked the same direction. By early July polysilicon was trading 42.3% below its January level, with wafer prices off 28.7% and cell prices off 27.7%, pv magazine reported.

Exports moved the other way. Shipments of wafers, cells and modules were worth USD 17.18 billion in the first half, up 24.3% year on year, according to pv magazine.

The contraction is not confined to China. CPIA expects global additions to fall 8% to 612 GW this year, pv magazine reported. The association sees annual additions of 864 GW by 2030, which pv magazine put at a compound annual growth rate of around 7% from 2026.

The U.S. Department of Energy has selected Brookfield and NextEra Energy to build a data center campus with dedicated generation and storage on part of its Paducah Site in Kentucky, in a privately funded project the department values at more than USD 100 billion.

DOE said the partnership also includes Big Rivers Electric Power Corporation, Jackson Purchase Energy Cooperative and Paducah Power System, and covers the redevelopment of portions of the site into a data center campus paired with new energy infrastructure.

Under the split of roles described by DOE, Brookfield will develop and operate the campus itself, while NextEra Energy will build and own the energy infrastructure serving the site. Both selections followed a Request for Offers that DOE issued in November 2025.

The generation package is gas-heavy with a large storage layer attached. NextEra Energy plans 2 GW of new grid-connected natural gas-fired generation and up to 2.6 GW of battery energy storage, sized to serve a 1.8 GW artificial intelligence and high-performance computing campus at or near the Paducah site, according to DOE. The plan also covers upgrades to existing transmission infrastructure.

DOE put the employment effect at roughly 8,000 construction jobs and 600 permanent jobs, and described the investment as one of the largest in Kentucky's history.

One regulatory step is still outstanding. The power service agreement requires approval from the Kentucky Public Service Commission, DOE said.

Construction is expected to be completed in 2031.

The capacity ratio is the detail worth holding onto: the 2 GW of firm gas plus up to 2.6 GW of batteries exceeds the 1.8 GW load the campus is designed to draw. The storage figure is a ceiling rather than a commitment, phrased by DOE as up to 2.6 GW.

A coalition led by Brookfield and NextEra Energy has unveiled plans for a privately funded artificial intelligence (AI) data center campus at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Paducah Site in Western Kentucky, carrying a price tag of USD 100 billion, according to Power Magazine.

The campus is to be paired with up to 4.6 GW of dedicated new power generation, Power Magazine reported. That capacity will be built and paid for solely to serve the site, according to the same report.

The USD 100 billion figure covers the data center campus itself and is described as privately funded. The federal land involved is the DOE's Paducah Site.

Power Magazine identified Brookfield and NextEra Energy as the leaders of the coalition behind the proposal.

Timor-Leste's first utility-scale solar-plus-storage project has closed a USD 85.7 million financing package covering a 73.7 MW solar plant and an 80.2 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS), according to ESS News.

Three development lenders carry the debt. ESS News reported the package consists of USD 12.2 million in senior loans from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), USD 19 million from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and USD 12.2 million from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

Operations will sit with Manatuto Renewables Power, a joint venture between French utility EDF and Japan's Itochu Corp, per ESS News.

Output is contracted rather than merchant. Electricity will be sold to state utility Eletricidade de Timor Leste Empresa Pública under a 25-year power purchase agreement, ESS News said.

ESS News reported the generation is expected to be equivalent to the typical consumption of approximately 80,000 households in Timor-Leste. The pairing of 73.7 MW of solar capacity with 80.2 MWh of battery storage gives the plant roughly an hour of nameplate discharge, a configuration aimed at shifting midday solar output into evening demand on a small island system.

Battery swapping and charging points for electric heavy-duty trucks will be rolled out across India under a tie-up between Energy In Motion (EIM) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL), according to electrive.

HPCL brings a network of more than 25,000 retail outlets in India, with sites sitting on major highways and expressways, electrive reported. That is the footprint the two companies intend to build on.

The combined swap-and-charge hubs are slated for key freight corridors within the next 18 to 24 months, per electrive.

Six heavy-duty swapping stations are already running under EIM, split between the Delhi National Capital Region and the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority area outside Mumbai.

EIM says a driver can trade a drained pack for a full one in around seven minutes. That figure is the company's own.

On the vehicle side, EIM's Ashwa 55-tonne electric tractor, its first electric heavy-duty model, reached the market in August 2025, electrive reported.

The International Seabed Authority extended a deep-sea mining exploration contract for a subsidiary of The Metals Company (TMC) at its council meeting in Kingston, Jamaica, held July 13 to 24, according to Mongabay. The same council session closed without finalizing the rules that commercial seabed mining requires.

The extension hands TMC's subsidiary NORI an additional five years to explore for minerals across its contracted areas in the Pacific, Mongabay reported. The council granted it despite the company pursuing exploration and exploitation permits for the same areas through a U.S. government agency.

That parallel track runs through the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Mongabay reported that TMC applied to NOAA in 2025 for exploration and exploitation permits covering many of the same areas in international waters already held under its ISA exploration contracts.

On the regulatory side, many issues remain unresolved and the council once again failed to complete the rulebook needed before commercial extraction can start. Work on the mining code dates to 2014, and the ISA has regularly missed its own deadlines to finish it, according to Mongabay.

A legal dispute over the ISA's scrutiny of the company also moved during the session. The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea ruled on July 18 that the ISA could continue its inquiry into TMC, but must respect the due process rights of NORI and TOML, Mongabay reported.

Opposition to the industry is not confined to the council chamber. Forty-five countries have called for a moratorium or precautionary pause on deep-sea mining, according to Mongabay.

The gap between the contract extension and the missing code defines the current position: exploration rights keep rolling forward on a five-year clock while the exploitation rulebook, in draft for more than a decade, stays open.

The Trump administration has prohibited the import and domestic use of new power inverters manufactured outside the United States, according to Canary Media, which reported the measure was justified on national security grounds.

Inverters convert direct current output from solar panels and batteries into alternating current for the grid, making them a required component in nearly every utility-scale renewable and storage build.

Canary Media reported that the restriction could disrupt gigawatts' worth of planned solar, wind, and battery installations, and that those projects account for the vast majority of new capacity.

The scope of what counts as a "new" foreign-made inverter is the central question for developers weighing whether equipment already ordered or partially installed falls inside the ban, an ambiguity flagged in the Canary Media account.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has ruled out restricting supplies of vital resources as a retaliatory tool against tariffs, according to World Oil, arguing that Canada's standing as a dependable producer matters more.

The position was set out as Trump threatened import taxes of 50% on a range of Canadian-made goods should Carney's government fail to address trade complaints over autos, alcohol and dairy, World Oil reported. Trump has set a deadline of Aug. 19 before the new tariffs would take effect.

The products named in the latest threat are consumer and building goods rather than energy: milk, hockey equipment, beer and plywood, according to World Oil. Commodities bought in large quantities, including oil and potash, are not on the list.

That carve-out frames Carney's calculation. With crude outside the tariff perimeter, curbing barrels would be a discretionary escalation rather than a defensive response, and Carney has instead tied Canada's leverage to its reliability as a supplier.

The trade complaints cited by Trump sit in autos, alcohol and dairy, sectors that overlap directly with the goods flagged for the 50% rate, including milk and beer.

Australian road freight could cut its diesel consumption by 10-20% in the short term through changes to behaviour, process and technology, according to an IEEFA briefing note. Held consistently across a year, that saving would avoid 1.3-2.7 gigalitres of diesel, IEEFA said.

Australia is the world's biggest diesel importer, responsible for 10% of global seaborne trade in the fuel, which leaves it highly vulnerable to supply disruptions, IEEFA said.

Diesel meets a fifth of Australian energy consumption, outstripping even electricity. Freight burns more than three-quarters of the diesel used on Australian roads, putting the sector at the centre of that import exposure.

Operators would see the first results within six months, with the full effect taking a year or more, according to James Bowen.

The 10-20% range comes from industry-wide improvements rather than fleet replacement, so the reduction does not depend on buying new vehicles. Reaching the top of the gigalitre range requires the 20% saving to be sustained rather than achieved in bursts.