Tuesday, 11 August 2026

Valaris has taken more than USD 160 million in fresh rig contracts and extensions, Offshore Magazine reported.

Jackup work offshore the UK and Poland sits in the award package. So does a two-well exploration program in the Gulf of Mexico. The third piece is a North Sea decommissioning campaign covering 41 wells.

That decommissioning job runs on VALARIS 248 in the UK North Sea, Offshore Magazine reported. The 41-well plug and abandonment (P&A) work starts in mid-2027. Its likely duration is 1,080 days.

The contractor's total backlog stood at USD 4.6 billion as of August 5, per the latest Valaris fleet status report cited by Offshore Magazine.

Two idle jackups left the fleet. Valaris closed the sales of VALARIS 104 and VALARIS 109 for USD 74 million, according to Offshore Magazine, after roughly six years stacked.

Valaris said its pending business combination with Transocean remains on track to close in the fourth quarter of 2026.

Sonatrach and Bosch have signed a memorandum of understanding in Berlin to examine green hydrogen production and electrolyser manufacturing in Algeria, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

The outlet described the signing as a step in EU-North Africa energy transition cooperation.

The scope set out in the MoU covers the exchange of engineering know-how, feasibility studies, and capacity-building initiatives, per Hydrogen Fuel News. That work spans the conversion of solar energy into hydrogen through to the design and operation of hydrogen infrastructure.

No production capacity, investment figure, or timetable was attached to the agreement in the reporting. The document is exploratory: it commits the two companies to study electrolyser manufacturing in Algeria rather than to build it.

Researchers at the University of Sydney have built a sunlight-driven liquid gallium process that splits seawater into hydrogen at 12.9% solar-to-hydrogen efficiency, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

The method is described as circular and runs on seawater directly, without the purified water or grid electricity that conventional electrolysis routes require, Hydrogen Fuel News reported.

Solar-to-hydrogen efficiency measures how much incoming solar energy ends up stored as hydrogen. The 12.9% figure cited by Hydrogen Fuel News applies to the gallium-based seawater route developed by the Sydney group.

Removing the water-purification and grid-power steps changes the input list for a hydrogen plant: no desalination or deionization train, and no connection to electricity supply, per the same account.

Researchers at the IMDEA Materials Institute in Madrid have built a strain-engineered Cu3Pt catalyst on a NiTi substrate that matches platinum-level oxygen reduction reaction performance while using 25% of the platinum load, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

The performance gap in testing was one millivolt. Hydrogen Fuel News reported that the compressed Cu3Pt sample recorded 855 mV at 1 mA/cm2 in an acidic environment, against 856 mV for pure platinum under the same conditions.

The work was led by Jorge Redondo and published in the journal Electrochimica Acta, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

The cathode side of a fuel cell is where platinum loading concentrates, and the oxygen reduction reaction is the step the metal is there to accelerate. Cutting the load to a quarter while holding the measured potential steady addresses the cost line that platinum content dominates in proton exchange membrane stacks.

The approach relies on mechanical strain rather than a different metal chemistry. Compressing the Cu3Pt structure on the NiTi substrate is what delivered the 855 mV result reported by Hydrogen Fuel News, placing the alloy within a millivolt of the pure platinum reference.

Gangwon Province has secured 29 billion won in state funding for research and development on a liquid hydrogen storage tank and transfer system at the Samcheok hydrogen complex, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

The money comes from South Korea's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Hydrogen Fuel News reported. The 29 billion won award covers the first phase of the province's coastal import terminal strategy.

The programme is run by the Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement (KAIA) and sits inside the Samcheok hydrogen specialized industrial complex on the east coast, according to Hydrogen Fuel News. The outlet describes the work as preparation for a future commercial liquid hydrogen receiving terminal.

Two technical elements define the scope: the storage tank itself and the transfer system that would move liquefied hydrogen between vessel and shore-side infrastructure. Both are the components an import terminal needs before cargo handling can begin at commercial scale.

Two Manhattan subway stations will be examined for underground cooling using thermal energy networks under a pilot led by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority alongside Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Inside Climate News reported.

The study carries a price tag of USD 800,000, drawn from the receipts of the city's congestion-pricing scheme. Drivers pay that charge to enter Manhattan anywhere at or below 60th Street.

Heat readings at one of the two sites explain the interest. MTA chairman Janno Lieber told a Monday press conference that Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall averaged 96 degrees over last summer. The second station, Chambers Street, handles upward of 18,000 riders on a typical weekday.

Procurement is the next step. Mamdani's office said in a statement that a contract for the feasibility work should be awarded by fall. Should the technology be judged workable at the two stations, design work could start in early 2027.

Inside Climate News reported that success would make New York "the first state to use thermal energy networks in its subway system".

The US Strategic Petroleum Reserve dropped below 300 million barrels on Monday, its first reading under that mark since 1983, according to Semafor Net Zero.

The drawdown follows sustained withdrawals since the start of the US-Iran war. Semafor Net Zero reported that Washington has leaned heavily on the reserve over that period, raising concerns about depletion.

Crude markets moved in the same direction. Brent crude prices spiked after Middle East negotiations stalled, per Semafor Net Zero.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg used a 6,500-word essay published Monday to announce a USD 1 billion fund aimed at communities that host data centers, according to Semafor Net Zero.

The pledge landed alongside a separate public appeal from a rival developer. OpenAI addressed an open letter to the governor of Texas on Friday, committing to act as a partner in what it called "responsible AI infrastructure development," Semafor Net Zero reported.

Both moves come as municipal opposition to server farms hardens. Local bans on data centers nationwide rose from 300 in late June to more than 500 in July, according to The Information.

Neither company's outreach addressed the permitting decisions already made at the local level, where the count of prohibitions more than doubled inside a single month.

Seadrill booked roughly USD 200 million of new contract backlog through awards and extensions in the U.S. Gulf and Malaysia after its May fleet status report, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

The bulk came from the West Vela, which won a one-year contract in the U.S. Gulf starting in June 2027. That award alone adds approximately USD 161 million to backlog, excluding additional services, Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported.

In Malaysia, the West Capella picked up an extension estimated at 75 days, worth about USD 26 million excluding additional services. The additional term commits the rig into August 2027.

Quarterly results landed alongside the backlog update. Seadrill posted net income of USD 29 million and adjusted EBITDA of USD 144 million for the second quarter of 2026, per Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

The company lifted its full-year 2026 adjusted EBITDA guidance to a range of USD 420 million to USD 450 million, up from USD 370 million to USD 420 million.

Samir Ali, chief executive of Seadrill, said the company achieved 96% economic utilization in the quarter, meaningfully enhanced its contract coverage in the U.S. Gulf and increased full-year revenue and EBITDA guidance.

The combined USD 200 million addition spans both the U.S. Gulf and Malaysia work signed since the May fleet status report.

CB&I has completed the first fill of its non-vacuum liquid hydrogen tank at NASA Marshall, according to Hydrogen Fuel News, a step the outlet describes as advancing efforts to commercialize lower-cost, large-scale hydrogen storage.

The demonstration tank was filled at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, Hydrogen Fuel News reported.

Shell International Exploration and Production, GenH2, and the University of Houston joined the project as partners, per the same report, which characterized the work as an alternative to vacuum-insulated tanks.

Australian households researching a home battery want to hear about virtual power plants (VPPs), but that interest fades once the battery is on the wall, according to a study by Energy Consumers Australia (ECA) reported by RenewEconomy. Owners become much less willing to hand over control of the asset.

The reluctance sits against a large and growing fleet. RenewEconomy reported that the Cheaper Home Batteries rebate drove almost half a million storage units into homes across the country by the end of July, and that every one of those batteries is VPP compatible.

That combination leaves aggregators with hardware already capable of responding to grid signals and owners unwilling to enrol it. ECA's finding points to the enrolment decision itself, made after purchase, as the choke point rather than the equipment.

RenewEconomy framed the question around whether the gap reflects tariff design or a lack of trust.

The UK government has awarded almost GBP 65 million to automotive technology projects as it starts allocating money under its DRIVE35 programme, according to electrive.

Industry will match that contribution, taking total investment to close to GBP 130 million and supporting more than 1,800 jobs, electrive reported.

The bulk of the money is aimed at moving zero-emission vehicle technologies closer to commercial production. Nearly GBP 50 million of the government funding is directed at those projects, according to electrive.

Within that pot, the largest single allocation announced for zero-emission technologies is GBP 26.9 million, split across five companies through DRIVE35's Scale Up fund.

A separate GBP 17 million goes to nine projects under the Connected and Automated Mobility (CAM) Pathfinder programme, electrive reported.

The awards form the opening tranche of a much larger commitment. The government now describes DRIVE35 as a GBP 4 billion programme running to 2035.

Industry Minister Blair McDougall said the investment "will secure skilled jobs, strengthen our manufacturing heartlands and help drive the reindustrialisation of Britain".

The Korea Research Institute of Ships & Ocean Engineering (KRISO) has secured Approval in Principle from the American Bureau of Shipping for a conceptual container ship design driven by two small modular molten salt reactors, World Nuclear News reported.

The certified vessel is a 15,000 TEU class ship, according to World Nuclear News. Its hull is sized to pass through the expanded Panama Canal and targets a service speed of 25 knots, with the reactor placed centrally to limit wave impact and reduce collision risk.

Work on the design was split between two Korean institutes. KRISO handled the high-speed hull, the layout of the reactors and major systems, and power operation and control technologies, working with Samsung Heavy Industries. The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) is developing the molten salt reactor intended for marine use.

The collaboration traces back to February 2023, when KRISO joined eight other South Korean organisations in signing a memorandum of understanding to jointly develop a molten salt reactor suitable for ships.

World Nuclear News put the fuel case in blunt terms: shipping burns some 350 million tonnes of fossil fuel each year and is responsible for about 3% of worldwide carbon emissions.

Lumen Farm, a 140-MWac solar project under construction in northeast Texas, will send its full output to Tesla under a long-term power purchase agreement, Electrek reported.

The developer behind Lumen Farm is Zelestra, according to Electrek. EQT backs the renewable developer.

Crews are set to break ground in 2027, and the site is scheduled to reach commercial operation two years later, in 2029, per Electrek.

Tesla and Zelestra have contracted before. Their earlier deal, signed in 2024, was a 57-MWac PPA spanning three solar plants in the Castilla-La Mancha region of Spain, Electrek reported.

Queensland regulators have cleared BHP's Saraji East coal project, a mine the company sought despite what it describes as a weak economic outlook and a state royalties regime it blames for deterring investment, IEEFA reported.

The permit comes months after BMA, BHP's coal joint venture, shut down the adjacent Saraji South operation late last year, saying the mine no longer stacked up economically. BHP's public position is that it has stopped putting fresh capital into Queensland coal.

Peak Downs is the second permit in play. BHP wants its mine life stretched by 93 years, pushing the end date to 2116, according to IEEFA.

Mine life and rehabilitation money move together in BHP's accounts. The company's 2025 Annual Report said shifting the mine life of its steelmaking coal assets by one year would, on its own, alter closure and rehabilitation provisions for those assets by roughly USD 40 million, IEEFA said.

The state-level number is far larger. Queensland's Estimated Rehabilitation Cost for mine sites hit AUD 14.3 billion in 2025, IEEFA reported. Of that, AUD 2.4 billion is attributed to BMA across the permits it holds.

BHP also put a figure on climate exposure in the same annual report. Under a sensitivity scenario of 1.5C by 2100, its steelmaking coal assets carry an indicative write-down of about USD 2 billion, per IEEFA.

The cut-off for automatic payment of the Warm Home Discount is 23 August. Eligible households whose name does not appear on the energy bill by that date will not receive the GBP 150 rebate automatically this winter, according to UK DESNZ.

UK DESNZ put the reach of the rebate at roughly six million households over the coming winter. About 250,000 of those are in Scotland, where payment will land automatically for the first time.

Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh linked the widened eligibility to last winter's uptake, saying "almost a million more families with children received the GBP 150 Warm Home Discount last winter" after the scheme was expanded.

A second measure sits alongside the rebate. VAT came off domestic electricity bills from 1 October under a decision by the Prime Minister, trimming GBP 45 from the yearly Ofgem price cap.

The scheme runs to 2030/1. The government confirmed earlier this year that eligible households will keep receiving the Warm Home Discount through that date.

What matters for households now is the account name. Payment arrives without an application only where the eligible person is the named bill holder before 23 August.

Holtec International, Entergy Services and Hyundai Engineering & Construction have signed a non-binding Memorandum of Agreement to evaluate potential deployments of Holtec's SMR-300 small modular reactor for large-load customers across Entergy's Gulf South service territory, according to a GlobeNewswire announcement.

The agreement sets up a framework for the three parties to assess customer demand, candidate sites and possible commercial structures for potential dual-unit SMR-300 projects. No project has been committed under the MOA.

GlobeNewswire described the SMR-300 as a Generation III+ pressurized water reactor rated at roughly 340 MWe net per unit, built on conventional pressurized water reactor technology, standard nuclear fuel and fully passive safety systems. Paired in the standard dual-unit layout, the design would deliver about 680 MWe of firm, carbon-free electricity.

Work would be split between the two suppliers. Holtec would take reactor technology, nuclear systems, manufacturing and nuclear procurement; HDEC would take balance-of-plant engineering, procurement and construction.

Entergy and its affiliates operate one of the country's largest nuclear fleets and electric utility systems, serving customers in Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas. That footprint defines the geography the three companies will screen for candidate sites.

Any Gulf South project would lean on Holtec's first-of-a-kind SMR-300 build at the Palisades site in Michigan, where the Pioneer 1 and 2 units are expected to serve as the global reference plant for later SMR-300 deployments, per the announcement. The reference-plant sequencing matters commercially: repeat units priced off a completed first-of-a-kind carry different construction risk than a standalone order.

The stated target market is large-load customers, the category that covers heavy industrial and data center demand. The dual-unit configuration cited by Holtec, at approximately 680 MWe, is sized for that kind of concentrated single-point load rather than for diffuse residential growth.

Adani Energy Solutions has won a tariff-based competitive bid worth about ₹8,500 crore, or roughly USD 880 million, to build the transmission backbone for green hydrogen and green ammonia facilities in the Vizag area of Andhra Pradesh, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

The scope covers 1,582 circuit kilometres of 765/400 kV high voltage alternating current (HVAC) lines and two gas-insulated substations, sited at Pendurthi in Visakhapatnam and at Khammam-II, Hydrogen Fuel News reported.

Together that infrastructure is set to deliver around 4.5 GW of additional supply, per the same report.

Adani Energy Solutions is executing the build through a special purpose vehicle named Vizag Power, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

The award ties grid construction directly to electrolysis and ammonia offtake at a single industrial cluster, with the transmission asset procured under the tariff-based competitive bidding route rather than negotiated allocation.

Explosive charges are being used by the Romanian Navy on the bed of the Danube to preserve cooling water flow toward the Cernavodă Nuclear Power Plant, an intervention driven by a drought that has drained rivers across Europe, according to Inside Climate News.

Unit 1 at the plant was taken offline last week by operator Nuclearelectrica after Danube water levels fell, Inside Climate News reported.

Dutch officials disclosed record-low readings last week on the Rhine, described by Inside Climate News as Europe's third largest river.

The Po River Basin Authority in Italy said in a Thursday report that 101 municipalities were exposed to medium-to-high threats to their drinking water supplies, and that tanker trucks were already delivering water to 24 of them.

The European Union's Global Drought Observatory puts the duration of drought conditions at seven months across large portions of central Europe.

World Weather Attribution found the severity of current conditions is roughly five times more likely than it would be in a climate 1.4 degrees Celsius cooler.

The EU Joint Research Centre forecasts severely drier than average conditions over large areas of Europe through September 2026.

Toyota's 2027 bZ FWD Plus carries a sticker of $37,980 before the delivery fee and an EPA-estimated range of up to 314 miles, according to Electrek.

The entry point to the lineup is the bZ XLE FWD, rated at up to 236 miles on the EPA cycle, Electrek reported. The gap between the two front-wheel-drive trims reflects a choice of two battery packs, sized at 57.7 kWh and 74.7 kWh, per the same report.

Charging hardware is native rather than adapted. Electrek reported the bZ ships with a built-in NACS charge port, giving drivers direct access to Tesla Superchargers without an adapter, and that a 10% to 80% recharge takes around 30 minutes.

The model already has commercial traction. Electrek reported the bZ was America's fourth top-selling EV in the first half of the year.

Romanian naval engineers detonated 180 kilograms of explosives on August 3 to strip out a rock outcrop in the Bala Canal, a branch of the Danube, according to CleanTechnica.

The controlled blast cleared the way for a temporary dam, CleanTechnica reported.

The Bala Canal work involved military engineers rather than civil contractors, per the same account.

Oklo, a publicly traded small-modular-reactor firm backed by OpenAI chief Sam Altman, has split its first atoms in a test reactor, according to Canary Media.

Canary Media described Oklo as one of the highest-profile companies working on next-generation nuclear energy technologies.

The company debuted on the stock market two years ago, Canary Media reported, and became retail investors' go-to for betting on America's atomic renaissance.

BP plc has agreed to buy Woodside Energy's 70% interest in the Calypso gas project offshore Trinidad and Tobago, according to World Oil.

The deal lifts BP's holding in Block TTDAA 14 from 30% to 100%, World Oil reported. That leaves the company as sole interest holder in the block containing the offshore gas project.

Consideration combines cash with contingent payments, and closing is expected by the end of 2026, subject to customary government and regulatory approvals, according to World Oil.

BP already sits inside the country's gas export chain. It holds a 45% interest in the Atlantic LNG facility in Trinidad and Tobago, World Oil reported. Feedstock supply for that plant depends on domestic offshore gas, giving the buyer a downstream outlet for any volumes developed at Calypso.

For Woodside Energy, the sale removes its majority position in the project.

LS Power has agreed to acquire a 606-MW gas-fired power plant in Texas from Constellation, according to Power Magazine.

The plant sits near Houston, Texas, Power Magazine reported. Its capacity is 606 MW, per the same report.

Power Magazine described the buyer as a New York-headquartered group that pursues investments in North American power and energy infrastructure. The outlet said the group confirmed it has a deal for the natural gas-fired plant.

BMW began series production of the i3 at its Munich headquarters plant on 6 August, according to electrive. The company has cut manufacturing costs at the site by 10 per cent alongside the production start, electrive reported.

Order books opened earlier. A First Edition of the electric mid-size saloon has been available to order since mid-June at a starting price of EUR 75,340, per electrive. The entry-level i3 50 xDrive will start at EUR 65,900.

In a separate development reported by electrive, Transport for London has issued Private Hire Vehicle licences for a fleet of fully electric Ford Mustang Mach-E cars modified by Wayve for autonomous driving. Uber's waiting list for the London robotaxi service drew more than 100,000 sign-ups in the past eight weeks, according to electrive.

South African firm Thula Solutions has revealed a purpose-built electric safari vehicle carrying a 65 kWh battery, with an estimated range of around 200 km, electrive reported. The team is targeting output of roughly 50 vehicles per month at a dedicated production facility.

Tesla has started production of its Megapack 3 grid battery at a new Megafactory in Brookshire, Texas, with the first units coming off the line, according to Electrek.

The plant moved from groundbreaking to production in 16 months and carries a designed capacity of 50 GWh per year dedicated to Megapack 3, Electrek reported.

Each Megapack 3 unit holds about 5 MWh, against 3.9 MWh for the Megapack 2 XL, roughly 28% more storage inside the same ground footprint, per Electrek. Tesla says the new generation cuts thermal-system connection points by 78% compared with the previous unit.

The company is also selling the batteries in a pre-assembled configuration. A Megablock bundles up to four Megapack 3 units, about 20 MWh, with the transformer and switchgear integrated at the factory rather than on site, Electrek reported.

On siting and schedule, Tesla says the Megablock approach reaches 248 MWh per acre and can deploy 1 GWh in 20 business days, with installation running about 23% faster than its current approach. Those are company figures, not independently measured results.

Demand commitments are already attached to the product line. Tesla signed a $5 billion, 25 GWh Megapack deal with NatPower in Europe, according to Electrek.

ISO New England has asked federal regulators to approve changes to its Day-Ahead Ancillary Services market, seeking a decision by Sept. 14 so the adjustments can take effect Oct. 22, according to ISO New England Newswire.

The joint filing came from the grid operator and the NEPOOL Participants Committee and was submitted to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in mid-July, ISO New England Newswire reported.

The grid operator described the effort as pursuing refinements that improve cost-effectiveness while preserving the reliability benefits of the DA A/S market.

Cost has been modest relative to the wholesale bill. Since the market launched in March 2025, DA A/S has accounted for less than 7% of total wholesale energy costs, according to ISO New England Newswire.

The Internal Market Monitor put the first-year cost impact at less than 1 cent per kilowatt-hour of wholesale electricity served.

The solar eclipse on 12 August 2026 will cut photovoltaic output across the Iberian Peninsula by roughly 5 GW at its peak, according to Red Eléctrica, which has set out preventive operating measures for the day.

That estimated drop equals about 13% of peak demand on a typical Wednesday in August, Red Eléctrica said.

The grid operator described the effect as temporary and limited in extent, and confined to photovoltaic generation rather than the wider generation fleet.

The Balearic and Canary Islands will see no significant impact on solar PV output from the phenomenon, according to Red Eléctrica.

To contain the swing, the operator said it will coordinate closely with official bodies, other European transmission system operators, and national generation and distribution control centres. It will also boost baseline reserves, strengthen safety margins, and keep the event under continuous real-time monitoring.

Ratio has raised its takeover offer for Pharos to a total value of 32.8183 pence per share, made up of 28.8183 pence in cash and a 4 pence special dividend, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

The sweetened terms carry a premium of about 29.2% to the closing price of Pharos shares on June 23, 2026, the last trading day before Ratio announced its original offer, Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported.

The Pharos board responded by unanimously reinstating its recommendation in favor of the increased Ratio offer and withdrawing its recommendation of the rival Serica proposal.

Ratio said it has secured irrevocable undertakings to support the transaction covering roughly 173.9 million Pharos shares, equivalent to around 41.76% of the company's issued share capital.

The higher cash portion will be funded through an expanded irrevocable letter of credit provided by Israel Discount Bank, Ratio said.

McDermott is leading a four-firm venture handling pre-final investment decision engineering on the Rovuma LNG project, with the Area 4 partners due to decide in 2026, Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported.

Alongside McDermott, the SMDC grouping brings in Saipem, Daewoo Engineering & Construction and China Petroleum Engineering & Construction Corporation, according to the outlet.

McDermott's own workload covers the inside battery limits scope, the liquefaction modules included, run out of London and Gurgaon offices. Project management personnel go on secondment to the venture's Milan team.

Onshore, the plant is expected to run 12 modular liquefaction trains rated at 18.6 million tonnes of LNG per year, Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported.

The award comes ahead of the Area 4 investment decision expected in 2026, with start-up anticipated in 2031.

Revera Energy has begun construction on the 200 MW/400 MWh Windyhill battery energy storage system in Bearsden, Scotland, according to ESS News.

Windyhill is the first of three Scottish batteries in Revera's pipeline to break ground. ESS News reports the project reached financial close in February through non-recourse senior debt financing, a secured loan, provided by Santander CIB.

The other two projects, Hunterson and Kincardine, are each 400 MW four-hour duration systems with 800 MWh of storage capacity, per ESS News. Together the three sites carry investment of more than GBP 500 million (USD 665 million) and account for almost 2 GWh of storage capacity on Scotland's grid, in an area prone to transmission bottlenecks because of high levels of wind generation, ESS News reported.

Commercial operations at Windyhill are targeted for the first quarter of 2028, when Danske Commodities will provide route-to-market services, according to ESS News. Revera has also signed a 10-year revenue floor deal with Danske Commodities covering 100% of project capacity.

GE Vernova is the technology partner for Windyhill, with Mitie and OCU acting as delivery partners on site, ESS News reported.

Revera is headquartered in London and backed by global investment firm Carlyle, which set the company up in 2025, according to ESS News.

Trump announced a package of critical minerals financing headlined by a $1.4 billion loan to Sila Nanotechnologies for batteries, according to Semafor Net Zero.

The package also includes a $150 million loan to Niron Magnetics for magnets, a $400 million loan for scandium, and $58 million in Export-Import Bank financing for graphite and boron, Semafor Net Zero reported.

Semafor Net Zero said the administration is ramping up efforts to stockpile critical minerals amid the Iran war.

At the State Department event, Trump was joined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Energy Secretary Chris Wright, according to Semafor Net Zero.

The White House announced new tariffs Thursday covering imported polysilicon and related products, among them silicon-based solar panels, according to Canary Media.

Canary Media reported that the measure is expected to raise the cost of installing solar while strengthening efforts to reshore solar manufacturing.

The duties reach beyond finished modules to polysilicon itself, the feedstock material used in silicon-based panels, per Canary Media's account of the announcement.

Canary Media characterized the tariff as far-reaching, with the two effects it identified pulling in opposite directions for the sector: higher installation costs on one side, a firmer domestic manufacturing base on the other.

ExxonMobil Moçambique has placed an engineering contract for Rovuma LNG with SMDC, a joint venture whose members are McDermott, CPECC, Saipem and Daewoo Engineering & Construction, World Oil reported. The operator acted for the partners holding Area 4.

The development is designed around 12 modular liquefaction trains with a capacity of 18.6 million tonnes per year, according to World Oil.

Production is targeted to begin in 2031. World Oil described Rovuma LNG as ExxonMobil's largest single investment. A final investment decision on Phase 1 is expected later this year.

Three engineering centres will share the scope. McDermott will run design of the liquefaction modules and the remaining facilities inside battery limits (ISBL) from London and Gurgaon, while SMDC handles project management from Milan, World Oil reported.

BP plc has agreed to buy Woodside Energy's 70% interest in the Calypso gas project offshore Trinidad and Tobago, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

The transaction hands BP control of a discovery that Offshore Engineer OEDigital puts at 3.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, located off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago.

For the seller, the sale closes the book on the country. Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported that the deal marks Woodside's exit from the region.

BP's position in Trinidad and Tobago already extends beyond upstream acreage. The company holds a 45% stake in the country's Atlantic LNG facility, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

That downstream anchor is fed by a substantial gas business. BP produced around 1 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas in Trinidad and Tobago in 2025, more than 15% of the company's net gas output, Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported.

Petrobras posted second-quarter net income of R$52.4 billion (US$10.4 billion), lifted by record oil production, World Oil reported.

Total oil and natural gas output hit a record 3.34 MMboed in the quarter, while Petrobras-operated production climbed to 4.87 MMboed, according to World Oil. Operated pre-salt production set its own record at 2.78 MMboed.

Capital spending reached R$26.7 billion (US$5.3 billion) over the three months, with 82% of that directed at exploration and production projects, World Oil reported.

The P-79 FPSO achieved first oil in May and began gas injection 56 days later, according to World Oil.

Gross debt closed the quarter at US$70.8 billion, under the ceiling set in the company's 2026-2030 Business Plan.

Shareholders approved R$17.4 billion in dividends and interest on equity, World Oil reported.

Orrön Energy has agreed to combine its Nordic platform, excluding Karskruv, with Cloudberry, taking a 27.01 percent holding that makes it the largest shareholder in what the company describes as a leading Nordic independent power producer, according to its half-year report published via GlobeNewswire.

The combined business will hold 2.1 TWh of annual proportionate power generation, according to the report.

Karskruv, which sits outside the transaction, generated 111 GWh over the reporting period. The achieved electricity price came in at EUR 70 per MWh, and together with revenues from project sales produced EBITDA of MEUR 1.8 for continuing operations, Orrön Energy said.

Proportionate net debt stood at MEUR 90.5, including discontinued operations.

Orrön Energy also reported a solar disposal in Germany: in April 2026 it sold a 91 MW solar project for a total consideration of up to MEUR 5.4, of which MEUR 2.4 was received at closing.

Two further disposal processes are running in the UK. The company has launched sales processes for its 1.8 GW solar energy portfolio and for a 300 MW data centre project.

Behind those sales sits a wider development book. Orrön Energy said it holds a 4 GW data centre pipeline across Germany and the UK, alongside an 8 GW portfolio of solar and battery projects, which it described as creating significant value potential.

Republicans passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act a year ago, ending the 30% federal tax credit available to households buying rooftop panels, Canary Media reported.

Stew Miller, who launched a North Carolina rooftop solar company in the 2000s, told Canary Media there is "a lot of negativity" in his industry right now.

The repealed credit applied to household purchases of rooftop systems. Miller's company has operated in the North Carolina market since the 2000s.

More than 3 GW of data center load disconnected from the PJM system on July 22, 2026, following a single transmission fault, according to Power Magazine.

The same failure mode was examined before. Power Magazine reports that the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) investigated it in 2024 and found that utility equipment shed none of the load, with customer-side protection accounting for all of it.

That split matters for how the loss is diagnosed. When protection settings inside the customer facility trip the load rather than the utility's own equipment, the grid operator loses demand it did not choose to shed and cannot directly control.

Plug Power reported about USD 178.3 million in second-quarter revenue and a nearly break-even gross margin, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

The company raised its full-year outlook alongside the quarterly figures, Hydrogen Fuel News reported.

On the commercial side, Plug Power secured a binding order for a 50 MW electrolyzer in Australia, according to the same report. That order sits at the industrial end of the electrolyzer market, where binding commitments rather than letters of intent determine when manufacturing slots are filled.

The quarterly revenue figure came with a gross margin close to break-even, leaving the company reliant on other levers for cash. Plug Power also outlined asset sales to support liquidity, Hydrogen Fuel News reported.

The combination of a raised outlook and disclosed asset disposals frames the quarter: order intake in electrolyzers against a margin line that has yet to move meaningfully above zero.

California lawmakers are working on the state's high energy costs ahead of the close of this year's legislative session on Aug. 31, according to Canary Media.

Among the measures on the table is Senate Bill 905, described by Canary Media as a complicated package of proposals aimed at utility rate reform in the state.

The Aug. 31 deadline sets the window in which the legislature can act on the bill, per Canary Media's account of the session calendar.

Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Shell plc all reported heavy spring-quarter earnings while U.S. drilling activity failed to climb above last year's pace, according to Grist. Exxon Mobil pulled in USD 14.5 billion for the quarter, and Chevron booked USD 12 billion, its highest quarterly profit on record.

Shell posted USD 9.8 billion, more than twice what it earned in the same period a year earlier, Grist reported.

Exxon Mobil chief executive Darren Woods framed the result as coming in spite of an operational setback. "Despite the temporary loss of approximately 10 percent of our upstream production, we delivered exceptional financial results," Woods said.

The earnings did not translate into a drilling rebound. As of June, U.S. oil drilling had only recovered to the rate recorded at the same point a year earlier, according to Baker Hughes data cited by Grist.

Grist also reported that the Trump administration agreed to pay TotalEnergies more than USD 900 million to cancel two offshore wind projects off New York and North Carolina.

The Senate Indian Affairs Committee voted 6-5 along party lines to advance legislation restructuring underground coal rights in Montana, Inside Climate News reported. The beneficiary is Signal Peak Energy, whose coal output goes largely to buyers in Japan and South Korea. The measure carries the backing of Montana's Crow Tribe.

Crow Tribe chairman Frank White Clay sat in the committee room for the tally. His endorsement of the legislation dates to 2024, according to Inside Climate News.

The bill hands over two categories of federal property in Musselshell County: 4,530 acres of subsurface interests and 940 acres of surface interests. Both parcels already fall inside an existing Signal Peak mining permit, the outlet reported.

Once those acres leave federal control, Signal Peak would no longer be bound by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Inside Climate News reported.

A separate application from the company covers 7,100 acres and would open 175 million tons of coal beneath the Bull Mountains to extraction. Burning it would put 240 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere across 11 years, environmental groups said. A lawsuit followed the expansion request.

The U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement signed off on the expansion anyway, resting its decision on the "energy emergency" declared in an executive order from President Donald Trump, according to Inside Climate News.

The European Commission is offering up to EUR 1.5 billion in interest-free loans for battery cell manufacturing projects across the European Economic Area (EEA) through the Battery Booster Facility, ESS News reported.

Applicants have until September 30 to file proposals, following publication of the call on July 28, according to ESS News.

The Commission may award up to EUR 500 million per project, with support covering up to 60% of eligible costs, ESS News reported. To qualify, a facility must have projected annual production capacity of at least 10 GWh.

Money for the facility comes from the EU Innovation Fund, whose resources are drawn from revenues generated by auctioning emission allowances under the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), according to ESS News. That ties the size of the available pot to carbon market receipts rather than to a dedicated budget line.

The Commission established the Battery Booster Facility on June 9, 2026, under the Battery Booster Strategy adopted on December 16, 2025, ESS News reported. The interest-free structure means recipients repay principal without a financing charge, a form of support distinct from the grants that have carried much of the Innovation Fund's earlier disbursement.

The 10 GWh eligibility floor rules out pilot lines and small-format cell plants, directing the money toward volume production. With a per-project ceiling of EUR 500 million against a total of EUR 1.5 billion, the facility can back a limited number of large plants in a single round.

Battery installations in Czechia reached 318 MWh over the first six months of 2026, ESS News reported, citing data published by the Czech solar association Solární Asociace. Additions in the same period of 2025 came to 174 MWh, putting growth at 83%.

Twelve standalone battery energy storage systems (BESS) with combined capacity of 108 MWh entered service on the Czech grid during the half. A year earlier, the equivalent standalone tally was zero.

That leaves about one-third of the H1 2026 volume in a segment with no commissioned projects in the year-earlier half.

Battery storage capacity in the country is expected to hit 6 GWh by the end of the decade, with analysts pointing to utility-scale projects as the main driver of that build-out, according to ESS News.

Cuba has received a second batch of 5,000 photovoltaic systems donated by the Chinese government, intended to bring power to isolated rural households and keep essential services running, pv magazine reported.

Among the services on the list are clinics, emergency medical units, daycare facilities, homes for children without parental care, and bank branches.

Storage capacity per unit in this batch reaches 14.3 kWh, around double what the earlier shipment provided, according to pv magazine.

Cuba also introduced two resolutions covering renewable output and equipment imports. Under Resolution 179/2026, electricity from any renewable source fed into the National Electric Power System (SEN) earns CUP 90 ($3.30) per kWh, with no distinction between residential and non-residential producers and no time-of-day variation, pv magazine reported.

Resolution 180/2026 lifts customs duties on photovoltaic systems and their main components. The same exemption covers solar water heaters and PV pumps, small wind turbines, biodigesters and biogas equipment, solar-powered lighting and air conditioning, renewable-powered electric vehicle chargers, and biomass-processing equipment, according to pv magazine.

The US has placed advanced robotics on its list of banned tech products dominated by China, covering humanoid robots, quadruped machines and robot lawn mowers, and is reportedly preparing to block connected power inverters used in solar energy, according to Semafor Net Zero.

Beijing has vowed retaliation, calling the bans "discriminatory and suppressive," Semafor Net Zero reported.

Inverters sit between solar arrays and the grid, and the reported move would extend restrictions from consumer and industrial hardware into a component embedded in operating power systems.

The restrictions land against a weaker Chinese macro picture than headline output suggests. Semafor Net Zero cites Logan Wright, author of Broken China, who estimates growth is now running at no more than 1% and may even be zero. Chinese debt has reached more than 300% of GDP, according to the same reporting.

Manufacturing throughput tells a different story. Semafor Net Zero points to Xiaomi's EV "Super Factory" in Beijing, which turns out one luxury sedan every 76 seconds.

Distributed solar supplied 28% of Pakistan's electricity generation in FY25, up from 10% in FY23, according to RenewEconomy.

The shift followed a sharp deterioration in household energy affordability. Electricity rates in Pakistan climbed 155% over three years, and inflation reached 38% in May 2023, RenewEconomy reported.

Rooftop economics now sit well below the tariff. IEEFA estimates that residential solar paired with a medium battery produces electricity at around PKR 20/kWh, half the PKR 40/kWh cost of grid supply.

Utility-scale build came earlier and on a far smaller scale. In 2015-16 the Quaid-e-Azam Solar Park in Bahawalpur brought four 100 MW projects online in Punjab, according to RenewEconomy.

The gap between that centralised capacity and the current generation share underlines where the growth has come from: consumer-side installations rather than state-procured plants.

A systematic review of highly renewable energy transition scenarios projects solar PV supplying about 61% of the world's electricity by 2050, according to pv magazine. The work was carried out by researchers from Leibniz University Hannover and LUT University.

That headline figure sits inside a very wide band. As pv magazine reports, most of the reviewed studies put the combined solar PV and wind share of electricity generation between 80% and 99% by 2050, but the solar PV share alone spans 5% to 98%.

Cost assumptions diverge as sharply. Capital expenditure figures for utility-scale solar PV in 2050 range from EUR 151 to EUR 720/kW across the reviewed literature, with around 18% of studies still assuming more than EUR 500/kW, according to pv magazine.

Modeling design explains part of the spread. About a third of the studies represent solar PV as a single generic technology, according to pv magazine, while 80% of all studies in the field run at hourly resolution.

The upper end of the range has already been picked up as an industry benchmark. Individual studies reach a global solar PV share of 70% or more, a result the global PV community has taken up in framing a 75 TW target by mid-century, pv magazine reported.

Compensation payments have become the sticking point in US-Iran peace talks, with President Donald Trump refusing Tehran's war reparations claim and demanding payment for American soldiers killed instead, Semafor reported.

Who commands the Strait of Hormuz is also unresolved. Trump has asserted that Washington holds "control of the Strait of Hormuz". Tehran's position, according to Semafor, is that the shipping lane stays shut until its demands are met.

Speaking to The Wall Street Journal, Gulf officials said they would rather see the strait under Tehran's control than a return to fighting that puts energy infrastructure at risk, Semafor relayed.

Six new figures have been named to key positions by Iran's supreme leader, according to the outlet. All six opposed the June memorandum of understanding with the US.

The Philippines has removed building permit and certificate of compliance requirements for plug-and-play micro-solar systems rated up to 1 kW, according to pv magazine. The exemption applies to systems at or below that size and to micro-inverters up to 0.8 kW.

Owners of bigger own-use arrays get a narrower concession. Larger zero-export systems no longer need a certificate of compliance from the Energy Regulatory Commission, but building permits still apply to them, pv magazine reported.

The update also closes off a second layer of friction at the utility level. Distribution utilities are barred from requiring pre-installation clearances or technical permits, and from charging inspection fees, on own-use solar installations, a measure pv magazine said is intended to prevent administrative delays.

Equipment is already arriving in volume. Over the first four months of 2026, the country imported 4 GW of Chinese solar panels, according to pv magazine.

The rule change sits against national renewable energy targets of 35% of the energy mix by 2030 and 50% by 2040, as reported by pv magazine.

Sila will widen anode output at its plant in Washington and, for the first time, run cell manufacturing of its own, according to electrive.

The company's Moses Lake site spans about 65 hectares and started operating in autumn 2025, electrive reported. Phase one makes anode material only, enough to feed roughly 2 GWh of battery cells each year.

Sila's stated target for the site is up to 250 GWh, a level it wants to reach across the next five years, according to electrive.

Private money arrived before the expansion plan. Sila raised USD 300 million in July from investors led by Atreides Management and Sutter Hill Ventures, electrive reported.

Sila says its Titan Silicon material delivers around 20% higher energy density than leading graphite cells.

Samsung SDI is purchasing General Motors' 49.99% holding in their Indiana battery joint venture, a regulatory filing shows, leaving the cell maker in sole control of the $3.5 billion factory, Electrek reported.

The deal converts the New Carlisle plant into the first battery factory Samsung SDI owns outright anywhere in North America, according to Electrek.

Samsung SDI pointed to demand in explaining the move, citing "the slower-than-expected growth of EV demand" among market changes since the venture was first announced. Samsung SDI shares dropped roughly 4.5% after the disclosure, Electrek reported.

As designed, the 680-acre site was to turn out NCA-based, nickel-rich prismatic cells under the PRiMX brand. Annual output was set at 27 GWh initially with headroom to reach 36 GWh, mass production was targeted for 2027, and staffing was put above 1,600.

The two firms retain a joint technical track. A separate agreement covers co-development of next-generation prismatic batteries for possible use in future EVs, per Electrek.

GM booked a charge of roughly $6 billion while trimming its EV production plans, Electrek reported.

The $7,500 federal tax credit expired on September 30, 2025, and US automakers reduced EV output afterward, according to Electrek.

Samsung SDI takes on sole ownership of a plant whose capacity plan was drawn up before the demand slowdown the company now cites.

A standalone two-hour battery energy storage system (BESS) starting operations in Greece in 2027 could earn an internal rate of return of roughly 11-12%, according to analysis by Aurora Energy Research.

The forecast rests on a wholesale power price that stays high. Aurora expects Greek wholesale electricity prices to average around EUR 100/MWh through to 2029, the spread environment that determines how much a two-hour asset can capture on each daily cycle.

That price level is tied to gas. Gas-fired generation accounts for as much as 45% of Greek electricity supply, according to the Aurora analysis, leaving the market exposed to global gas developments.

Aurora quantifies one such exposure: a complete halt to remaining Russian gas supplies could push Greek gas prices up 27% and Greek baseload power prices up 13% by 2028. For merchant storage, higher and more volatile baseload pricing widens the arbitrage window the IRR calculation depends on.

Greek policy has so far released capacity in measured tranches. Three government-backed auctions approved a combined 900 MW of standalone storage, the last of them concluding in March 2025.

Developer appetite runs far ahead of that. Investors have filed applications for more than 12 GW of standalone battery projects in Greece, against a government target of 4.7 GW. The pipeline is therefore roughly two and a half times the official target and more than ten times the volume cleared through the auction rounds, which puts grid connection queues and permitting sequence, not returns, at the center of the constraint.

Aurora's 11-12% figure applies to unsubsidised, merchant assets rather than auction-backed capacity, a distinction that matters for the share of the 12 GW pipeline that must stand on market revenue alone.

General Motors has withdrawn from its battery cell joint venture with Samsung SDI at New Carlisle, electrive reported. The two companies first announced the plant in April 2023.

The project was sized at $3.5 billion, with an initial output of 27 GWh and a planned expansion to 36 GWh on a 275-hectare site, according to electrive. Cell production was first slated for 2026, then pushed back to 2027.

Samsung SDI intends to start the completed plant on batteries for energy storage systems, a decision electrive links to the company's aim of responding quickly to the rapidly growing US battery storage market.

The exit is GM's second from an unfinished cell plant. In December 2024 the automaker said it would leave a partly built facility in Lansing, Michigan, developed with LGES.

The retreat from cell manufacturing follows heavy accounting charges against GM's electric vehicle business. Per electrive, GM announced a $6 billion write-down in January 2026, after a $1.6 billion write-down in October of the previous year.

The One Big, Beautiful Bill scrapped the 30% solar tax credit and the USD 7,500 federal EV tax credit, Electrek reported. July 4th was the cutoff for safe harboring a new solar project and still claiming the 30% rate.

SEIA and Wood Mackenzie put the projected residential market slide at 18-21% after the credit lapsed, according to Electrek. That range is a forecast, not a recorded contraction.

Batteries are now paired with a far larger share of new systems. Up to 45% of new solar installations included energy storage technology in 2025, with the attachment rate still climbing, Electrek reported. In 2020 the comparable share sat at roughly 6%.

Both credits removed by the bill were Biden-era measures supporting renewable energy. A month after the solar credit was killed, the industry is anything but dead, Electrek reported, citing the projected 18-21% slide and the rising battery attachment rate.

The safe harbor deadline set the line for projects not yet built that could still qualify for the 30% credit.

CNNC Huaxing, a subsidiary of China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), has run hot power generation testing to completion at the country's first megawatt-class helium turbine test facility, World Nuclear News reported.

CNNC said no Chinese high-power turbine had previously produced electricity with pure helium alone serving as the working fluid. The company described the result as work on core power equipment for gas-cooled microreactors moving from theoretical verification to engineering demonstration, calling it a "decisive step forward".

A helium turbine takes the reactor coolant directly through the expansion stage, so no water-steam loop sits between the core and the generator.

Commercial gas-cooled operation in China currently runs on the steam side of that split. Two small reactors feed one 210 MWe steam turbine at the demonstration High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor - Pebble-bed Module (HTR-PM) at Shidao Bay, which began commercial operation in December 2023, according to World Nuclear News.

Volvo Bus UK & Ireland has finished handing over 72 battery-electric BZL Electric double-deckers to Arriva London, according to electrive.

The operator's earlier commitment to the model dates to July 2024, when Arriva London ordered 51 Volvo BZL double-deckers for its Tottenham garage, electrive reported. Those vehicles were assigned to routes 243 and 341.

Volvo's order book with the operator is not confined to battery vehicles. Arriva also holds an order for 63 B8RLE MCV eVoRa diesel buses, per electrive. Those diesels are due to enter service in Bangor, Luton and Teesside during Q4 2026.

Air Products has dropped its Louisiana Clean Energy Complex, a major blue hydrogen project, telling IEEFA it walked away because expected financial returns did not meet its "stringent return criteria".

According to IEEFA, its 2025 analysis estimated the Louisiana project could have claimed up to USD 6.3 billion under the federal 45Q tax credit even if it delivered no net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Blue hydrogen is produced from natural gas, with carbon capture and storage (CCS) used to capture some of the resulting emissions.

Cancellations outpaced commitments across Europe last year. IEEFA reports that 5.4 million tonnes of proposed annual capture capacity was scrapped in 2025, against 4.2 million tonnes of projects that reached final investment decision. Blue hydrogen made up 71% of the cancelled volume.

Operating performance at the largest commercial CCS plant reinforces the cost problem. Chevron's Gorgon LNG facility in Western Australia stored only 25% of the CO2 removed from its reservoir, one third of its annual target, according to IEEFA. IEEFA calculated an effective cost of AUD 265 per tonne captured, against the project's original estimate of AUD 70.

Storage integrity has also failed in the field. IEEFA cites a monitoring-well casing failure in Illinois caused by corrosion, which allowed 8,000 tonnes of CO2 to leak.

Subsidy exposure runs alongside the technical record. More than GBP 50 billion in subsidies has been earmarked for projects accounting for only 8% of the 2050 CCS target, IEEFA estimates, with about three quarters of that financed through levies on electricity consumers.

Mitsubishi has unveiled a compact electric car, the ASX VR-e, for sale in Australia and New Zealand, according to electrive.

The vehicle was not engineered in-house. electrive reported that Foxtron, the automotive subsidiary of iPhone maker Foxconn, developed the EV under an agreement with the Japanese brand that the two companies announced jointly in May 2025.

Mitsubishi derived the ASX VR-e from the Bria, Foxtron's first in-house model, per electrive. That makes the badge-and-adapt route the core of the product plan rather than a new platform investment by the carmaker.

Production sits with a third party as well. The ASX VR-e will be sourced from Yulon Motor's factory in Miaoli, Taiwan, according to electrive.

Sales geography is contractually fenced. Under the memorandum of understanding Mitsubishi signed with Foxconn, the carmaker plans to market the car only in the Oceania region, electrive reported. The launch markets named for the model, Australia and New Zealand, fall within that limit.

Constellation Energy is working to return Three-Mile Island Unit 1 to service by late 2027 under its new name, the Crane Clean Energy Center, Neutron Bytes reported.

Staffing and licensing, not the reactor itself, set the pace. Neutron Bytes reports that hurdles outside the vessel are the main constraints on getting the 835 MW pressurized water reactor back on the grid.

Two commitments underwrite the project: a 20-year power purchase agreement with Microsoft, and a USD 1 billion federal loan that closed in November 2025, per Neutron Bytes.

The site needs an operating organization it no longer has. Constellation's target is over 600 full-time employees, with roughly 3,400 direct and indirect jobs attached to the effort. Around 90 operator candidates are working through accredited classroom instruction, simulator time and NRC examinations, with fuel delivery planned by late 2026.

A reactivated operating license controls the rest of the timeline. Neutron Bytes puts the targeted NRC decision on that license in May 2027, with fuel load and the return to commercial operation both targeted for late 2027.

Transmission access moved earlier. FERC approved a waiver in June 2026 that transferred 760 MW of capacity interconnection rights for the Crane restart.

Holtec's Palisades plant took the same licensing route ahead of Crane, obtaining its 10 CFR 50.82(a)(2) exemption in July 2025 and reactivating its power license the following month, in August 2025, according to Neutron Bytes.

The Corpus Christi City Attorney's office has recommended that City Council members block a citizen-initiated ballot measure on industrial water charges, invoking a state law passed by Texas' Republican-led Legislature in 2023, according to Inside Climate News.

Community organizers in the Texas city collected almost 13,000 signatures, enough to place the measure, called the Fair Water Amendment, before voters in November, Inside Climate News reported. The council's window to intervene closes with an August 17 deadline for the provision to reach the November ballot.

The legal route the city attorney's office identified runs through Senate Bill 1860, which state lawmakers used in 2023 to ban municipal "climate charters," per Inside Climate News.

The amendment targets an exemption written into a 2018 agreement. Under that deal, large energy companies do not pay extra water fees during drought, in exchange for helping fund a new seawater desalination plant in the region. That plant has yet to be built, according to Inside Climate News.

The surcharge at issue carries concrete cost exposure for the region's biggest industrial water users. Inside Climate News reported it would have added more than USD 1 million to the monthly water bill of ExxonMobil and Occidental Chemical, the two largest water users. Valero, the third-largest, would pay an additional USD 830,000 per month.

AI data center electricity demand is a regional US grid issue rather than a global power crisis, according to CleanTechnica.

The distinction rests on where the load actually lands. CleanTechnica said utilities in several US regions are confronting loads large enough to affect generation planning, substations and transformers. That places the pressure on specific interconnection queues and local equipment rather than on worldwide supply balances.

The framing matters for how planners triage the problem. Generation planning, substation capacity and transformer availability are the three constraints CleanTechnica identified as exposed to these loads, which are utility-level decisions taken inside individual service territories.

Home energy technology firm dcbel has joined the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center's V2X Pilot Program, according to Solar Builder.

Eligibility is tied to specific vehicles. Solar Builder reported that participants driving a 2018 to 2025 Nissan Leaf, a 2025 Polestar 3, or a 2025 Volvo EX90 can use the vehicle to power their home.

The hardware side rests on dcbel's Ara unit. Connected to a bidirectional EV, it can save homeowners up to USD 1,300 per year by shifting charging into off-peak hours, according to Solar Builder.

The window for dcbel's portion of the MassCEC V2X program closes on Sept. 30, 2026, or earlier if program funds run out, per Solar Builder.

A 425 MW nuclear fusion project in Chesterfield County, Virginia has cleared the first batch of PJM Interconnection's new first-ready, first-served generation queue, with an in-service date targeted for January 1, 2032, Power Engineering reported.

The batch was large. PJM Interconnection, described by Power Engineering as the largest US grid operator, greenlit 715 power projects in that first round of submissions.

The fusion entry is filed under the developer name 4th Power LLC, which Power Engineering traces to Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS). The company submitted its PJM application in April, the first time a fusion power company has requested to join a major grid operator, according to the same report. Its first plant, now named the Fall Line Fusion Power Station, is the project PJM deemed qualified for study in Cycle 1. The Chesterfield County site sits in Dominion Energy territory.

On the storage side of the same brief, Eolian is targeting spring 2027 operations at Flint Grid, a 200 MW / 1.06 GWh grid-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) in Jersey Township, Licking County, Ohio. Power Engineering reported that Flint Grid is the first large-scale BESS to qualify for the PJM capacity market and the largest BESS to clear the 2027/28 Residual Capacity Auction.

Base Power announced a USD 1 billion Series D financing round at a USD 13 billion post-money valuation, according to Power Engineering. The round accompanied the launch of Base Core, a home battery rated at 39.2 kWh / 78.4 kWh and now in production at Base Factory 1 in Austin.

ACMobility has widened its electric vehicle infrastructure work in the Philippines under two partnerships, one with Basic Energy Corporation and one with Grab Philippines, both aimed at public transportation networks, according to CleanTechnica.

The company is the mobility unit of the Ayala Group, CleanTechnica reported. Its build-out has two tracks. On the hardware side, ACMobility is installing charging stations along major traffic corridors. On the software side, it is launching digital fleet management technology intended to support electric buses.

CleanTechnica described the arrangement with Basic Energy Corporation and Grab Philippines as dual partnerships to strengthen public transportation networks.

Techouse has finished testing a compact once-through steam generator (COTSG) built to make combined-cycle power systems workable on offshore oil and gas installations, with the potential to cut fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by up to 25%, according to World Oil.

The full-scale test campaign ran at Sustainable Energy's test center in Stord, Norway, World Oil reported.

Development came out of a joint industry project supported by TotalEnergies, Equinor and SINTEF Energy Research, with innovation funding from the Norwegian Research Council.

The unit targets the gap between simple-cycle turbines and combined-cycle configurations offshore, where deck space and weight normally rule out conventional heat-recovery equipment. Recovering exhaust heat to raise steam allows a platform to produce the same electrical output from less fuel, which is the mechanism behind the 25% figure cited by World Oil.

Techouse plans a commercial launch of the COTSG later in 2026, World Oil said.

The company also intends to examine integrating the generator and its associated infrastructure with carbon capture systems on offshore platforms. That pairing matters because capture equipment draws steam and power of its own, and a platform running simple-cycle turbines has limited headroom to supply it.

The backer list places two of the largest offshore operators alongside a research institute in the same project. Both companies operate producing installations whose power generation sits inside their direct emissions accounts, making turbine efficiency one of the few levers available on an existing platform without shutting it in.

Baker Hughes has signed a multi-year contract with Kuwait Oil Company to develop and deploy technologies intended to improve upstream production performance and efficiency in Kuwait, according to World Oil.

World Oil reported that the agreement commits Baker Hughes to set up a dedicated research and technology development center in Kuwait.

The company will also act as a technology collaborator for KOC's Ahmadi Innovation Valley, an in-country research and innovation initiative that World Oil described as focused on the operator's oil and gas development priorities.

Baker Hughes has supplied upstream energy technology and services in Kuwait for more than four decades, per World Oil.