Saturday, 15 August 2026

Leapmotor has launched the A05 electric compact car in China with prices starting at 63,900 yuan, according to electrive. The model measures 4.20 metres long and slots into the Golf segment of the company's line-up.

The entry-level version pairs a 70 kW front-wheel-drive system with a 39.8 kWh lithium iron phosphate battery, electrive reported.

That starting price puts the A05 within roughly a thousand yuan of the Geely Xingyuan, which electrive lists at 64,805 yuan.

Outside China, the car takes a different badge. electrive reported that the A05 will be sold internationally as the B03, with European-market output set for the Stellantis plant at Figueruelas near Zaragoza. Leapmotor is backed by Stellantis.

The European pricing benchmark is already visible. In Germany, the comparable compact electric car is on sale as the Geely E2, starting at 19,990 euros, according to electrive.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) and Instituto Mexicano del Petroleo (IMP) have signed a memorandum of understanding to widen cooperation on oil and gas industry standards, technical training and certification, research and regulatory development in Mexico, according to World Oil.

The two bodies set out collaboration covering industry standards and workforce development, alongside technical priorities that World Oil listed as methane emissions, carbon capture and storage (CCS) and offshore pipeline safety.

API brings a portfolio of more than 800 industry standards to the arrangement, together with certification and training programs, World Oil reported.

IMP General Director Elizabeth Mar described the arrangement as "a key driver for industrial development, the energy transition, and the advancement of national content".

An emergency order keeping coal-fired generation operational takes effect on August 17, 2026 and runs through November 14, 2026, according to US DOE Energy.gov.

The order covers the Campbell Plant, which US DOE Energy.gov said was originally scheduled to shut down on May 31, 2025, 15 years before the end of its scheduled design life.

US DOE Energy.gov cited an assessment by NERC that the MISO region faces a high risk of energy shortfalls over the next five years.

The Sierra Club Grand Canyon Chapter passed about 2,000 comments opposing the Desert Southwest Pipeline to the office of Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs, according to CleanTechnica.

The comments had been filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), CleanTechnica reported. They came mostly from Arizona, Texas and New Mexico, the states the gas pipeline route crosses.

China has exported more than one million automobiles in a single month, and has done so twice, according to CleanTechnica.

Electric vehicles accounted for a big part of the milestone, CleanTechnica reported.

The monthly export figure, as described by the outlet, marks the point at which Chinese shipments of finished vehicles crossed the one million threshold within a calendar month, a level the country has now recorded on two separate occasions.

Porsche has pulled out of the Volkswagen Group emissions pool and formed a new pooling arrangement with XPENG, CleanTechnica reported.

Pooling is a compliance route available under European Union rules, which oblige automakers to cut the average CO2 emissions of the cars they sell, tightening fleet averages year after year, according to CleanTechnica. Manufacturers that group together are assessed on the combined fleet rather than on each brand alone, which lets a seller of higher-emitting models offset its position against a partner selling lower-emitting ones.

The switch changes the counterparty for Porsche's fleet accounting from its own group to XPENG.

Data centers seeking a grid connection in Europe's FLAP-D hubs face a wait of seven to 10 years, according to pv magazine, as operators compete for scarce capacity across Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin.

Demand is not slowing. The data center pipeline across the Europe, Middle East and Africa region is expanding by more than 40% year on year, pv magazine reported.

Supply in the established hubs has tightened to the point of near-exhaustion. Available FLAP-D capacity has fallen to around 6%, pv magazine reported, and more than 80% of that remainder is pre-let before the buildings are finished.

The combination leaves new entrants bidding for space that is already spoken for, while the connection queue in the same five markets stretches across most of a decade.

Borr Drilling has changed the startup schedule for its Odin jackup rig as the contractor prepares for its first job in the US Gulf, according to Offshore Magazine.

The assignment is Borr's first in that market, Offshore Magazine reported, and the publication described the US Gulf as one of the largest offshore jackup markets in the world.

The Odin deployment gives Borr a foothold in a region where it has not previously operated, per the same report.

The jackup Noble Interceptor has picked up 670 days of plug-and-abandonment work for ConocoPhillips in the Greater Ekofisk Area offshore Norway, Offshore Magazine reported.

Work under the contract, signed with ConocoPhillips Skandinavia AS, targets wells due for permanent abandonment and should start in third-quarter 2027 on the estimated 670-day schedule.

Noble described the deal as establishing "a new working relationship" with ConocoPhillips on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.

In the US Gulf, Noble Voyager and a 7th generation drillship still awaiting delivery hold separate four-year Shell contracts, each valued at roughly USD 606 million on a base contract basis, Offshore Magazine reported.

Two more units sit with TotalEnergies offshore Suriname: Noble Developer and a second 7th generation drillship are lined up for 16-well programs worth a combined firm revenue value of about USD 753 million, according to Offshore Magazine.

Petrobras handed Noble Discoverer a 390-day extension in Colombia that carries the rig's work into 2026.

Venezuela has granted a bp-led consortium a license to develop the Loran Phase 2 gas field offshore, according to Offshore Magazine.

The field holds 4 Tcf of gas, Offshore Magazine reported.

Beyond the Loran award, bp is positioning for future offshore exploration opportunities through its Carúpano East memorandum of understanding, according to the same report.

Chevron is preparing to decommission the Yam Tethys gas platform off Israel, according to Offshore Magazine, which reported that a replacement subsea pipeline between Ashdod and Ashkelon is already carrying gas.

Israel Natural Gas Lines told Chevron in a July 8 letter that hot commissioning tests on the newly laid subsea line in the transmission section between Ashdod and Ashkelon had finished, and that gas was flowing through it, Offshore Magazine reported.

The platform first took gas from the Mari B Field in 2004, according to the same report. Output was later supplemented by the smaller Noa and Pinnacles satellite fields, both tied back to the main facilities at Mari B.

Exploration activity offshore Israel is moving in parallel. Acquisition of a combined 2D/3D seismic survey over Zone I licenses blocks 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 11 is due to begin in September, Offshore Magazine reported. The survey is set to run three months at an overall cost of about USD 22 million.

Israel's fifth bid round for natural gas exploration in its exclusive economic zone was published on July 6 and offers five exploration zones covering roughly 7,100 sq km, according to Offshore Magazine. The bidding period starts on Sept. 15 and ends on Nov. 11.

TechnipFMC has won a contract from Azule Energy to supply flexible flowlines and risers for the West Hub Tails project offshore Angola, according to Offshore Magazine. The company described the award as "significant".

That label carries a defined range at TechnipFMC. Offshore Magazine reported that a contract the company calls significant is worth between USD 75 million and USD 250 million. The award will land in TechnipFMC's inbound orders in the third quarter of 2026.

West Hub Tails extends the Agogo Integrated West Hub development in Block 15/06, which sits in the deepwater Lower Congo Basin roughly 180 km offshore Angola, per Offshore Magazine. The same reporting identifies the field development as an extension of the Block 15/06 Agogo Integrated Development.

Operatorship rests with Azule Energy, a 50/50 joint venture between bp and Eni, according to Offshore Magazine.

TerraPower has selected Hyundai Engineering & Construction as its engineering, procurement and construction contractor for up to eight Natrium reactors, according to Neutron Bytes. The contract carries completion, price and performance guarantees.

The reactors will supply power to Meta data centers, Neutron Bytes reported.

The underlying deal dates to January 2026, when TerraPower and Meta announced an agreement to develop up to eight Natrium reactor and energy storage system plants rated at 345 MW each, per Neutron Bytes.

On the sizing, Neutron Bytes reported that the buildout would give Meta up to 2.8 GW of carbon-free baseload energy, and that the 500 MW energy storage system built into the Natrium design can push total output to 4 GW.

Each unit pairs 345 MW of baseload output with storage that ramps to 500 MW for more than five hours, according to Neutron Bytes. That ramp profile is the commercial pitch behind the design: a reactor sized for steady output, plus a thermal buffer that lets the plant follow a load curve rather than run flat.

Meta is funding the deployment, with delivery of initial units as early as 2032, Neutron Bytes reported. An EPC award with price and completion guarantees shifts schedule and cost risk onto the contractor, a structure rarely secured by first-of-a-kind reactor developers.

NextEra Energy has cut back or removed clean energy language across its public messaging since President Donald Trump returned to office, Inside Climate News reported. The company still plans a major wind and solar buildout.

Regulatory filings show the same retreat. Last year, NextEra Energy stopped calling itself a renewable energy company in submissions to regulators, according to the outlet.

The company's Real Zero pledge, announced in 2022, committed NextEra Energy to eliminating most emissions by 2045.

Inside Climate News describes NextEra Energy as the world's largest publicly traded electricity company. Its subsidiary Florida Power & Light serves more than 6 million customers.

The construction pipeline stayed intact. NextEra Energy expects to add 40 to 56 gigawatts of wind and solar generation by 2032, the outlet reported.

A merger with Virginia's Dominion Energy is also in play. Inside Climate News reported the combination would create what it called a megacompany that would dominate the U.S. energy market. Any deal on that scale returns the company to the regulators it stopped addressing in renewable terms.

The Swedish trade union IF Metall said the labour dispute with Tesla and the related strike action will end on 19 August, according to electrive. The stoppage began on 27 October 2023, after Tesla rejected the mechanics' demand for a collective bargaining agreement, electrive reported.

Tesla builds no vehicles in Sweden, but more than 120 mechanics service its electric cars in the country, according to electrive. Those service workers formed the base of the walkout, which IF Metall led.

The union confirmed that Tesla offered severance payments to striking members, electrive reported. IF Metall did not say how many workers accepted compensation from the carmaker, nor how much they received.

Simon Petersson of IF Metall framed the payments as evidence of the company's position on organised labour. Tesla is so opposed to collective bargaining agreements that it "would rather pay off union members than provide them with secure working conditions," he said in remarks reported by electrive.

The demand that triggered the walkout, a collective bargaining agreement covering the mechanics, remains the point Tesla rejected at the outset. The union's announcement sets the closing date for the action without indicating that the agreement was reached.

Faster oil and gas extraction driven by artificial intelligence could push global energy-related emissions up by 1.2 to 4.8 percent, according to modeling reported by Grist.

The paper appeared in the journal npj Climate Action. Its conclusion is that AI adoption raises global energy emissions by helping fossil fuel producers pump more oil and gas, Grist reported.

Mexico's annual emissions match the bottom of that band, according to Grist. The top of the band is the size of Russia's output, which Grist describes as the world's fourth-largest emitter.

Will and Holly Alpine wrote the paper. Both previously worked in sustainability roles at Microsoft and resigned at the start of 2024, citing the company's continuing business with the oil and gas industry, Grist reported.

That business has since expanded into power supply. Grist reported that Chevron and Microsoft confirmed plans for the oil producer to build a large behind-the-meter gas plant in Texas, dedicated to running data centers for the software company.

The modeled band covers productivity effects inside the fossil fuel industry, not the electricity drawn by AI systems themselves. The 1.2 percent figure and the 4.8 percent figure are both measured against global energy-related emissions.

Onshore wind developers in Luzon, Philippines are running into complex regulatory frameworks, environmental constraints and organized community opposition as they work to meet national decarbonization targets, CleanTechnica reported.

The Philippines Department of Energy (DOE) is pushing to accelerate clean energy transitions, and CleanTechnica reports that push is meeting major friction on the ground.

Three obstacles hold the projects back, according to CleanTechnica: permitting complexity, environmental limits on where turbines can go, and community groups organized against specific developments. Developers are moving to hit the national targets while approval and consent processes gate each site.

Governments in Africa's largest economies are moving to build up domestic manufacturing of solar panel components as demand for solar power climbs, according to Semafor Net Zero.

The pressure comes from the demand side. Semafor Net Zero reported that solar use has surged in South Africa and Nigeria, with households and businesses turning to it as an alternative to unreliable state-run grids. That uptake is what is driving governments to strengthen local production of panel components.

Supply currently runs through one dominant channel. China remains the continent's leading supplier of solar panels, photovoltaic cells, inverters, and batteries, according to Semafor Net Zero.

Trade policy elsewhere could shift part of that picture. US tariffs on Chinese imports of polysilicon, a core solar-panel component, could encourage manufacturers to move some production to Africa, analysts told Semafor Net Zero. Those analysts named Ethiopia as one potential destination.

Tesla has opened 2.4 kW vehicle-to-load (V2L) output to the Model Y Premium, but owners must buy an $80 accessory that clips onto the Gen 3 Mobile Connector, Electrek reported.

Three vehicles appear as compatible on Tesla's shop page: the Model Y Premium, the Model Y Performance and the Cybertruck. Electrek noted that the feature does not reach every Model Y Premium.

The part itself has been on sale for more than a year. Cybertruck owners have been able to buy it since April 2025, priced at $80 and capped at the same output level, according to Electrek.

House-scale backup sits in a different product tier and, per Electrek, Powershare covers neither the Model S, the Model 3, the Model X nor the Model Y. On the Cybertruck, Powershare feeds 11.5 kW into a home for three days or longer.

Hyundai put V2L on the Ioniq 5 in 2021 with a 3.6 kW rating, shipping an interior socket and a charge-port adapter with the car, Electrek reported. Ford rates V2L on the F-150 Lightning from 2.4 kW, rising to 9.6 kW on extended-range versions, drawn from outlets in the bed and the frunk.

The Model Y Premium's 2.4 kW figure matches the F-150 Lightning's entry rating, falls short of the Ioniq 5's 3.6 kW, and arrives through a separately purchased adapter rather than built-in sockets.