Tuesday, 1 September 2026

US President Donald Trump said communities that oppose data centers will end up "backwards and poor," according to Semafor Net Zero.

"Let data reign," Trump said Monday, Semafor Net Zero reported, as bipartisan backlash to the AI buildout reaches fever pitch ahead of the US midterm elections.

The same report said congressional Democrats are weighing how to use their subpoena power if they prevail in November.

Waaree Energies will spend approximately USD 37 million to re-equip its module plant in Arizona, United States, lifting annual capacity from 1 GW to 1.6 GW, according to pv magazine. The work will be carried out by wholly owned subsidiary Waaree Solar Americas Inc. (WSA).

The capital goes into replacing the site's existing module production lines with higher-efficiency equipment rather than adding a new building, pv magazine reported.

Once the Arizona upgrade is complete, Waaree Energies said its US module manufacturing capacity will total 4.8 GW, split between 3.2 GW in Texas and 1.6 GW in Arizona, according to pv magazine.

The company's board also approved a consolidation of its Gujarat footprint. Plant and machinery from the 1 GW Tumb facility and the 1.11 GW Nandigram facility will be relocated to the existing manufacturing site at Chikhli, pv magazine reported, moving 2.11 GW of module production equipment onto a single site.

The US build-out sits alongside a much larger domestic base. Waaree said in December 2025 that its total solar module manufacturing capacity in India, including Indosolar, had reached 20.17 GW, according to pv magazine.

Norwegian oil and gas operator DNO ASA said on 1 September 2026 that it had agreed a recommended cash acquisition of Capricorn Energy plc.

The announcement was issued through GlobeNewswire, which carried DNO ASA's statement describing the transaction as a recommended cash acquisition.

DNO ASA describes itself as an operator active in the North Sea, the Middle East and West Africa.

Indian solar module plants are operating at an estimated 35-40% utilisation, far short of the 50-65% range needed for sustainable operations, according to a report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) and JMK Research. The study is titled 'Assessing overcapacity risk in India's solar PV manufacturing market'.

India reached 233 GW of solar photovoltaic manufacturing capacity in June 2026, IEEFA said. Roughly 135 GW of further module capacity is planned or under construction, according to the report.

The imbalance runs down the value chain rather than across it. Module capacity is nearly 7 times cell capacity and 116 times ingot-wafer capacity, which the report describes as a deep structural gap upstream. That ratio leaves the assembly tier dependent on inputs the domestic base does not produce at matching scale.

Export demand is concentrated in a single destination. The US absorbed around 97% of India's module export volume in FY2026, IEEFA said.

On the demand side, the report identifies data centres, green hydrogen, and exports as the most credible new sources, offering an incremental 17-22 GW by 2030. Set against 135 GW of module capacity still in the pipeline, that increment covers a fraction of what is being built.

Etu Energias SA has signed a sale and purchase agreement with Chevron Corp. covering the participating interest held by Chevron subsidiary Cabinda Gulf Oil Co. Ltd. in the deepwater Blocks 14 and 14K offshore Cabinda, Angola, according to Oil & Gas Journal. The privately owned buyer is taking on producing assets that Oil & Gas Journal describes as long-established rather than new.

The acreage has delivered more than 900 million barrels of high-quality, Brent-linked crude since first oil in 1999, Oil & Gas Journal reported. Output peaked at about 200,000 bo/d, the publication said.

Current gross production across the two blocks is about 42,000 bo/d, according to Oil & Gas Journal. Block 14 accounts for 95% of that volume and Block 14K for the remaining 5%.

On the reserves side, Oil & Gas Journal put producing reserves at 93 million barrels. Of that total, about 13,000 bo/d of production and 29 million barrels of reserves are attributable to the interests Etu Energias is acquiring.

Operational capability for the assets is being brought in through a separate arrangement. BW Energy Ltd. has signed a framework agreement with Etu Energias and Chariot Ltd. to provide technical and operational support for the blocks, Oil & Gas Journal reported.

The transaction fits a pattern visible across mature offshore acreage: a major transferring a declining but still cash-generating position to a smaller operator, with third-party technical services covering the capability gap. Gross output on Blocks 14 and 14K now stands at roughly a fifth of the peak rate cited by Oil & Gas Journal. Cumulative recovery of more than 900 million barrels against 93 million barrels of remaining producing reserves places the fields well past mid-life.

Block 14K's 5% share of current gross production leaves Block 14 carrying almost the entire volume, a concentration that shapes where any future work programme would matter.

Eni S.p.A. has closed its entry into the OFF-5 offshore exploration block in Uruguay's Punta del Este basin, taking a 50% share and operatorship, according to Oil & Gas Journal.

The transaction, previously signed, was finalized with Miwen SA, a subsidiary of YPF SA, and the Uruguayan National Oil Co. (ANCAP), Oil & Gas Journal reported. Miwen SA retains the remaining 50% interest in the block.

Operatorship places Eni in charge of exploration work programs on OFF-5. The block sits in the Punta del Este basin offshore Uruguay.

India's state-run producer ONGC will spend 70 billion rupees (USD 736 million) on underground crude storage in southern India with capacity for about 13 million barrels, according to World Oil.

Chairman Arun Kumar Singh disclosed the plan to reporters in New Delhi, saying the land has been acquired and construction will start soon.

The addition would sit on top of an existing strategic stockpile of roughly 39 million barrels, equal to about a week of imports, World Oil reported.

Separately, the company is negotiating with international firms to establish an overseas trading desk covering crude, refined fuels and natural gas, a step aimed at tighter control over procurement, sales and price risk. Dubai and Singapore are under consideration as the base for the venture, which is targeted to trade crude, petroleum products and gas worth 50 million tons a year.

Aker Solutions has a new chief executive. The company's Board of Directors appointed Paal Eikeseth as President & CEO with effect from September 1, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

Eikeseth moves into the role from inside the business. He has headed Aker Solutions' Life Cycle business since 2022, Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported.

He takes over from Kjetel Digre, who decided to step down after six years in the job, according to the same report.

The incoming chief executive referred to the company's 11,700 colleagues around the world.

The United Kingdom government is proceeding with its smart-contingent contracts policy package, restricting the scope initially to small and medium non-domestic sites, according to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ).

Those sites are defined in the policy as "designated premises". DESNZ set out the decision in its response on the non-domestic smart meter rollout post-2025.

A universal communication requirement takes effect from 1 January 2027, DESNZ said. From that date, suppliers must start telling non-domestic consumers what the upcoming policy changes involve, why they are being made and when they apply.

The consultation behind the decision ran from 23 October 2025 to 16 January 2026 and covers England, Scotland and Wales. DESNZ received 46 responses from a wide range of stakeholders.

Small businesses and public sector sites in Great Britain that want a new fixed term energy contract will have to agree to a smart meter upgrade if they do not already have one, from 1 September 2027, according to the UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ).

The requirement applies to customers entering a new fixed term deal with an energy supplier, and only where a smart meter is not already installed.

DESNZ set out the measure alongside research findings on how the rollout of these smart-contingent contracts should be communicated to non-domestic customers. The department published the findings on 1 September 2026, and they apply to England, Scotland and Wales.

The work was carried out under the Smart Metering Implementation Programme, which led the project.

The policy shifts the meter upgrade decision from a voluntary offer to a condition of contracting for the non-domestic customers covered, with roughly a year between publication of the research and the September 2027 start date.

Maryland's Office of People's Counsel (OPC) has asked federal regulators to reject a PJM Interconnection plan to buy additional power for projected demand growth, according to Inside Climate News.

The grid operator filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on July 31, seeking permission to purchase 6,831 megawatts of generating capacity for the delivery year that begins in June 2028, Inside Climate News reported. That volume represents the shortfall left by PJM's last auction.

Maryland's two utility zones have been assigned 135.4 MW of that total on an initial basis, split between 116.5 MW for Potomac Edison and 18.9 MW for Baltimore Gas and Electric.

The ratepayer advocate puts a price on the exposure. OPC estimates Maryland consumers could face as much as USD 562 million in added costs over 15 years if PJM secured the entire capacity target at the maximum proposed price, according to Inside Climate News.

OPC's objection turns on how firm the underlying demand is. In a state filing, the office said none of the seven Maryland data center projects included in the relevant forecast have a formal agreement with a utility.

PJM spokesperson Jeffrey Shields said the procurement is needed to address a capacity shortfall for the 2028-2029 delivery year.

The outcome reaches well beyond Maryland. PJM runs the electricity grid for 67 million people across portions of 13 states and Washington, D.C.. A FERC ruling on the July 31 request would set the terms under which the operator can buy capacity against load forecasts driven by data center interconnection requests that have not yet been contracted.

Global methane emissions would need to drop by at least 69% by 2050 from 2020 levels to hold warming to 1.7C under a scenario where CO2 reaches net-zero in 2050, according to a study published in Communications Earth & Environment and described by its authors in a guest post for Carbon Brief.

The study takes a different route from the usual practice of bundling the two gases together. Its authors write that they "decouple" CO2 and methane reduction and take global warming limits as the starting point for determining the required level of methane cuts.

Run the other way, the arithmetic is unforgiving. Even under the most ambitious existing national net-zero targets, the study finds that an absence of methane reduction leads to peak warming that exceeds 1.85C above pre-industrial levels. That result holds despite the CO2 ambition already pledged, which is the point the authors press: methane is not a residual line item that CO2 policy absorbs.

Methane is the second-largest contributor to global warming after carbon dioxide, the authors note.

National climate pledges rarely separate it out. Only a few countries, including Japan, Mexico and South Korea, specify methane mitigation targets, according to the Carbon Brief guest post. The gap between that short list and the 69% cut the study identifies is the practical problem the paper puts in front of negotiators.

Thousands of Indigenous leaders and activists gathered in the Amazonian city of Puyo, Ecuador, to chart a path against oil and mining expansion, according to Inside Climate News.

The gathering came as governments push that expansion forward, Inside Climate News reported.

Inside Climate News reported that the attendees fighting oil wells, mines and other threats to their homelands did not travel to the city to lobby politicians at an environmental conference hosted by governments. They built the conference themselves.

Five battery manufacturing projects run by three Western Australian companies have secured AUD 1.7 million between them under a state government funding round, RenewEconomy reported. Perth-based home battery entrant Magellan Power is on the recipient list.

The cash is drawn from the Local Battery Manufacturing Program, run by WA Labor. Alongside Magellan Power, the winners are Adarsh Investments and ProtoLab Manufacturing, and the awards cover prototype development and testing, equipment purchases and expanded production capacity, according to RenewEconomy.

One planned use is a new product line: Magellan Power wants to build modular community batteries locally, sized from 100 kW up to 1 MW.

The scheme will make available as much as AUD 30 million in grants, plus AUD 20 million lent at low interest. Eligible output spans residential, commercial and industrial batteries as well as battery components, RenewEconomy reported.

Applicants enter through one of two streams. Businesses at the pre-production stage can claim up to AUD 100,000 in matched funding across three categories of activity. Manufacturers already producing can claim up to AUD 5 million on the same matched basis.

Amber-Jade Sanderson, state minister for energy and decarbonisation, described the program as an effort at "building local manufacturing capability and keeping more value in our state".

PowerBank Corporation, based in Toronto and known primarily for its solar operations, has signed a fee-for-service development agreement aimed at the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) Second Long-term (LT2) procurement framework, according to ESS News.

The agreement targets the LT2(c-2) capacity-stream window specifically, ESS News reported. PowerBank's counterparty is a numbered company, 1001634281 Ontario Inc, which the outlet says is connected to the Electric Vehicle & Green Energy Advancement Association Canada.

Under the arrangement, PowerBank holds the right of first refusal to step in as the engineering, procurement, and construction provider should a contract be awarded, per ESS News. That structure keeps the developer's fee income separate from any construction mandate, with the build role contingent on procurement success.

ESS News also reported that PowerBank is helping its new partner examine an 18 MW battery energy storage system (BESS) installation in Hamilton, Ontario. The site work sits alongside the capacity-stream bid rather than replacing it.

The agreement places PowerBank on the development side of a battery storage procurement rather than as an asset owner, a role distinct from the solar work the company is better known for.

Consumer group Solar Citizens is campaigning to put plug-in solar regulation on the agenda when state and territory energy ministers convene at the Climate and Energy Ministerial Council on September 11, according to RenewEconomy.

The push follows a run of regulatory moves elsewhere. Plug-in solar became legal in Great Britain last Thursday, RenewEconomy reported. New Zealand said the week before that it would legalise the technology within 12 months.

Germany is further along. RenewEconomy reported that installed plug-in units there have passed three million. Germany and the UK both handled the safety question by capping unit output at 800 watts, around 3.5 amps, a level the outlet described as too small to overload any normal circuit.

The appeal in Australia rests on housing. More than a third of Australians rent or live in apartments, and for most of that group plug-in solar is the only solar they will ever own, according to RenewEconomy.

On output, an 800 watt system on a balcony or in a backyard produces around 1,000 kWh a year across most of Australia, the outlet reported.

Saeul 3 has entered operation as the newest unit in South Korea's APR1400 reactor program, according to Power Magazine.

Power Magazine reports the reactor was completed after what it describes as an extraordinary interruption in national nuclear policy. The project ran through that policy break before reaching commercial service.

The unit was also fortified during construction to address newer safety requirements, according to the same account. Those modifications were carried out while the reactor was still being built rather than retrofitted after completion.

Saeul 3 is characterized by Power Magazine as the latest evolution of the APR1400 design, the standardized large pressurized water reactor line South Korea has built domestically.

Vietnamese automaker VinFast has taken an order for 3,000 electric vehicles from domestic transport operator Xe Nhanh Viet Nam, which plans to put them into service on the Green SM platform by 2027, according to electrive.

The deal was set out in a memorandum of understanding signed in Hanoi on Friday by VinFast, Xe Nhanh Viet Nam and Green SM, electrive reported.

Five VinFast models make up the order: the Minio Green, the EC Van, the Limo Green, the VF 5 and the Herio Green. The mix spans passenger cars and a van, matching the ride-hailing and delivery duties typical of platform fleets.

Orders of this size from a single operator concentrate demand risk and revenue in one counterparty, and the 2027 deployment date sets the window in which Xe Nhanh Viet Nam must take delivery.

Independent solar photovoltaic (PV) projects signed less than 3 GW of power purchase agreements (PPAs) in Europe in the first half of 2026, cutting their share of announced deals to around one-third from more than 55% across 2025, according to pv magazine.

The contraction tracks a rise in hours when wholesale power clears below zero. Negative-price hours across five major European markets, including Great Britain, ran around 2% above the record levels of the same period a year earlier, pv magazine reported, citing S&P Global.

Bruno Brunetti, head of renewable revenue streams at S&P Global Energy Horizons, said the drop in contracting for independent solar projects shows negative prices are becoming a structural issue in PPA design rather than just a problem for the merchant market.

Exposure to that price signal remains narrow. Around 10% to 15% of European solar capacity currently carries merchant risk, while more than 61 GW sits under PPAs, according to pv magazine. In Germany, only around 9% of installed solar capacity is directly exposed to the market.

The same volatility pays batteries. Wholesale price spreads available to batteries in Germany hit daily peaks above EUR 650/MWh and averaged nearly EUR 200/MWh in the second quarter of 2026, exceeding levels in Spain and Great Britain, pv magazine reported.

Not every market registered the effect. Italy recorded no negative-price hours, a result of its greater reliance on gas-fired generation.

LEAG Clean Power has begun work on GigaBattery Boxberg 400, a 400 MW/1.6 GWh battery energy storage system in Saxony, Germany, with HyperStrong acting as turnkey contractor, according to ESS News.

The German subsidiary of HyperStrong put its name to the engineering, procurement and construction contract with LEAG in November 2025, ESS News reported.

HyperStrong is supplying its liquid-cooled HyperBlock III equipment at Boxberg, set up to discharge over four hours. Grid access runs through a new 380 kV substation into the 50Hertz transmission network, ESS News reported.

LEAG's announced GigaBattery projects come to 1.4 GW/5.6 GWh, a tally that folds in GigaBattery Jänschwalde at 1,000 MW/4,000 MWh, according to ESS News.

Sunotec has started building a 100 MW/441 MWh standalone battery storage system at Stendal in Saxony-Anhalt, ESS News reported.

Commissioning at Stendal is targeted for the first quarter of 2027. WT Energiesysteme is building a new 110 kV substation on site to deliver the grid connection, according to ESS News.

Blackstone bought a stake in Sunotec for EUR 250 million in April, to fund the developer's European expansion, ESS News reported.

The two sites plug into different voltage levels. Boxberg links to the 50Hertz transmission system at 380 kV, while the Stendal battery ties in at 110 kV.

Nineteen families from four communities in Ecuador's Intag Valley are building a 300-kilowatt run-of-river hydropower plant on the Aguagrún River, and they hold 90% of the equity, according to Mongabay.

The plant, named HidroAguagrún, captures the river's natural flows without a large dam or a water storage reservoir, Mongabay reported. The families come from the communities of Cerro Pelado, Chinipamba, Nangulvi Bajo and Barcelona.

The remaining equity sits with two nonprofits. Corporación Toisán and Fundación Futuro each hold a 5% stake and supplied more than half of the funding alongside technical support, according to Mongabay.

On the revenue side, Mongabay reported that the project is projected to earn USD 120,000 a year from electricity sold into the national grid, against expected operations and maintenance costs of USD 40,000 a year.

The plant has generated 11 permanent jobs in operations, monitoring and ecotourism, Mongabay said. Over the 30-year life of the installation, 345 people will benefit from the profits distributed.

The wider system the plant will feed is heavily weighted toward the same resource. Ecuador draws 78% of its electricity from hydroelectric generation, according to Mongabay. That concentration turned into a supply failure in 2024, when the country's energy crisis produced daily blackouts of up to 14 hours, hitting essential services, public health and social wellbeing, Mongabay reported.

ChargePoint has appointed John Saffrett as Executive Vice President and Managing Director for Europe, electrive reported.

The appointment formalises a relationship that began earlier. Saffrett has advised the charging company as a member of its Advisory Council since March 2026, according to electrive.

Europe has become a larger contributor to the company's top line. ChargePoint generated a quarter of its corporate revenue in the region in the fourth quarter of 2025, a record share for Europe, according to CEO Rick Wilmer, as reported by electrive.

Saffrett arrives from the vehicle leasing sector. He previously served as Global Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Ayvens, where electrive reports he played a central role in the merger of ALD and Leaseplan.

Solar power can beat coal and gas on cost across the 74 members of the Climate Vulnerable Forum, according to a new report on solar costs cited by CleanTechnica.

The finding covers the full membership of the forum, a bloc of 74 countries, rather than a single national market.

CleanTechnica also reports that the findings carry implications for the growth of the US solar manufacturing sector.

The Red Sea utility complex has entered full commercial operation, EPC contractor SEPCOIII said on Aug. 21, according to pv magazine. The PowerChina subsidiary took on the build after signing its contract with ACWA Power in February 2021.

Storage is the largest single element on ACWA Power's asset list: 1,225.4 MWh of battery capacity, backed by 358 MWac of solar PV and 112.5 MW of internal-combustion units held in reserve, pv magazine reported.

Guinness World Records certified 1,125.18 MWh of the installation in May 2025 as the world's highest-capacity off-grid battery-based energy storage facility, per pv magazine.

Work on site began in October 2021, with the storage unit entering service in September 2023.

Red Sea Global does not finance or own the utility assets. It buys electricity, water and other services from the project consortium under a 25-year utility concession, pv magazine reported.

Three reverse-osmosis desalination plants sit within that concession, with a combined 32,500 cubic meters per day of output, plus wastewater treatment capacity of 16,000 cubic meters per day and 32,500 refrigeration tons of district cooling, according to ACWA Power's listing cited by pv magazine.

With the combustion units designated as backup, solar generation and the battery fleet carry primary supply at a site that has no grid connection.

Solar Team Eindhoven's solar-powered ambulance Stella Juva has completed a field test in Kenya, covering more than 800 kilometres while being assessed for medical response in remote regions, electrive reported.

The vehicle was built by 23 students from TU Eindhoven and designed for regions that lack reliable electricity supply or widespread fuel and charging infrastructure, according to electrive.

The test in Kenya ran over two days and was carried out with Amref Health Africa. Solar Team Eindhoven said the ambulance could have provided medical care to around 200 people during that period.

The distance driven in the field test exceeded 800 km, and the trial also examined how the vehicle would handle medical response tasks away from established road and power networks.

On range, the team stated Stella Juva could achieve up to 715 km of electric driving on sunny days, a figure determined on paved roads. The Kenyan trial therefore tested the vehicle over surfaces different from those used to establish that headline number.

The design premise addresses a specific gap: an ambulance that generates its own power does not depend on a charging point or a fuel supply chain at the end of the route.

California will not put new money into the Demand Side Grid Support program, described by Canary Media as one of the biggest virtual power plants in the country, after state budget language finalized last week omitted additional funding for it.

Canary Media reported that Governor Gavin Newsom's administration blocked an effort to keep the state's most successful virtual power plant program funded through next year.

The Demand Side Grid Support program aggregates customer-side resources that can be called on when the grid is tight, the model that puts it among the largest such programs nationally, according to Canary Media.

Charging infrastructure software provider Chargecloud has entered a partnership with Hubject to bring Plug&Charge to AC charging stations, a segment the authentication standard has not covered until now, according to electrive.

Plug&Charge lets a vehicle authenticate and start a charging session without an app or card. Hubject has rolled the technology out primarily at DC fast-charging stations, working with charge point operators, electrive reported.

The AC solution carries three conditions, according to electrive: a charging point compatible with ISO 15118-2, a vehicle equipped for the standard, and a valid contract stored in the vehicle by a Plug&Charge-capable e-mobility provider.

The two companies announced the collaboration at icnc26 in Berlin, an e-mobility festival running until 3 September, where firms can find out more about the solution, electrive reported.

Fastned has switched on its 40th ultra-rapid charging hub, its first in Liverpool, at Brunswick Business Park, according to electrive.

The site carries eight charging bays rated at up to 400 kW, electrive reported.

At that output, Fastned says compatible vehicles can take on up to 200 miles (333 km) of range in 10 minutes.

Tom Hurst, UK Country Director at Fastned, described Liverpool Brunswick as a significant milestone as the company continues to expand its network.

Egypt expects the Damietta regasification vessel, damaged in a drone attack in July, to return to service in the fourth quarter, Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported.

Petroleum Minister Karim Badawi said the damaged vessel did not impact Egypt's gas market.

Badawi also pointed to the upstream record, citing 112 new oil and gas discoveries over the past two years and crude output on an upward path, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital.

One of those is Eni's Denise find in the Mediterranean, estimated to hold about 2 trillion cubic feet of gas.

On production, Egypt brought BP's Fayoum-4 well online at 80 million cubic feet of gas per day.

Work is underway to link four Cypriot offshore fields, starting with Cronos, to the Zohr field's facilities and the Damietta LNG export plant.

The Barack Obama Foundation has taken the anchor tenant role for community solar projects developed by Reactivate in Illinois, Solar Builder reported.

Under the arrangement, the foundation gains access to solar output backing the sustainability goals of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, according to Solar Builder.

Valerie Jarrett, CEO of the Obama Foundation, said the Obama Presidential Center is sourcing 100% of its electricity from renewable energy, and that the partnership is with a company that will expand solar access to neighbors.

Residential and commercial subscribers are estimated to see 50% energy cost savings on their utility bills through Illinois Solar For All and other regional programs, per Solar Builder.

Tesla halted shipments of Solar Roof tiles in August and told its network of certified installers it would supply only conventional solar panels from that point on, Electrek reported.

The decision followed an internal conclusion that the product "is not financially viable," according to Electrek.

Volumes never approached what the company had projected. Electrek reported that Tesla installed roughly 3,000 Solar Roof systems across the US over about seven years. Weekly output peaked at 21 to 32 installations, more than 95% below Elon Musk's repeated promise of 1,000 installations a week by 2019-2020.

Installation labor was the binding constraint. A Solar Roof took roughly two-plus weeks to fit, against about two days for a conventional rack-mounted solar system, Electrek reported. That gap left certified installers carrying training and equipment costs against a product that turned over a fraction as fast as standard panel work, and Electrek reported the exit is leaving those installers with six-figure losses.

Tesla has said it will honor existing warranties and keep supplying replacement parts for Solar Roof systems already installed. Homeowners with the product on their roofs therefore retain a service path, even as the supply chain for new builds closes.

The shift redirects Tesla's certified channel toward conventional panels, the same hardware installers can fit in about two days. For a network built around a tile product that shipped roughly 3,000 units in seven years, the change removes the premium line without a like-for-like replacement.

Fervo Energy has signed an agreement to supply Google with nearly 400 megawatts of clean electricity from its geothermal project in southwest Utah, according to Canary Media.

Canary Media reported that the contract is the largest of its kind for a next-generation geothermal system.

The technology is an emerging one that involves drilling deep into hot, dry rock, according to Canary Media.

The US Army will award five selected companies up to USD 2.2 billion over five years to own, build, and operate microreactors at military bases, conditional on meeting performance milestones along the way, according to Power Engineering Nuclear.

The program is sized well beyond a single demonstration. The Army expects more than 20 nuclear microreactors to be built and operated under it, Power Engineering Nuclear reported.

Unit size varies by vendor. Each reactor will deliver between 1 MW and 20 MW, depending on the company's design.

One siting decision is already public: eVinci microreactors from Westinghouse were selected for deployment at Fort Drum in New York, according to Power Engineering Nuclear.

The schedule is fixed by an external directive. The Army was tasked with ensuring an advanced reactor starts operating at a domestic military installation no later than Sept. 30, 2028.

The regulatory route sets this apart from commercial projects. Power Engineering Nuclear reported that the reactors will be licensed by the Army rather than the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the body that licenses commercial nuclear reactors. That places design review, siting approval, and operating authority inside the service rather than with the civilian regulator, and it removes the commercial licensing queue from the critical path to the 2028 operating date.

The payment structure matters for the vendors. The USD 2.2 billion figure is a ceiling tied to milestones, not a lump-sum contract value, and the companies carry ownership and operating responsibility for the units they build.

At the low end of the stated range, a single 1 MW unit serves a load closer to a large building than a base; at 20 MW, one reactor covers a substantial share of an installation's demand. With more than 20 units expected across the program, the fleet approach spreads deployment risk across multiple designs and multiple sites rather than concentrating it in one first-of-a-kind build.

New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill signed the Garden State Balcony Solar Act, legalizing small, portable solar systems that plug into an ordinary 120-volt outlet, according to Electrek.

The statute applies to plug-in systems with a combined output of up to 1,200 watts, which Electrek describes as roughly two or three modern solar panels.

A lower tier sits inside that ceiling. Electrek reported that systems rated at 400 watts or less are exempt from code provisions that would otherwise require changes to the building, its wiring, or the electrical panel.

Renters get an explicit path. Tenants installing a qualifying system must give at least 14 days' written notice, state where the system will be placed, and submit documentation showing it meets the law's requirements, per Electrek.

Electrek reported that the law takes effect March 1, 2027.

Deltamarin and Offshoretronic have signed an Exclusive Engineering Consultant Agreement to develop the VITRUVIAN Class, described by Offshore Engineer OEDigital as the world's largest jackup Monopile Installation Vessel.

The design brief is driven by turbine scale. Next-generation 20-30 MW turbines are expected in commercial service by 2030, according to Offshore Engineer OEDigital. The foundations those machines require sit beyond what installation contractors can currently lift.

No vessel in the current global fleet can handle the new monopiles, with the existing ceiling around 3,000-3,500 tonnes, Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported.

The MPIV is engineered at 179 meters in length and 75 meters in beam. Those dimensions define a hull sized for the lifting and deck loads that the coming foundation generation implies rather than for today's monopile weights.

A companion Wind Turbine Installation Vessel variant will complete the VITRUVIAN platform, purpose-built to handle towers, nacelles and turbine blades, per Offshore Engineer OEDigital. The pairing splits the two installation campaigns, foundations and generating equipment, across separate purpose-designed hulls within one design family.

Under the agreement, the partners will take the design through to shipyard-ready status. That step ends at the point where a yard can price and build, ahead of any construction commitment.

The lifting gap is the commercial argument. With the fleet ceiling at roughly 3,000-3,500 tonnes and 20-30 MW machines targeted for commercial service by 2030, foundation installation capacity, not turbine supply, becomes the binding constraint on project schedules unless new tonnage is ordered and delivered in time.

Ford will begin building its Fathom electric pickup at the Louisville Assembly plant in Q1 2027, according to Electrek, which reported that CEO Jim Farley offered a closer look at the truck ahead of the start of production.

The advertised starting price covers the standard-range version and excludes a USD 1,595 delivery fee, Electrek reported.

Electrek also reported that the Fathom will be the first vehicle with Apple Maps integrated directly into the navigation system, supplying turn-by-turn directions, EV routing, and other features.

Chevron is finalizing a deal that would add operating rights to two giant oil fields in Venezuela's Orinoco Belt, according to World Oil.

The expansion forms part of a push by U.S. President Donald Trump to ramp up oil production in Venezuela, World Oil reported.

Chevron is the only U.S. oil major operating in Venezuela, and the company has been in talks with acting President Delcy Rodriguez and her government about new fiscal terms, according to the same report.

Two oil supertankers were struck by projectiles late Monday as they attempted to exit the Strait of Hormuz, maritime security consultant Marisks said.

Brent crude traded about 1.7% higher on Tuesday, at more than USD 92 per barrel, amid concern that renewed fighting could derail the recovery in oil shipments, according to World Oil.

Both vessels had deactivated the automatic identification system (AIS) transponders that reveal their locations, Marisks said.

Oil shipments through Hormuz had recovered to roughly half of pre-war levels during the lull in hostilities, World Oil reported.

Venezuelan interim authorities have handed North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP) 100-year concessions covering 17 oil fields, according to World Oil. The arrangement was disclosed in a White House fact sheet released Aug. 31.

NABEP plans to invest up to USD 100 billion in Venezuelan oil infrastructure to lift production from the assets, World Oil reported. The company is privately held.

The structure carries a direct government stake. NABEP granted the U.S. Department of War's Office of Strategic Capital a 35% equity stake in its corporate parent, per World Oil.

On the fiscal side, the White House said NABEP could pay an estimated USD 200 billion in royalties and taxes to Venezuela over the first 25 years as production increases. That figure is presented as an estimate tied to rising output rather than a committed payment schedule.

The concession term is the unusual feature. A 100-year grant extends far beyond the multi-decade production-sharing terms typical of upstream licensing, and it covers the full set of 17 fields named in the agreement.

Comstock Resources has proposed a USD 1.65 billion strategic partnership with Azerbaijan's SOCAR, paired with a USD 450 million drilling venture backed by Jerry Jones, according to World Oil.

The drilling arrangement starts Sept. 1. A Jones family partnership will cover drilling and completion costs for 85% of 18 Western Haynesville wells and 80% of nine Legacy Haynesville wells scheduled over the next 12 months, World Oil reported.

That program supports continued development of Comstock's roughly 545,000 net acres in the Western Haynesville, per World Oil.

Comstock chairman and chief executive M. Jay Allison said the partnership brings in a reputable international strategic partner to help accelerate value creation for investors, while allowing the company to materially reduce debt and fully fund the planned development of its Western Haynesville acreage.