Saturday, 5 September 2026

Shaft development at Glencore's Onaping Depth project has reached a stage that opens a previously untouched nickel and copper orebody, with the workings located at the Craig mine in Sudbury, Ontario, Electrek reported.

Electrek put the value of the Glencore Canada project at USD 2 billion. The operation, at full production, is set to carry more than 400 permanent jobs, with nickel output from the Sudbury Basin running past 2040.

Glencore ordered 23 battery-electric machines from Epiroc for the site. Among them are Minetruck MT42 Battery haul trucks rated at 42 tonnes underground.

The fleet choice reshapes what the mine has to spend energy on. "Eliminating diesel emissions means less ventilation and cooling requirements," said Glencore Canada COO Peter Xavier, who described those two demands as traditionally among the largest in underground mining, according to Electrek.

States failed to agree a global maritime decarbonisation deal at the IMO, according to CleanTechnica, which reported that pressure from a small minority of fossil-fuel producing nations and division among progressive states blocked an outcome.

It was the third consecutive meeting to end without agreement, CleanTechnica said, describing negotiations as having drawn a blank each time.

Efforts led by the US and Saudi to scupper progress were successful, according to the same report. CleanTechnica framed the split as running not only between producer states and the rest, but also inside the group of states pushing for a deal, where division among progressive states weighed on the talks.

The outcome leaves shipping without the agreed global framework negotiators have sought across three successive rounds.

Refining margins, not crude alone, are pushing retail fuel prices higher, according to CleanTechnica, which attributes higher prices at the pump to elevated crack spreads working alongside crude oil prices.

The crack spread is the margin measure that links the two. CleanTechnica describes crack spreads as indicators of the profitability of refining crude oil into petroleum products such as gasoline and diesel. When that indicator sits at elevated levels, the refining step itself is adding to what drivers pay, separate from the cost of the barrel entering the refinery.

CleanTechnica frames both inputs as contributing factors rather than a single driver, with crude prices and refining profitability each feeding into the retail price.

The Tesla Model Y ranked as the single best-selling vehicle in Australia for the month, according to CleanTechnica.

Across all brands and powertrains, Tesla placed third in Australia for the month, CleanTechnica reported. That places the carmaker ahead of most established volume marques in the market on a monthly basis, with the Model Y carrying the top individual nameplate position.

Elon Musk lauded Tesla Australia in a post on X, CleanTechnica said.

Ireland's Large Energy User Action Plan (LEAP) obliges data centers of 10 MW or more to cover at least 80% of their energy demand with new onsite renewable generation and storage, according to pv magazine.

The threshold applies to the country's largest single category of electricity demand. Data centers took 23% of national electricity consumption in Ireland in 2025, pv magazine reported.

Grid spending is moving alongside the demand rules. The Irish government announced an EUR 18.9 billion (USD 22.2 billion) investment package for electricity grid infrastructure out to 2030 in December 2025, according to pv magazine.

The onsite requirement pushes new solar and storage build behind the meter rather than through the transmission connection queue. Ireland's installed solar base gives a sense of the scale involved: Solar Ireland's 2026 market outlook report estimates total connected solar capacity will surpass 3.3 GW by the end of 2026, as cited by pv magazine.

That estimate covers all connected solar in the country, not capacity dedicated to large energy users, leaving the LEAP obligation to be met by generation and storage that operators build on their own sites.

SK Innovation E&S and Deokyang Energen will build five hybrid hydrogen refueling stations in South Korea that combine gaseous and liquefied supply, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

The two companies launched the venture in Seoul to develop a network of hydrogen refueling stations, Hydrogen Fuel News reported.

The five initial sites were selected for their ability to serve hydrogen-powered commercial fleets, including buses and heavy-duty trucks, according to the same report.

Combining gaseous and liquefied supply at a single site is the design choice at the center of the partnership, which Hydrogen Fuel News described as intended to boost infrastructure.

FuelCell Energy posted third-quarter revenue of approximately USD 33 million, down 29% from a year earlier, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

The company recorded a net loss of nearly USD 45 million for the quarter, equal to about USD 0.64 per diluted share, Hydrogen Fuel News reported. Scale-up costs persist, per the outlet's account of the quarter.

Management is redirecting the business toward hydrogen data centers and hubs, and is targeting positive EBITDA by late FY2027, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

That pivot places the fuel cell manufacturer's recovery timetable on demand from computing load rather than on its existing revenue base, which shrank by nearly a third year over year. The gap between the current quarterly loss and the EBITDA target leaves several quarters of execution between the reported figures and the stated goal.

ABS and JB Energy will run joint studies on port emissions reduction and on decommissioning strategies for floating wind foundations tied to the proposed Aura Sul floating offshore wind project in southern Brazil, according to Offshore Magazine.

The work covers two distinct ends of the project lifecycle. One strand addresses emissions at the port that would service construction and operations. The other examines how floating foundations would be removed once the installation reaches the end of its service life.

The Port of Rio Grande is expected to play a key role in the project, Offshore Magazine reported. Aura Sul aims to draw on Brazil's existing port infrastructure and offshore engineering capabilities rather than build a supply base from scratch.

Decommissioning planning ahead of construction is unusual for a pilot-stage development. For floating designs, the mooring systems and foundation structures determine both installation cost and removal cost, which makes the two studies commercially linked rather than separate compliance exercises.

The project remains at the proposal stage.

Approval of the Jackdaw gas project in the UK North Sea appears imminent, according to Offshore magazine, with construction of the field reported at 99% complete.

The decision sits with UK Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh. Adura, the joint venture between Shell and Equinor that operates the field, has said Jackdaw is ready to produce if consent is granted this month.

The field lies roughly 150 miles east of Aberdeen in the Central North Sea. At peak output, Offshore magazine reports, it is projected to supply around 6% of UK continental shelf gas, enough to heat about 1.4 million homes.

Jackdaw has been through the consenting process once already. It was first approved in 2022 under the previous Conservative government, and the Court of Session quashed those consents in 2025 after a legal challenge brought by environmental groups.

The volume argument attached to the project turns on import dependence. Imports currently account for roughly 60% of UK gas, according to Offshore magazine.