An increasing number of banks are turning away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy financing. As Catherine Early reports, despite the chilling effect of the coronavirus pandemic on the industry, hopes are high that a tipping point is nearing.
Fossil fuel exposure lands energy majors in trouble with one-trillion-dollar GPFG, who is boycotting coal-heavy firms as part of climate shift that will see it back unlisted renewables.
Confirmed record-breaking at 6:10am of Tuesday 28 April was made possible by a combination of high levels of solar on the grid and lower-than-usual demand.
A large tranche of utility-scale solar – and storage – projects in Hawaii has been approved by the state’s Public Utilities Commission (PUC), each quoting a cost per kilowatt hour of US$0.10 or under.
Shell has signed an agreement to acquire a 43.83% interest stake in US solar developer Silicon Ranch Corporation from investment manager Partners Group for US$193-217 million.
Despite battle cries to end the ‘war on coal’, Trump’s first 100 days as president have done very little to materially dismantle progress in renewable energy and climate action, according to energy and national security expert Kevin Book.
President Donald Trump’s executive order that promotes ‘Energy Independence’ and targets Obama’s Clean Power Plan went down a treat with fossil fuel interests, who praised Trump for making good on his promise to preserve coal jobs and avoid “regulatory burdens”. However, environmentalists took a different interpretation; viewing the order as a KO of the previous administration’s entire climate action legacy. Clean energy advocates stood somewhere in the middle, concluding that little will change in the long run.
Tata Power, India’s largest utility company and a division of the mammoth Tata Group, is getting close to generating 1GW of solar power, with its wind assets having already surpassed that milestone figure.
A memo written by president-elect Donald Trump’s transition team entitled ‘What to expect from the Trump Administration’ reveals the future energy plans of the US, which amount to a “fossil fuel industry wish list”, according to industry watchdog the Centre of media and Democracy (CMD).
President-elect Trump has selected several of his cabinet members already, with the common theme being a shared climate scepticism and a kindred affinity for fossil fuels. The energy industry has reacted, with some despairing and others cautiously optimistic.
Driven by steep cost declines in PV equipment, solar is now almost on a par with wind energy and will soon become the cheapest form of energy in developing nations, according to the Climatescope 2016 report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF).
Rick Perry, the former governor of Texas, will be nominated by president-elect Donald Trump as Energy Secretary – despite Perry previously vowing to abolish that very Department.
