The British-based cottish and Southern Electricity (SSE) has announced that it is buying Endesa Generacion’s Irish power generation business for €320 million in cash plus an estimated €43 million for working capital.
UK gas supplier BOC has taken a 15 per cent stake in the £5bn carbon capture and storage (CCS) project being planned by 2Co Energy at the Don Valley Power Project in Doncaster.
Renewable energy sources supplied 16.7 per cent of the total energy consumed in 2011, though investment into renewables was still 15 per cent lower than the $302 billion put into fossil fuels, two reports published by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21) have said.
The Indian Government has announced that it will supply 500 MW to Pakistan.
The Iowa Supreme Court in the USA has upheld a regulatory decision that allowed the state’s largest utility to undertake a huge expansion of wind energy utilisation, rejecting a challenge from a rival company that claimed that the expansion was unnecessary and unfair to other energy producers.
Coal India Ltd (CIL) has said that ongoing coal shortages mean it can supply only 60 per cent of the required output, below its mandatory 80 per cent commitment. The shortage puts extra pressure on power companies that are already operating at half capacity and this development is likely to mean further power outages and inconvenience for Indian consumers.
Zimbabwe’s government has approved a $230 million power deal between Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) and Indian firm WAPCOS Limited to upgrade boilers at three of the country’s thermal power stations, Energy and Power Development minister Elton Mangoma has said.
Kenya’s Thika Power has received a $35 million investment from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to help develop an IPP near Nairobi.
Higher water temperatures and lower river flows due to climate change pose significant operational and cooling problems for nuclear and coal-fired power plants in both the US and Europe, a study published in Nature Climate Change warns.
US power producers increased their natural gas use by 40 per cent year on year to March 2012, as low prices spur a switch from coal, whose share fell 20 per cent, an EIA report has said.