Global Monitor

The political impasse stalling investments in renewables in Australia was breached in mid-May after lawmakers reached an agreement to revise the renewable energy target (RET). After months of intense wrangling, the Coalition and Labor parties struck a deal to cut the RET to 33,000 GWh from the current 41,000 GWh. That figure is far more […]

The European Commission (EC) this April launched an extensive investigation into subsidies that 11 European governments provide to utilities to ensure future power reliability, saying it is concerned that the measures may distort competition. The sector inquiry into capacity mechanisms is the first under European Union (EU) state aid rules introduced in May 2012, which […]

Workers at San Diego’s General Atomics (GA) on April 10 began the years-long process of winding the 1,000-ton superconducting electromagnet that will power the ITER fusion reactor under construction in southern France. The $16 billion ITER project, a consortium of the U.S., the European Union, Russia, China, Japan, and other nations, aims to test reactor-scale […]

From Sweden to China, the world’s nuclear sector saw an eventful spring. Sweden to Shutter Two Ringhals Units Early. On the same day that E.ON—formerly one of Europe’s most formidable power companies—announced it would spin off its nuclear assets owing to Germany’s energy transition, its Swedish partner, Vattenfall, which is 70% co-owner of the 1975-built […]

On April 27, the U.S. saw yet another significant milestone for its so-far nonexistent offshore wind sector as Deepwater Wind broke ground on the Block Island Wind Farm in Rhode Island. The company says that the five-turbine 30-MW wind farm will produce enough electricity to power all of the island’s homes and businesses when it […]

The installation of more than one million solar photovoltaic (PV) modules at Sempra U.S. Gas and Power’s and Consolidated Edison Development’s 250-MW AC Copper Mountain Solar 3 project in Boulder City, Nev., was completed in early April. Cupertino Electric and Amec Foster Wheeler said on April 6 that the last module was put in place […]

Australia’s First ERF Carbon Abatement Auction Results Surpass Expectations. Australia held its first Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF) auction under the Abbott government’s Direct Action plan on April 15 and

Despite plunging oil prices, 2014 was a formidable year for renewables, according to two reports released in early 2015. According to the “Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2015”—the annual report prepared by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Frankfurt School-UNEP Collaborating Centre for Climate & Sustainable Energy Finance, and Bloomberg New Energy Finance—energy investments […]