The Brazilian government is seeking to award contracts in an auction tomorrow for natural gas- and coal-fueled power plants, reversing a drive that previously favored renewable-energy projects. It would lead to the first new thermal plants in three years, after the government scaled back such projects and awarded wind contracts starting in 2009 and solar energy earlier this year.

Ending a year-long race that had been nip-and tuck every month, renewable energy sources cumulatively provided more new electric generating capacity in 2014 than did natural gas.

The recent dramatic plunge in oil and natural gas prices, to their lowest level since the global recession in 2009, has some observers worried about the effect on clean tech. Conventional wisdom has it that renewables have a tougher time competing when fossil fuels are cheap, making grid parity (in the case of natural gas-fired electricity) more elusive for solar and wind power.

The race for renewable energy has passed a turning point. The world is now adding more capacity for renewable power each year than coal, natural gas, and oil combined. And there's no going back.

The Government of Egypt has said that it must invest US$12 billion in the electricity sector over the next five years in order to meet that country’s urgent electricity demands — and renewable energy will be a key component.

Lawrence Summers famously wrote, “there are idiots, look around” in an attack on the theory that markets are rational. What some have called “Summers’ Law” certainly applies to the markets’ response to the slide in the price of oil as it relates to stocks of renewable energy companies.

After a year of being pummeled by opponents, Obama’s final carbon reduction plan emerged this week with an even stronger push for renewable energy.

Wind and solar energy are centerpieces of the Clean Power Plan, the United States’ first ever rule to reduce carbon dioxide from power plants.

The rule not only makes renewables one of the plan’s three central building blocks, but also creates special incentives to spur communities to build renewables more quickly than required.

The revised version of the rule comes after a year of review, hundreds of meetings and 4.3 million public comments delivered to EPA.  It requires that states come up with plans to cut carbon pollution from power plants by 870 million tons, or 32 percent below 2005 levels, in 2030.

The possibility of producing shale gas in some European countries has triggered a very heated debate about the environmental and social impacts of the technique used to extract gas from shale rocks (today only in the US and Canada); this technique is widely known as hydraulic fracturing or fracking.

Reykjavik Geothermal, the Icelandic company that’s helped build power plants in more than 30 countries, agreed to develop as much as 1,000 megawatts of projects in Ethiopia over the next 10 years.

Several U.S. Senators are resurrecting legislation seeking to create a national Renewable Energy Standard (RES), while more proposed RPS changes crop up in some quieter markets.

In February of this year, Turkey’s Energy Minister Taner Yildiz, announced plans to increase the ratio of the country’s renewable energy resources to 30 percent of total energy production by 2023. Over the next ten years The Turkish government is seeking considerable investments to fund projects in wind, solar, hydropower, biomass and geothermal energy, believing a thriving renewable industry to be pivotal to future economic growth. Turkey has already enticed major international investors such as General Electric and Siemens AG; General Electric opened the 22.5-megawatt (MW) Sares wind farm and 10-MW Karadag site, and is scheduled to supply turbines to Fina Enerji Holding AS; Siemens is contracted to supply turbines to a 50-MW wind farm, and the firm expects to be involved in further projects in 2014.

The U.S. market for wind energy is something of a contradiction: it's one of the world's larger markets and fastest growing with its own supply chain, yet it's still heavily reliant upon a production tax credit, which was renewed at the last minute last December (yet late with enough uncertainty to chill many projects in the pipeline), and this time its renewal is even less certain.

Bracing for greenhouse-gas rules from the Obama administration, two industries are staking out different positions. Coal companies are pledging to sue. Electric utilities are ready to talk.

U.S. President Barack Obama says natural gas can be a bridge from coal to a cleaner energy future. Investors are showing it’s more likely a bridge to nowhere.

U.S. Export-Import Bank Chairman Fred Hochberg mounted a defense of the 80-year-old agency as Republicans weigh eliminating the lender they say backs major corporations with political connections.

The Brazilian government is seeking to award contracts in an auction tomorrow for natural gas- and coal-fueled power plants, reversing a drive that previously favored renewable-energy projects. It would lead to the first new thermal plants in three years, after the government scaled back such projects and awarded wind contracts starting in 2009 and solar energy earlier this year.

Recently I traveled to San Francisco to participate in international efforts to meet the challenge of climate change and accelerate the global transition to clean energy. The main event was the Seventh Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM7), a meeting of 23 countries and the European Commission.

Rival parties to the conflict in South Sudan are putting military gains ahead of political settlement, a top U.N. official told the Security Council.

A U.N. special envoy on Palestinian issues said Friday it was time for the International Court of Justice to assess what he said was Israeli colonialism.

The issue of maternity rights for surrogate parents has recently caused confusion ‘’ with two Advocates General to the Court of Justice of the European Union (‘CJEU’) giving conflicting guidance.  Final rulings are expec...

In the recent cases of CD v ST and Z v A Government Department and the Board of Management of a Community School, the Court of Justice of the European Union  clarified the position regarding the protections and benefits that should be afforded ...

Employers have a duty to carry out document checks on individuals before employing them.  The aim of the checks is to ensure that individuals have the legal right to work in the UK.  Correctly carrying out document checks gives employers a...

Précis On the 4th July 2013 Eversheds reported on the Opinion of Advocate General Niilo Jääskinen (the “AG”) in the Case C-170/12 Pinckney. (Click here to view this article). Following ...

Précis An owner of a website may redirect users, via clickable links, to copyright protected works, without requiring the permission of the copyright holders if those works have been made available on a freely accessible basis on another web...

Précis: Threats to internet security are constantly in the news, but organisations of all sizes will know that there is a real cost to be borne when systems are hacked.  However, who should bear the cost? In the recent case of Frontier S...

Pension Managers Conference, Torquay, 24-25 November 2009 Further to several requests for details of the cases referred to in Gary Delderfield’s talk at the Conference, this special LGPS Speedbrief contains links to all the cases mentioned in ...

In ArjoWiggins Ltd v Ralph (in which Eversheds LLP acted for the successful appellant) the High Court has considered the extent to which the time periods within which complaints may be brought are applicable to the Pensions Ombudsman. This is a help...

On 21 December 2017, the French Competition Authority (the “FCA”) published a decision imposing a fine of 30 million euros on Brenntag SA and Brenntag AG (together “Brenntag”) for obstructing longstanding investigations (the ...

Realisation of security by mortgagees is a hot topic in current economic circumstances, and Horsham Properties Group Ltd v Clark is a case that underlines that mortgagees' powers can sometimes appear draconian. In this case, the mortgagee appointed...

Two recent cases involving easements highlight the risks of leaving part of the arrangement undocumented. Two recent cases raised the doctrine of derogation from grant in relation to the grant of an easement - one successfully and the other not. A ...

Eversheds Sutherland property column: March 2019 Over the last half decade, institutions and investors have become increasingly attracted by the dependable longterm income offered by large-scale professional residential letting. The way investors ac...

The United States Supreme Court has made it more difficult for plaintiffs to sue foreign states in US courts under the exception to sovereign immunity applicable to “any case . . . in which rights in property taken in violation of international law ...

Boko Haram: Brigadier General Idris Dambazzau (ret.), in this interview, reviews war against insurgency, saying expansion of manpower, overhauling of the Defence Ministry and robust intelligence community would make a difference.

The post Our troops are using Shagari era weapons to fight Boko Haram – Dambazzau appeared first on Vanguard News.

Patience Jonathan: The lockdown arising from coronavirus appears to have slowed down the fight against corrupt practices in the country for close to six weeks.

The post Magu: Lockdown won’t abort cases against Patience Jonathan, 4 ex-govs, others appeared first on Vanguard News.

Senator Ibrahim Hassan Hadejia represents Jigawa North in the Senate. In this interview, Hadejia dismisses reports that coronavirus killed 100 people in his senatorial district and speaks on the ‘deportation’ of 400 almajirai from Kano by Governor Ganduje to Jigawa.

The post MYSTERY DEATHS IN JIGAWA: Fasting, malaria, heat killing my people, not COVID-19 — Senator Hadeija appeared first on Vanguard News.

Louis van Gaal has blamed Man Utd executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward for his sacking at the club and labelled him an “evil genius”. The Dutchman won an FA Cup in his final match in charge of Man Utd after leading them to fifth and fourth-place finishes in his two years in charge between 2014-2016. Speaking
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The post Van Gaal points finger at ‘evil genius’ Woodward over Man United sacking appeared first on Vanguard News.

CHITRAL: A local leader of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Muhammad Said Khan Lal has expressed concern over illegal hunting of Ibex and other wildlife in the historic hunting area of Zewargol in Torkho area of Upper Chitral. In a statement on Saturday, Said Khan Lal, who is also former tehsil councilor and...

GHALLANAI: Local elders have demanded the government to take action against drug mafia in Mohmand tribal district.Speaking to journalists, social workers and elders including Malik Jehanzeb, Malik Salim, Malik Rasool Khan and others said that on the one hand coronavirus has created a risk to lives...

PESHAWAR: The workers of Jang/Geo Group continued protest on 56th consecutive day against the arrest of their Editor-in-Chief Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman here on Saturday.Carrying banners and placards inscribed with slogans in favour of their demands, the protesters urged the government to release Mir...

Ils n'auraient pas d�par� la CAN, Mbaye Fall (Jaraaf) : �De notre temps, c'�tait beaucoup plus difficile de se qualifier� ......

Un homme de 69 ans vivant � Dakar d�c�d� le 7 mai pass� au centre Nabil Choucair �tait porteur du virus. ......

Quelques heures apr�s le communiqu� portant sur le seizi�me d�c�s d�tect� post mortem, le minist�re de la Sant� et de l'Action sociale annonce un dix-septi�me d�c�s li� au coronavirus. ......

Four minutes and 28 seconds. That is how long it took a News24 reporter to find cigarettes – meant to be banned under Level 4 lockdown regulations – which were available for purchase at one of many places in South Africa. ......

The Jigawa State Government has confirmed that two health workers were tested positive for COVID-19 in the state. Chairman of the state COVID-19 Task Force, who doubles as the state’s Commissioner for Health, Dr. Abba Zakari, disclosed this to DAILY POST on Saturday. He said a total of 44 new COVID-19 cases were recorded in […]

COVID-19: Two health workers, 42 almajiris test positive in Jigawa

Another group of Almajiris intercepted at the Gakem-Benue border have been returned back to the North by the Cross River State Government. The almajiris numbering over 50 from the North were on Saturday morning apprehended. DAILY POST gathered that after interrogations, they were returned back at the Gakem – Benue State border by the combined […]

Again, Cross River govt intercepts Northern Almajiris at border

A former Chelsea manager, Guus Hiddink, has claimed that the Blues’ 2009 UEFA Champions League semi-final defeat to Barcelona might have been fixed. Hiddink said that the officiating of the encounter by referee Tom Henning Ovrebo was the worst he has ever seen. Chelsea was denied a spot in the Champions League final after Ovrebo […]

Chelsea’s Champions League semi-final match against Barcelona was fixed – Guus Hiddink alleges