Bangladesh minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak talks to Jacopo Dettoni about the government’s ambitious Digital Bangladesh programme designed to reach village level. 

Canada has seen a four-year peak in FDI, with the technology, real estate and aerospace sectors enjoying substantial growth. Zara Fennell reports.

The 122.4-MW Bicentennial Wind Farm has been inaugurated in the Santa Cruz province of Argentina and is currently the largest wind farm in the country, according to BNamericas.

Jose Maria Romay, general manager of Corani (a subsidiary of Ende), has announced the company is seeking financing from Latin American development bank CAF and French development agency AFD for the 147-MW Banda Azul hydro project.

8minute Solar Energy, NV Energy and the Moapa Band of Paiutes announced that NV Energy selected 8minute to develop the largest solar plus storage project ever built in Nevada and one of the largest in the world.

Yesterday, ENGIE Storage announced that San Diego International Airport (SAN) installed a 2 MW/4 MWh GridSynergy energy storage system. Paired with the airport’s existing 5.5 MW of solar capacity, the new energy storage system will reduce energy charges during peak demand, which according to ENGIE equate to approximately 40 percent of the airport’s monthly electricity costs. The system is expected to begin operation in early 2020.

Chinese solar company Hanergy Thin Film Power Group has won a deal to build the first solar PV plants in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Hanwha Q CELLS GmbH said it supplied its almost 15,000 solar modules to a large ground-mounted solar farm in western France.

According to the latest forecast by BloombergNEF (BNEF), energy storage installations (not including pumped hydropower) around the world will multiply exponentially, from 9GW/17GWh deployed as of 2018 to 1,095GW/2,850GWh by 2040.

This week, DNV GL said that it acted as a technical advisor to the energy company AES Colombia during its planned purchase of the Jemeiwaa Kai portfolio of wind power projects. DNV GL carried out an independent analysis of the La Guajira wind farms wind and power generation regime.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), on behalf of the Australian government, has announced up to $40 million in funding towards the deployment of a pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) project in South Australia.

Freyr AS, a startup planning to build one of Europe’s first battery gigafactories in Norway, has a bigger vision for the region: a “Nordic Battery Belt.”

In a statement, SolarEdge Technologies announced that the company's founder and co-chairman, Guy Sella has passed away.

This week, Canadian Solar said that it has won three solar power contracts with Alberta’s Ministry of Infrastructure, for a total of 94 megawatts (MWp) of solar power system in southeast Alberta, with an average contracted PPA price of 48.05 Canadian dollars [US 36.27] per MWh. When in operation in 2021, these solar plants will provide 55 percent of the electricity needs for Alberta provincial government.

Mayors from cities across the U.S. are stepping up and committing to broad and inspirational action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and decarbonize local energy systems. This leadership is especially critical given lack of federal climate action, but translating a mayoral commitment to reality can be a challenge.

On Friday, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed the state’s groundbreaking Energy Transition Act (ETA) into law, meaning that by 2045, the state should be fully powered by clean, carbon-free electricity.

Idaho Power unveiled a goal Tuesday to provide 100-percent clean energy by 2045 on the heels of an announcement that it will purchase 120-MW of solar energy through a PPA with Jackpot Holdings at a price of less than US $0.022 cents per kWh.

Global manufacturer Apple today announced it has nearly doubled the number of suppliers that have committed to run their Apple production on 100 percent clean energy, bringing the total number to 44. Because of this partnership between Apple and its suppliers, Apple will exceed its goal of bringing 4 gigawatts of renewable energy into its supply chain by 2020, with over an additional gigawatt projected within that timeframe.

Duke Energy Corp. will develop six utility-scale solar power projects in North Carolina that may cost up to $404 million as part of the state’s bid to boost renewable energy.

Seattle, WA-based LevelTen Energy helps corporate buyers of renewable energy find and purchase energy from solar and wind projects within North America through its procurement platform. The company says its solution reduces the cost, complexity, and risk of renewable energy power purchase agreements (PPAs), by incorporating analytics, aggregation, and process best practices.

8minute Solar Energy, NV Energy and the Moapa Band of Paiutes announced that NV Energy selected 8minute to develop the largest solar plus storage project ever built in Nevada and one of the largest in the world.

Chinese solar company Hanergy Thin Film Power Group has won a deal to build the first solar PV plants in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

According to the latest forecast by BloombergNEF (BNEF), energy storage installations (not including pumped hydropower) around the world will multiply exponentially, from 9GW/17GWh deployed as of 2018 to 1,095GW/2,850GWh by 2040.

These are halcyon days for fleet-footed crossover SUVs. Saucy ‘utes like the 2020 Mercedes-Benz GLC 43 AMG hardly look like they’re just as quick as their smaller siblings but stopwatches don’t lie. In the example above, Mercedes says the GLC43 crossover takes just 4.7 seconds from 0-60 mph compared to the C43 sedan’s time...

Review update: The 2020 Mercedes-Benz AMG GLC 43 SUV "nose" the right spice level These are halcyon days for fleet-footed crossover SUVs. Saucy ‘utes like the 2020 Mercedes-Benz GLC 43 AMG hardly look like they’re just as quick as their smaller siblings but stopwatches don’t lie. 5 things to know about Uconnect 5 Uconnect 5, the...

The rumor mill has been going into overdrive with news that a Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS is coming. Giving some credence to the rumors is a prototype spied this week of a Cayman even more hardcore than the GT4. Another prototype we spied was what appeared to be a new performance flagship for the M5 range. Word on the street is that the car, which...

Ice Energy, a California firm that uses chunks of ice to cool buildings, has secured $40 million in financing from private equity group Argo Infrastructure Partners LLC.

In an Australian first, Origin will install a 4-MW/4-MWh grid scale battery at its Mt Stuart Power Station in Townsville. Mt Stuart Power Station is a 414-MW open cycle gas power station, designed to supply electricity at times of peak demand and is the largest such facility in North Queensland. In the U.S., these plants are called “peakers.”

Last month, Delaware Governor John Carney signed Senate Bill 113 into law, enabling Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) financing in Delaware. Once implemented, PACE will offer a new method for financing commercial energy efficiency and renewable energy projects.

New Jersey’s biggest utility says it can make money by getting its customers to use less of what it sells.

The world must invest $2.4 trillion in clean energy every year through 2035 and cut the use of coal-fired power to almost nothing by 2050 to avoid catastrophic damage from climate change, according to scientists convened by the United Nations.

After wallowing in limbo for the first part of 2018 awaiting re-authorization, the Loan Program Office (LPO) at the Department of Energy is back in business with about $40 billion burning a hole in its proverbial pocket. Mike Reed, Director and Chief Engineer of the Technical and Project Management Division of the LPO and his team are planning to hit POWER-GEN 2018 in Orlando, Florida in December to identify people and projects that might need financing.

This week, Electric Vehicle (EV) charging network provider, ChargePoint, announced that it has raised $240 Million in Series H funding, which is more capital than any other EV infrastructure company in the world, surmising in its press release that the move to electrify transportation is accelerating.

Arizona State University researchers have set a new record for solar efficiency, 25.4 percent. Working with tandem photovoltaics, or stacking different materials in a solar cell, the ASU team has continued to improve solar efficiency and lower costs.

Reykjavik Geothermal, a power developer backed by hedge fund billionaire Paul Tudor Jones II, is about to kick off a $4.4 billion project to bring geothermal energy to Ethiopia.

Seattle, WA-based LevelTen Energy helps corporate buyers of renewable energy find and purchase energy from solar and wind projects within North America through its procurement platform. The company says its solution reduces the cost, complexity, and risk of renewable energy power purchase agreements (PPAs), by incorporating analytics, aggregation, and process best practices.

According to the latest forecast by BloombergNEF (BNEF), energy storage installations (not including pumped hydropower) around the world will multiply exponentially, from 9GW/17GWh deployed as of 2018 to 1,095GW/2,850GWh by 2040.

The Boeing Company is set to design and build a large, military unmanned air vehicle (UAV) in Australia, with the first flight set for 2020. The Australian government will invest A$40 million in the project.

Seoul-based genome specialist, Macrogen, has agreed a A$4.1 million investment in the Queensland microbiome testing and bioinformatics company, Microba.

A Chinese fund has invested A$45 million to accelerate the development and commercialisation of translational health and medical research outcomes from South Australia. The investment will enable researchers from the University of Adelaide, University of South Australia, the state’s hospitals and other institutions to develop proof of concept, undertake clinical trials, and bring new drugs and technologies to the global market.

The addition of hydropower generating capacity to an irrigation network in northern Japan is one step closer to completion. Several sites have been identified for the installation of VLH turbines, with a total capacity of 1.433 MW.

News on the global hydroelectric industry from November-December 2014

Clean energy investments in India increased to $7.9 billion last year and are expected to surpass $10 billion in 2015.

The Brazilian bank Itau Unibanco Holding SA raised 1.05 billion reais ($408 million) to finance renewable energy and water treatment projects.

The Obama administration is proposing a $4 billion fund to reward states that exceed cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions, and wants Congress to back steeper royalty rates for oil, gas and coal extraction from public land.

New power-generating units at Kenya’s Olkaria I plant are saving East Africa’s biggest economy about 2.2 billion shillings ($24 million) a month on fuel costs, according to the country’s biggest electricity producer.

Global emissions were unchanged last year, the first time that’s happened amid economic growth in four decades, according to the International Energy Agency.

President Barack Obama ordered the federal government to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent from 2008 levels over the next 10 years by shifting to renewable energy sources such as solar power.