The pandemic is likely to hit the Middle East’s more fragile countries hardest.

We are currently in a state of heightened business and economic disruption and sociopolitical activism, which only looks set to intensify. 

While governments grow more protectionist over trade and physical borders, companies such as Microsoft are bridging the gap by funding international collaborative enterprises.

Besides perks such as tax breaks, Belarus’s six free economic zones offer investors convenient logistics and, for companies from neighbouring Ukraine and Russia, a geopolitical safe place to do business. Wendy Atkins reports.

FDI project numbers from China into the EU are on a downward trend, but Europe is still a popular destination for Chinese investment.

Iowa economic development officials are tentatively endorsing a tax credit for battery storage to complement the state’s wind and solar generation.

Last week, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities announced it selected Ocean Wind, an offshore wind energy project proposed by Ørsted with support from PSEG, to develop an 1,100 MW offshore wind farm. Ocean Wind will be located 15 miles off the coast of Atlantic City. Construction is expected to commence in the early 2020s, with the wind farm operational in 2024.

Back in the 1980s and 1990s, the twin forces of privatization and deregulation of public infrastructure services ascended to a global paradigm of progress and development. Government management of services such as telecommunications, transportation, water, and energy was deemed inefficient, underperforming, and monopolistic. Private industry – accountable to the profits and losses of an open market and, thus, believed more efficient than government – was proclaimed the better way for consumer choice and a more efficient use of taxpayers’ expenses.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities has issued an order approving long-term contracts for 9,554,940 MWh annually of hydropower between H.Q. Energy Services (U.S.) Inc. and the Commonwealth’s electric distribution companies through the New England Clean Energy Connect 100% Hydro project (NECEC Hydro).

The vast majority of Americans have air conditioning but in Germany almost nobody does. At least not yet.

Dominion Energy has begun construction on the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project, which will feature two 6-MW wind turbines and power about 3,000 homes.

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.

Installed solar capacity in the United States exceeded 10 GW for the third year in a row in 2018, and the pace of growth is expected to continue. The first quarter of 2019 was the strongest in the history of the U.S. solar market, according to a recent report from Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables. Yet inefficient and costly project financing inhibits many solar developers from tapping into the market’s true potential.

GE Renewable Energy announced at HydroVision that it has signed two hydropower contracts in the U.S. one for FirstLight’s Northfield Mountain project and one for PG&E’s Caribou One hydropower station.

Consumers Energy says it’s happy with the launch of its electric vehicle charging station program and open to expanding the three-year, $10 million pilot.

The latest crop of utility participants includes NRG Energy, Cleco Corp., Entergy, Louisville Gas & Electric/Kentucky Utilities, AEP’s distributed energy ventures group AEP OnSite Partners and Hindustan Power from India.

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) has released its Short Term Energy Outlook for 2019 and we have summarized the key highlights for you below.

The round was led by Ecosystem Integrity Fund with participation from Equinor Energy Ventures and Evergy Ventures

After a 23-year wind farm construction hiatus, work on a 2nd Cherokee County wind farm has begun. Developed by San Diego based EDF Renewables, the 200-megawatt (MW) Glaciers Edge Wind Project north of Marcus is scheduled to be on line by the end of 2019.

Brazil has included four hydropower plants among the projects that will receive support as part of the country's investment partnerships program, called Programa de Parcerias de Investimentos or PPI. 

In conjunction with North America’s Smart Energy Week, LG Electronics (LG) is underscoring its role as a top player within the U.S. residential solar market at the 2019 Solar Power International Conference.

New Hampshire is preparing to follow the lead of other New England states and create a system for procuring renewable energy on behalf of residents.

Two of America’s biggest solar-farm owners are warning that a patent dispute between panel makers could roil a sector already shaken by President Donald Trump’s import tariffs.

Building solar and wind energy projects on potentially contaminated lands can be a golden opportunity, both effective and cost-effective, for developers. The 120-acre Reilly Tar & Chemical Corporation Superfund site was recently redeveloped with a utility-scale solar farm and is a prime example of the reuse potential inherent in thousands of Superfund sites, brownfields, retired power plants, and landfills.

A year ago, Tesla Inc. lost its throne as king of the U.S. rooftop solar business to Sunrun Inc. Now, it may get relegated to third place.

The insurance industry has lots of exposure to climate change. But as Warren Buffet has explained, not so much for companies that do annual policy adjustments, like Berkshire Hathaway. Their exposure is limited because the trends are baked into the premiums. But there is an opportunity for reducing insurance risk due to climate change, and it comes from the insurance industry itself. The business model is to have car insurance salespeople provide leads to virtual electric car charging services. This has perfect demographics because electric vehicle owners are very receptive to solar electricity. Who wouldn’t want a clean transportation solution with local job creation that can’t be offshore?

Community Solar in New York has a messaging problem. It is confusing, and even some industry professionals have given up in disgust because of aggressive marketing and a lack of clarity.

Iowa economic development officials are tentatively endorsing a tax credit for battery storage to complement the state’s wind and solar generation.

Back in the 1980s and 1990s, the twin forces of privatization and deregulation of public infrastructure services ascended to a global paradigm of progress and development. Government management of services such as telecommunications, transportation, water, and energy was deemed inefficient, underperforming, and monopolistic. Private industry – accountable to the profits and losses of an open market and, thus, believed more efficient than government – was proclaimed the better way for consumer choice and a more efficient use of taxpayers’ expenses.

The vast majority of Americans have air conditioning but in Germany almost nobody does. At least not yet.

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.

Installed solar capacity in the United States exceeded 10 GW for the third year in a row in 2018, and the pace of growth is expected to continue. The first quarter of 2019 was the strongest in the history of the U.S. solar market, according to a recent report from Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables. Yet inefficient and costly project financing inhibits many solar developers from tapping into the market’s true potential.

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) has released its Short Term Energy Outlook for 2019 and we have summarized the key highlights for you below.

The round was led by Ecosystem Integrity Fund with participation from Equinor Energy Ventures and Evergy Ventures

2020 Hyundai Elantra vs. 2020 Toyota Corolla: Compare Cars The 2020 Toyota Corolla and 2020 Hyundai Elantra are two compact cars—and hatchbacks—that are great values with thrifty hybrids. Mailbag: What's the difference between car, crossover, and SUV anyway? "Why isn't an SUV a station wagon or a crossover?" a perplexed reader wrote...

2020 Honda Pilot vs. 2020 Ford Explorer: Compare Crossover SUVs Two of the bestselling three-row SUVs, the 2020 Honda Pilot and 2020 Ford Explorer, go about their family business a bit differently. Pickup trucks outsell cars for the first time, and it may not be temporary The Ford F-150, Ram 1500, and Chevy Silverado have been the best-selling...

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ Uconnect 5 is the latest update to one of the few native infotainment systems that is preferable to smartphone connections. Improvements to the system include five times faster processing power, larger touchscreens with three times better resolution, over-the-air updates for seamless patches to the system, and an...

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...

2020 Mercedes-Benz A-Class vs 2020 Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class: Compare Cars If you can’t get the lord to buy you a Mercedes-Benz, you have to do it yourself, and that can really stretch the budget. Mercedes answers that issue with its two lowest-priced cars, the A-Class and CLA-Class. IIHS reports that new Jeep Wrangler SUV rolled over on its...

A build team in Ohio is in the process of turning an old Porsche Boxster into a supercar that was limited to just seven units worldwide and originally priced at $3.4 million. The car we're talking about is the W Motors Lykan Hypersport that bowed in 2013, and a replica was recently acquired by a workshop in Bowling Green, Ohio. The replica was...

HydroVision International is the world’s largest hydropower industry event. 2015 attendance shattered all the conference’s records with nearly 3,800 registered attendees from 60 countries.

Update: On March 2, 2017, U.S. Senators confirmed Rick Perry as the new Secretary of Energy of the United States. The vote was 62-37 with nine democratic senators casting "yes" votes. 

IEA report reveals that more than US $750 billion went to the electricity sector while US $715 billion was spent on oil and gas supply globally as the world continues on the path to electrification.

German-headquartered integrated energy company, Innogy, has selected distributed computing solutions provider, Intertrust, to help smart home consumers to securely manage data.

“Mind the Gap.” Whether you’ve visited London or not, you’re most likely familiar with the London Underground’s famous catchphrase. However, that well-known phrase may have implications related to clean energy based on a recent analysis. While Google, Apple, Facebook and other large corporations have lately garnered considerable attention for their commitments to renewable energy, electric utilities and companies like Nest, Tesla and Vivint Solar have also focused on providing innovative programs and technologies to residential energy customers.

Integrated energy company E.ON and BNP Paribas Personal Finance are piloting a new energy efficiency financing scheme for UK consumers.

For most of their history, in North America, electrical utilities have been centralized distribution networks. Utility operated generation resources are the hub of the network and electricity flows one-way via distribution networks largely controlled by the same utilities. In this model, there has been little reason for utilities to share anything but a small slice of data about their operations with anyone else other than themselves.

This week Constellation, an Exelon company, said it signed a long-term PPA with Starbucks to power more than 340 Illinois stores with 100 percent renewable energy produced by Enel Green Power (EGP) North America, Inc.’s HillTopper wind project in Logan, County, Ill.

Renewable energy projects were marked by distinctive trends and characteristics in 2018: frothy M&A market driven by a crush of liquidity and a shortage of project supply; a highly competitive environment among investors and lenders for an inadequate supply of projects...