A police officer stands guard after the ExxonMobil annual shareholders meeting at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center May 28, 2008 in Dallas, Texas.
One of the world’s largest oil companies – ExxonMobil – expects considerable renewable energy growth over the next 30 years, primarily for power generation and mostly from wind. Keep reading →
Energy intensive models of economic growth are being questioned by the rise of ‘Development 2.0’, an approach to development that attacks complexity and resource limitations with careful policy design that signals an end to traditional “decentralization” policies advocated by now-struggling Western economies.
Higher levels of economic development require more complex analysis by stakeholders than a strict reading of impact on traditional measures like Gross Domestic Product, UNDP Human Development Report Office Director Khalid Malik said as part of a wide ranging discussion on societal transformation at the Asia Society in New York. Malik’s center works to produce a Human Development Report and index each year, and the cumulative work of the group since 1990 is expected to influence the Rio plus 20 talks being hosted by the United Nations in Brazil later this month. Keep reading →
A Chinese worker checking the power lines in Haikou, south China’s Hainan province.
China’s 12th Five Year Plan recently released by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) is, as we would expect, an ambitious initiative that affects several major industries and includes a commitment to several breakthroughs in key core technologies. Actually, ambitious may be an understatement. Keep reading →
Eager to feed its growing energy appetite, China’s worldwide buying binge for oil and other energy assets is spreading to North and South America. Yet most analysts say China’s newfound interest in American energy may actually be good for U.S. consumers, as it will likely increase oil and gas supplies worldwide and possibly lower prices. Big deals: Earlier this month, reports said PetroChina is close to buying an old refinery on Aruba owned by American refining giant Valero. China is also said to be interested in building a pipeline to carry 300,000 barrels a day of Colombian oil to the Pacific Coast, according to a recent Eurasia Group note.
An Iranian war-boat fires a missile during the ‘Velayat-90’ navy exercises in the Strait of Hormuz in southern Iran on December 30, 2011.
The fact that some of the world’s largest oil and gas reservoirs are 100% owned and operated by national oil companies could benefit international oil companies if economic sanctions imposed on Iran constrain the country’s petroleum production, Moody’s Investors Service said in a recent note. Keep reading →
Asia is the world’s largest infrastructure market, with $4.1 trillion in power market spending expected over the coming decade, experts told industry participants and journalists at a recent quarterly power sector briefing held by infrastructure firm Black & Veatch. Keep reading →
I spent last week at AISTech – one of the largest conferences of the year for the iron and steel industry – and conversations with attendees centered on how steel producers can implement new technology to remain competitive in the market. As companies around the world expand city skylines, put more planes in the sky and ships in the sea, and produce enough electronics to put them in the hands of millions of consumers, steel producers are being asked to meet a skyrocketing demand. In fact, by the year 2050, world steel production levels are expected to double from 2010 levels. Facing this rapid growth and the mounting global concerns about climate change, steel mill operators around the world are on the hunt for more reliable, efficient and productive sources of power to boost steel production capacity while simultaneously reducing the environmental impact of their operations.
Established in 1958, Wuhan Iron & Steel Group Corp (WISCO) is the first “giant” iron and steel corporation to operate in China since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, ranking fourth in production output in China and fifth globally. At the time WISCO and GE Energy began their business relationship in 2007, WISCO was making approximately 40 million tons of iron and steel a year, operating with traditional steam boilers. A rising demand for steel was driving the need for more electricity, eventually requiring up to 10 billion kilowatt hours per year. That level of energy consumption was unsustainable for WISCO and a costly drain on the public grid. Spurred by new legislation setting stringent regulations on steel mill efficiency in China, WISCO engaged GE Energy to develop and execute an innovative approach to power generation that would increase energy efficiency and profitability, all while reducing emissions and maintaining a high level of production. Keep reading →
Researchers at a Swiss science and technology university testing out which is the most cost-effective renewable energy source in developing countries have made a surprising discovery.
The team calculated the cost of generating a tenth of the electricity demand for each of six countries using either wind turbines or photovoltaic cells. The countries were: Brazil, Egypt, India, Kenya, Nicaragua and Thailand. Keep reading →
Chinese Recession: Real or Not?
By Peter GardettProbably the best indication that the Chinese economy has entered a meaningful recession is the Chinese central government’s urgency to reassure everyone it isn’t so.
There have been rumblings since the end of last year that the Chinese economy was slowing, with poor lending practices, a property bubble and poorly managed internal migration all part of the new scenario sketched out for a possible recession. If it wasn’t for Europe’s unceasing convulsions over the credibility of its currency union the outlook for Chinese growth would be the central question for global economic trend-watchers. Keep reading →