Ten major natural gas export terminal projects are sparking a debate over the complicated balance between low domestic prices and the health of natural gas producers facing contracting returns on their investment in new production.
Would US exports of liquefied natural gas support an industry that’s struggling to produce the fuel at record-low prices, or would they deprive gas users of the benefits of those super-low rates? Keep reading →
What trading technology used to look like at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 1986.
Energy trading has long been divided between the headline prices everyone can see on the news and the much longer list of prices that exist in the traditionally more freewheeling over the counter markets. Keep reading →
While the “food versus fuel” debate has grabbed headlines, biofuels technology worldwide has been accelerating down the learning curve and is at a “tipping point” for commercialization. Keep reading →
The beta version of the TidGen turbine on its way to installation in Cobscook Bay
Electricity generated with the force of ocean tides will be sold under long-term contracts for the first time in the United States later this year. 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 →
The future of sustainable clean technology is not in huge, one-size-fits-all technologies but in distributed technologies that people embrace on the local level, said experts at the 4th Annual IFC Cleantech Workshop of the International Finance Corporation, part of The World Bank.
Moreover, the technology advances that will enable more sustainable living are already here or on the way, they said. Now it’s the financial and management systems that need innovation. 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 →
Generating power for your residence is no longer for the paranoid or the peculiar; more than 2,000 of California’s heavy domestic energy users have signed up with Gen110 to meet most of their own power needs, and investors are sinking more money into the business as its burgeoning potential becomes apparent.
Gen110 CEO and co-founder Jason Brown isn’t your usual “energy guy.” He is a relatively recent graduate of business school with a background in sales, not power engineering, and his membership as part of Silicon Valley’s technorati has been confirmed this week with the announcement of funding by the tech startup’s venture capitalist of choice: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Keep reading →
Swiss-Swedish engineering giant ABB group President and CEO Designate Fred Kindle speaks at a press conference in Bangalore 22 November 2004. Kindle, stating that India was the country with the fastest growing operations within the ABB group, announced that his company, which two years ago opened its first research and development center outside Europe and the United States in Bangalore and currently employs about 100 engineers there, will employ another 500 professionals over the next couple of years. The Bangalore center develops engineering solutions and support automation activities across the ABB group.
International companies continue to invest in the US energy sector, with Swiss-based ABB picking up electrical components firm Thomas & Betts for $3.9 billion today, bringing its total business in North America to a total of $10 billion and keeping it the single largest market in the world for the European company. Keep reading →
For all the talk of lessons learned and new global approaches to energy, local conditions can – and should – prevail when it comes to choices for energy infrastructure additions, one of Brazil’s leading energy executives recently told Breaking Energy.
Brazil has been a “hot” developing market for a number of years, undergoing an economic renaissance even as traditionally dominant US markets have stagnated and neighboring Argentina has marked itself out as a risky place for foreign energy investors. But the country cannot seek to recreate the “gold standard” reliability of US and European generators, Energisa CEO Ricardo Botelho told Breaking Energy at the DNV KEMA Utility of the Future Summit in DC recently. Keep reading →
