Alphabet Winds Down Makani
Alphabet, Google's parent company, announced that it is calling it quits on its efforts to build and monetize its Makani wind energy kites.Google acquired Makani, which developed airborne wind turbines and aimed to make wind energy more accessible and affordable, in 2013. Last year, the company spun it out of X and made it a standalone Alphabet unit.Alphabet CEO…
SGRE Powers Google in Sweden
Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE) has secured an order to supply its turbines for a 254MW wind farm in Sweden that will power Google’s Hamina data centre in Finland.The Stavro wind farm, SGRE's largest ever onshore wind order in Sweden, will use 62 turbines with a 4.1MW rating. It is expected online by the end of 2021.Stavro is located in the northern part of Sweden…
Does the Answer to Our Energy Problems Lie in Tiny Microbes?
Such are the dire predictions about climate change these days that there seem to be only two courses open for human society: either we fail to act and the planet keeps heating up, or we restrict ourselves, leave our cars at home, give up hamburgers and stop flying on vacation.Either way, it would seem, the future is dead set on making our children’s lives worse than ours.But there is a third way and it lies in new forms of energy.
Schlumberger Taps Google as Preferred Cloud Provider
Services company Schlumberger said on Monday it has renewed and expanded its agreement with Google Cloud to develop cloud-native exploration and production (E&P) applications to help its customers derive actionable insights from data and harness the power of Google’s cloud infrastructure and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities.Schlumberger has deployed its oil and gas petrotechnical software suite…
Google to Tap the Power of Offshore Wind
Google invests $700 mln in Danish data center, secures green energyGoogle will invest almost $700 million in a Danish data centre, the latest investment in the Nordic region which is known for its abundant renewable energy.Google said it would match the new centre's use of energy made from fossil fuels with green energy generated through so-called power purchase agreements (PPAs).The Nordic countries…
Google Buys into New Finnish Wind Energy in Renewables Search
Google said it has signed a 10-year deal to buy renewable energy from three new wind farms that are being built in Finland and which will power one of its data centers.Big companies have rushed to secure cheap renewable energy to manage costs and reduce their carbon footprint through so-called corporate power purchase agreements (PPAs), which allow firms such as Google, owned by Alphabet Inc, Facebook and Microsoft to buy directly from the energy gene
Will Saudi Aramco Deliver Record Profit for IPO?
Saudi Aramco is world's biggest oil producing company; but valuation demands annual earnings around $130 billion. When oil giant Saudi Aramco discloses its financials for the first time next year, it must either surprise investors with world record profits or reduce its aspirations for a $2 trillion valuation in its initial public offering (IPO). Investors have long debated whether Aramco could be valued anywhere close to $2 trillion…
Google to Start Getting Norwegian Wind Power by September
Alphabet Inc's Google unit expects to receive its first wind power from Norway by early September, the company told Reuters on Wednesday. Tellenes wind farm, a 50-turbine strong wind farm of 160-megawatt (MW) capacity that is currently under development, will become Norway's largest wind farm and Google's biggest in Europe. "We'll purchase power as soon as the wind farm becomes fully operational…
Kenya: Major Wind Power Line to Be Ready in 3 Months
A power line linking a 310 megawatt (MW) wind power plant to Kenya's national grid, delayed by landowners' compensation demands among other issues, is expected to be ready in the next three months, the energy minister said on Thursday. Kenya relies heavily on geothermal and hydro power for its electricity, providing the bulk of the country's total 2,341 MW output. Wind power provides about 25 MW.
The New Offshore Reality
Swedbank’s chief economist, Harald Andreassen, isn’t “too hopeful” about the long-term prospects for the oil price, but then again, “I’m less certain of this than I’ve ever been as an economist,” he told a floating production conference in Oslo. After two-and-half years of oil-price collapse followed by layoffs in the thousands; stacked oil rigs and order freezes for offshore shipping, price insecurity itself is a partial expression of confidence.
US Wind Industry Sees Jump in Installs
The U.S. wind industry installed 2,000 megawatts of capacity in the first quarter, nearly four times the amount installed in the same period last year, as developers race to capture a lucrative federal tax credit that is gradually being phased out. It was the industry's biggest first quarter since 2009, the American Wind Energy Association said in its first-quarter market report released on Tuesday.
Wind Surpasses Hydro as Largest US Renewable Energy Source
Wind energy has surpassed hydropower as the biggest source of renewable electricity in the United States following the sector's second-biggest quarter ever for new installations, a wind industry trade group said on Thursday. Wind installations totaled 82,183 megawatts at the end of 2016, enough to power 24 million homes, the American Wind Energy Association said in its fourth-quarter market report. By comparison, U.S.
Cuba, US Sign Oil Spill Deal before Trump Inauguration
Cuba and the United States agreed on Monday to jointly prevent, contain and clean up oil and other toxic spills in the Gulf of Mexico, as they rush to conclude deals before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. U.S. Charge d'Affaires Jeffrey DeLaurentis, upon signing the agreement, said it was one of a series of deals to protect the shared marine environment of the two neighboring countries separated by just 90 miles (145 km) of water.
Powered by Google, UN Flexes Tech Muscle to Fight Climate Change
New Google-powered software will help the world tackle problems related to climate change, deforestation and food production, a United Nations agency said on Friday, as it presented its revamped online platform. Open Foris, U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) software, uses high-resolution satellite images to monitor the environment and changes in land use and forest cover.
Yen Drops on Rate Cut Talk; Oil Climbs
The U.S. dollar rose to a three week high against the yen on Friday, on a report of likely further monetary policy easing from the Bank of Japan, while a rise in crude oil prices was offset by poor technology sector earnings, leaving Wall Street stocks steady. The dollar rose more than 2.0 percent against the yen to 111.80 yen, its highest level since April 1 after…
IOCs Stress on OSV Fuel Management Performance
Growing insistence by international oil companies (IOCs) that oilfield contract vessels (OSVs) are fitted with fuel monitoring systems has prompted an upsurge in interest in marine engine monitoring systems. Diesel power specialist Royston reports that it is equipping a growing number of offshore vessels with its enginei fuel management system as the oil majors increasingly…
ConocoPhillips Signals Conditional Support for UN Climate Deal
The comments by the Houston-based company were a clarification of its position on the proposed UN agreement after it earlier in the week answered 'yes' to a question in a climate change survey that asked whether it backed a 2015 UN accord. The company's partial endorsement comes as pressure grows on U.S. oil majors to follow the lead of European counterparts who…
Bay St Down as Energy Shares Fall with Oil
Canada's main stock index was down for the second day in a row on Friday as energy shares fell alongside the price of oil and financial shares came under pressure. U.S. crude prices were down 1.5 percent to $59.86 a barrel after Saudi Arabia said it stood ready to raise output to new records. The energy sector led the way down, falling 1 percent. Among the laggards…
EU Charges Gazprom of Price Gouging
European Union antitrust regulators charged Russian gas giant Gazprom on Wednesday with abusing its dominant position in Poland, Hungary and six other countries in Eastern Europe following more than two years of investigation. The European Commission said the state-controlled company, a vital supplier of energy to Europe despite frequent political disputes, had hindered…
Google Invests $300 mln Residential Solar Projects
SolarCity Corp on Thursday said it created a $750 million fund to finance about 25,000 residential solar projects, with Google Inc investing nearly half the funding. The money will be used by SolarCity to put solar panels on homes. Homeowners then will pay a monthly fee to lease the panels from the company. The growth of such financing has made generating electric power from the sun an option for households who do not want to shell out the $20…
