Meyer Burger to halt solar plant in Colorado and plans restructuring
Meyer Burger, a Swiss solar panel manufacturer, announced on Monday that it had suspended plans for an upcoming plant in Colorado. The company said it would take restructuring measures to improve profitability and also suggested the profits might be lower than expected. The company said that its board had requested management to develop a "comprehensive cost-cutting and restructuring program", and board member Mark Kerekes would be stepping down. Meyer Burger announced…
How Much Oil Does the EU Import from Russia?
The European Union has agreed to ban the bulk of imports of Russian crude and oil products in its latest round of sanctions following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.The ban on seaborne crude imports will be phased in over six months and for seaborne refined products over eight months. It excludes deliveries via the Druzhba oil pipeline which supplies refineries in Eastern Europe and eastern Germany.Yet many European buyers have voluntarily suspended purchases of Russian oil or announced plans to phase it out…
Court Rejects PGniG's Attempt to Limit Gazprom's Use of Opal Pipeline
A German court on Friday confirmed it had rejected a request by Polish energy company PGniG and its German subsidiary for an injunction to block Russia's Gazprom from increasing its use of the Opal pipeline in eastern Germany. The case is part of a long-running dispute over the routes for transporting Russian gas to Europe. The Duesseldorf higher regional court said in a statement to Reuters that relevant applications had been rejected on Oct. 11, confirming an earlier statement from pipeline operator Opal Gastransport.
Germany Awards Licences for Onshore Wind Capacity
Germany will increase its onshore wind energy capacity by more than 1 gigawatt, equal to that of a nuclear plant, under new licences awarded on Tuesday, its network regulator said. The regulator introduced an auction system this year to award licences, aiming to intensify competition among project developers in order to lower costs and wean renewable energy away from subsidies. In the second auction under the new system, the Bundesnetzagentur (BnetzA) said it accepted 67 applications, mostly from citizens' cooperatives, for a combined volume of 1,013 megawatt (MW).
Berlin to Take Stake in Local Gas Supplier GASAG
The German state of Berlin plans to take a majority stake in the capital's gas network as part of a broader ownership change at natural gas supplier GASAG that will push out existing shareholders Vattenfall and Engie. GASAG, the natural gas supplier to Berlin and some parts of eastern Germany, is co-owned by Germany's largest utility E.ON , which holds a 36.85 percent stake. Sweden's Vattenfall and France's Engie each hold 31.575 percent. GASAG, which had sales of 1.1 billion euros ($1.24 billion) and operating profit of 95.2 million in 2014…
Germany Warns Against Rushed Coal 'Exit'
Germany on Tuesday warned against a hasty exit from coal-fired power generation, concerned that such a move could pile more pressure on producers still wrestling with the planned shutdown of nuclear plants by 2022. Calls for the German government to set a timeline for phasing out coal-generated electricity have grown following the climate protection deal struck in Paris last month. "When we're talking about the future of coal I would advise being less ideological about it and to focus more on climate goals and the economic consequences…
Vattenfall: Subsidy-free Offshore Wind by 2025
Sweden's Vattenfall expects to be able to build offshore wind power projects, one of the most expensive sources of renewable energy, without subsidies by the middle of the next decade, a senior company official said on Thursday. The state-owned utility plans to boost its wind power portfolio in Europe to 4 gigawatts (GW), equivalent to four nuclear reactors, by 2020 from the current installed 1.8 GW, and further to 7 GW by 2025. "We should be able to build onshore wind power projects by 2020 without subsidy…
Poland's PGNiG to Start O&G Exploration in Germany
Poland's biggest gas distributor PGNiG will start oil and gas exploration in eastern Germany, as part of a bigger plan to boost production assets outside Poland, PGNiG said. The first of two planned wells is expected to be completed this year, said PGNiG, which will work with the German unit of Canadian firm Central European Petroleum (CEP) on the project. PGNiG will spend more than $10.95 million on the project by mid-2016. Some 36 percent of the projects' revenues will go to PGNiG, 39 percent to CEP and 25 percent to Austria's Rohol-Aufsuchungs Aktiengesellschaft (RAG).
Spot Up On Lower Wind, Strike, Outages
European prompt power price rose on Monday as German wind power was forecast to fall more than half to Tuesday, while French prices rose on operators covering against possible supply shortfalls from a planned strike that day. German baseload (24 hours) power for delivery on Tuesday was 7.6 euros up from the price paid for Monday at 36.35 euros per megawatt-hour (MWh). The equivalent French contract was up 10.55 euros at 48 euros ($60) per MWh. "Prices are going up on lower wind, thermal plant outages and the French strike," one trader said.
Is Merkel's Green Zeal Turning Brown?
German CO2 emissions up for last two years; medium-term CO2 goals in jeopardy. Use of brown coal rising during nuclear phase-out. Car emissions above EU average in big car economy. For all Angela Merkel's headline-grabbing "green revolution", Germany's image as a world leader on environmental policies is in danger of falling under the shadow of the smoke stack and a cloud of exhaust fumes. Increasing dependence on brown coal has raised doubts about whether Berlin will hit its medium-term CO2 emission goals.
EU Helping Ukraine with Slovak Gasline
Slovak link could meet 20 pct of Ukraine's gas demand. Long-term EU-Ukraine flows could meet 50 pct of Ukraine's demand. Germany plays key role in supplying Ukraine. Slovakia opened a pipeline on Tuesday able to deliver natural gas from the European Union to Ukraine, marking a major step in the bloc's efforts to aid the country in its escalating dispute with Russia. Opening up so-called reverse gas flows eastward is part of the EU's response to Gazprom's decision to cut supplies to Kiev on June 16 in a row over pricing and in the wake of Moscow's annexation of Crimea.
German State Allows Vattenfall to Expand Brown Coal Mining
The eastern German state of Brandenburg approved plans on Tuesday to allow utility Vattenfall to mine a further 200 million tonnes of brown coal from 2026, a move critics say will cause pollution and also force 800 people from their homes. The decision by Brandenburg's cabinet, made up of centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) and the more radical Left party, highlights the complexities of Germany's energy policy, which aims to promote renewable energy. While Germany has seen a rapid expansion in green energy…
