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INNOVATION: Groovy new solar technology may be future of renewable energy

 An innovative 3D solar-cell design with a radically different architecture which drives down the costs of cell manufacture may define the future of renewable energy as it potentially reduces optical losses within a device, according to UK scientists. 

The scientists at the University of Sheffield and energy technology company Power Roll in the UK have demonstrated how a unique architecture based on a surface embossed with micro-grooves could also make solar power more efficient. 

The innovative 3D design removes many of the manufacturing process steps required by existing photovoltaics (PV) modules and allows new materials to be used that would not usually be appropriate in regular solar cells. 

Power Roll predicts that solar modules produced using this design will weigh only a fraction of an equivalent-power conventional solar module which could benefit less developed and off grid areas of the world where it is not viable to transport heavy solar panels as well ...

EBRD to provide $55 million loan for Polish wind energy farm

* The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said it will provide a loan of up to 209 million zloty ($55 million) for a wind farm in Poland

* The 220 megawatt (MW) Potegowo wind farm in north-eastern Poland is expected to cost around 1.25 billion zloty

* The wind farm will be built and developed by Potegowo Mashav which is majority-owned by Israel Infrastructure Fund

* Poland is dependent on coal for nearly 80 percent of its electricity generation

* The EBRD said last week it would increase funding for Polish renewable energy this year after the government shifted towards low-carbon energy. 

/Source: REUTERS/

India looking at $500 bn investment in renewable energy generation by 2028

India is looking at a mammoth $500 billion worth of investment in creating renewable energy generation capacity with tendering of 500 Gigawatt (Gw) by 2028 in addition to $250 billion investment in grid expansion and modernisation required for uptake of green energy capacity, according to the Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).

The global think-tank said in a special report the long-term outlook is favourable for renewable energy in India as the country saw a dramatic decline in the wholesale electricity tariffs from solar and wind generation sources in 2017-18 with capacity consistently awarded at sub-Rs3 per unit through reverse bidding auctions. 

The Australia-based institute also said that 75 GW of renewable capacity has been installed across India, 28 GW has been auctioned and 37 GW of capacity is under various stages of tendering and bidding. If all of this comes to fruition, this amounts to a total of 141 ...

Hyundai Steel to spend 530 bln won to reduce environmentally harmful emissions

Hyundai Steel Co., South Korea's No. 2 steelmaker, said Monday that it plans to cut its environmentally harmful emissions by over 50 percent from the current level.

Hyundai Steel said it aims to spend some 530 billion won (US$468 million) to address concerns over fine dust and other harmful emissions by 2021. This move will allow it to reduce the amount of harmful emissions it releases from 23,300 tons to 11,600 tons in the target year.

In February, POSCO, the No. 1 player, said that it would spend some 1.1 trillion won by 2021 to sharply reduce fine dust.

South Korea has seen a drastic increase in fine dust over the past few years. In particular, ultra fine dust particles, smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, have been on the rise posing health risks.

On Jan. 14 alone, Seoul recorded a daily average ultra fine dust level of as high as 129 micrograms per ...

Centene to buy WellCare for $17B to create big Medicaid, ACA player

Centene Corp. said it will buy fellow Medicaid insurer WellCare Health Plans in an estimated $17.3 billion deal.

All in all, the two insurers would cover nearly 22 million people in Medicare, Medicaid and the ACA exchanges. Centene CEO Michael Neidorff will serve as chairman and CEO of the merged company.

"With the addition of WellCare, we expect to bolster and diversify our product offerings, increase our scale and have access to new markets, which will in turn, enable us to continue investing in technology and better serve members with innovative programs designed to meet their needs," Neidorff said in a statement.

Combined, the merged company would boast $80.5 billion in revenue and $1.3 billion in net income. It would include more than 12 million Medicaid beneficiaries and almost 1 million Medicare members, along with a Medicare prescription drug plan WellCare is acquiring from Aetna. 

Centene saw its ACA exchange membership swell to almost ...

OneWeb has attracted $ 1.25 bn to cover the Earth with Internet

British space startup OneWeb attracted $ 1.25 billion investment. This is stated on the company’s Twitter page. The company launched its first satellites into space in February 2019. The organization said that these funds will make the launch of the Internet network inevitable in 2021. In total, OneWeb has attracted more than $ 3.4 billion at the moment. Qualcomm, SoftBank, the Mexican group of companies Grupo Salinas and the government of Rwanda were among the investors of the last round.

OneWeb is going to provide Internet access across the globe using a satellite system. The company launched the first satellites from the Guiana Space Centre in February 2019.

The tech corporation is going to launch about 30 satellites per month since October 2019. Such production will help to create a network of 648 satellites in low earth orbit, according to the BBC publication. As a result, different objects on Earth (schools, airplanes, ...

Norway's $1 Trillion Fund to Dump Oil and Gas Shares

Norway's $1 trillion wealth fund, the biggest of its kind in the world, will begin dumping shares in oil and gas companies, but stopped short of barring major producers like ExxonMobil and Chevron.

The move was hailed by environmental activists as a sign that the global economy is increasingly moving away from fossil fuels toward cleaner energy.

The financial impact, however, may be relatively limited. The move will focus on companies that trade solely in exploration and production rather than the integrated oil giants, which do everything from searching for fossil fuels to selling them to consumers.

The fund is looking to sell some $7.5 billion in shares in 134 energy companies over time.

The Norwegian government said its motivation was not climate activism but financial. The fund, somewhat ironically, derives its income from Norway's booming oil and gas industry. So reinvesting those proceeds in other sectors is considered a way to keep the ...

Breakthrough Energy Ventures joins funding vehicle for small-scale geothermal plants

Breakthrough Energy Ventures, an investor-led venture fund backed by some of the world’s top business executives, has invested in Baseload Capital, the private investment company which Climeon owns part of, to speed up the global deployment of low temperature geothermal heat power.

Breakthrough Energy Ventures is an investor-led fund created to accelerate the transition to clean energy. The team funds cutting-edge companies with the potential to eliminate a half gigaton of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per year and invests across five grand challenges: electricity, transportation, agriculture, manufacturing and buildings. These are the broad areas of activity that contribute most to GHG emissions. The Fund’s investment team has identified low temperature geothermal heat power as one of the most significant opportunities available to address GHG emissions in the production of electricity.

The first prototype of Climeon’s Heat Power system that turns hot water into clean electricity was developed in 2011. Since then, Climeon ...

The largest mergers and acquisitions in 2018

2018 brought almost record $ 3.4 trillion to M & A industry, and also changed the very nature of mergers and acquisitions. Such a process was caused by growth in the first half of the year, despite a slowdown in the fourth quarter.

It is noteworthy that some of the deals that hit the news headlines last year were not large-scale deals designed to make companies bigger or create a synergistic effect. Rather, they focused on acquiring new opportunities or opening up new product or service segments. According to Bain & Company, the volume of transactions for the first time in 2018 exceeded numerical scales, and they account for 51 percent of all strategic transactions worth over a billion, which may be the biggest event in the field of mergers and acquisitions in the last decade.

According to the head of the international practice of mergers and acquisitions of Bain & Company, ...

UAE's ADNOC awards $1.36bn contract to build artificial islands

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) announced on Wednesday the award of a dredging, land reclamation and marine construction contract to build multiple artificial islands in the first phase of development of the Ghasha concession.

The contract awarded to the UAE’s National Marine Dredging Company (NMDC) is valued at AED5 billion ($1.36 billion), the energy giant said in a statement.

The Ghasha concession consists of the Hail, Ghasha, Dalma, Nasr and Mubarraz offshore sour gas fields.

Under the terms of the contract, NMDC will construct 10 new artificial islands and two causeways, as well as expand an existing island, Al Ghaf. The project is expected to take 38 months to complete and will provide the infrastructure required to further develop, drill and produce gas from the sour gas fields in the Ghasha concession.

The successful bid by NMDC prioritized UAE sources for materials, as well as the use of mostly local suppliers, manufacturers and ...