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The Chinese National Energy Administration (NEA) has outlined plans to restrict new coal-fired power projects in eight regions across the country taking effect immediately until 2022 in order to further cut air pollution and ease oversupply. The concerned areas are namely: Shanxi, Shandong, eastern-Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Gansu, Ningxia and Xinjiang, all of them having also significant solar and wind resources and therefore not considered as priority for new coal-fired projects. There are also known as coal mining heartlands and the NEA estimates that they should halt approvals of new projects and keep a rational rhythm on construction of projects that are already in the pipelines.

Besides, the NEA also warned of possible low investment returns from coal-fired power projects in 10 regions, including Sichuan, Yunnan and Guangxi, where electricity generated from hydropower plants is much cheaper than coal-fired power generation. Coal-fired power projects aimed at exporting their power generation to other regions suffering from power deficits will still be allowed.

China is moving forward with its policy to switch its power generation fleet to gas as part of the governmental objective of cutting air pollution. The government aims to reduce China’s coal-fired power capacity by 109 GW by 2020 and to limit its coal-fired power capacity below 1,100 GW. 

South African power utility Eskom has synchronised Kusile-3, the third 800 MW unit of its 4,800 MW supercritical coal-fired power plant, to the national power grid eight months ahead of schedule. The unit will now go through the testing and optimisation phases before it can be fully commissioned. …

German power generation company E.ON and Kyuden Mirai Energy, a fully-owned renewable subsidiary of Japanese power group Kyushu Electric Power, have signed a cooperation agreement to jointly develop offshore wind projects in Japan.

French gas and electricity group Engie has outlined plans to quadruple its operational power generation capacity across Africa from the current 3,000 MW up to 13,000 MW over the next decade, most of which will be added through acquisitions instead of being built as greenfield projects.

The European Commission has approved a €385m support scheme meant to support electricity production from renewable energy sources in Lithuania under State Aid rules. The programme will be introduced in May 2019 to prop up the deployment of renewable energy installations and further help the country reach its national target share 38% renewables by 2025.

Qatari state-run oil and gas company Qatar Petroleum has issued an invitation to tender for booking ship construction capacity required for the LNG carrier fleet for the North Field expansion project, which is expected to increase the domestic LNG production capacity from the current 77 Mt/year to 110 Mt/year starting from 2024.

The Industrial Siting Council of the State of Wyoming (United States) has voted to approve an application for a permit to construct and operate the TransWest Express (TWE) transmission project, a proposed high-voltage, direct current (HVDC) power transmission line developed by TransWest Express.